Rotorua Soils 2024 and the 2024 Moana Oceania Soil Judging Competition

The New Zealand Society of Soil Science (NZSSS)  hosted the Rotorua Soils 2024 conference organised jointly with Soil Science Australia from 2-5 December 2024.  It brought together around 400 soil and land science scientists and professionals from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific.

Prior to Soils Rotorua 2024, the 2024 Moana Oceania soil judging competition took place from 28 November to 1 December in three different sites around Rotorua. Soil judging provides a unique format to improve the uptake of field-based soil and land evaluation skills that are greatly needed across academia and industry.  These skills are needed urgently in New Zealand and Australia to address soil protection, climate, environmental, and land use challenges.

The soil judging competition was a great success. It attracted more than 200 researchers, students, environmental consultants and policy and extension specialists, making it the largest competition of its kind ever organised worldwide.  Participants spent three days in the field learning how to describe and classify soils and interpret their appropriate land uses. The first two days were aimed at teaching and familiarising participants with the procedure, with the support of coaches and talks from leading scientists in the field of pedology, such as Professor David Lowe (University of Waikato) and Dr Simon Stokes (Simon Stokes Consulting). The third day was the competition day, where participants put their skills to the test on the dedicated competition site.

Read more about Rotorua Soils 2024 and the 2024 Moana Oceania Soil Judging Competition.

2024 Moana Oceania Soil Judging Competition winners

First place university team winners Basalt-n-Pepper from Lincoln University. Tess Brown, Meila Picard, Lauren Roberts and Kate Sheehy

The 2024 Moana Oceania Soil Judging Competition was held prior to Soils Rotorua 2024.

The stars of the Soil Judging Competition were the "Basalt-n-Pepper" team from Lincoln University. They won the University Teams section, the New Zealand University Trophy and were announced as the Overall New Zealand winner and received the inaugural Allan Hewitt trophy, named after the Lincoln alumnus and pedology pioneer Dr Allan Hewitt.

Read more about the soil judging competition and the winners.