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OAC Team Breaks New Record at 2011 Weed Olympics
August 10, 2011
The title “Best Student Weed Scientists” in North America has been claimed by a team of Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) undergraduates, after first place wins at the 2011 Weed Olympics held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, July 26-27. The team not only ranked first within their divisional competition, they advanced to overall top standing against teams from 17 top American agricultural universities.
"Though the tasks of identifying over 100 weed species, calibrating a hand boom sprayer, solving a grower problem and distinguishing a particular herbicide from a group of 30 may be daunting at first, no other experience can be as beneficial and rewarding as the Weed Olympics,” said Michael Vanhie, a 2011 graduate of the BSc Agriculture program commencing an MSc degree in Plant Agriculture this fall.
Vanhie, along with Jessica Gal, Thomas Judd and Adam Parker, also students in the BSc Agriculture program, achieved top honours in weed science and agronomy. They are four of the 23 members of the 2011 OAC Weeds Team which consists of undergraduate and graduate students, and represented the University of Guelph as the only Canadian university at this year’s event.
“At no time in the history of Weed Science have students from all regional societies competed in an international contest against one another,” says Clarence Swanton, a professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture and coach of the OAC Weeds Team. “However since 1983, U of G undergraduate and graduate teams have participated in the Northeastern Weed Science Society’s Collegiate Weed Science Contest, and placed first in this regional competition 17 times.”
Within the Northeastern preliminary competition of the Weed Olympics, the OAC undergraduate team of Gal, Judd, Parker and Vanhie rose to first place. Individual performance awards were also presented to Parker and Vanhie who placed second and third in overall undergraduate achievement.
“We are extremely proud of all of our students, especially considering the fact that they took time out of their busy summer schedules to attend this international competition. The success at the 2011 Weed Olympics is yet another example which highlights the exceptional quality of students and how we continue to be a world-class institution in the agricultural sciences,” says Rob Gordon, Dean of OAC.
More than 130 students participated in the 2011 Weed Olympics, a joint initiative sponsored by the Northeastern, North Central, Southern and Western Weed Science Societies, to provide an educational experience for students to broaden their applied skills in weed science, connect with other students in their field, and network with university and industry researchers.
“The competition is a fantastic learning opportunity, also providing the chance to network with many representatives in the crop protection industry,” said Vanhie. “I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone interested in crop production!”
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