On Tuesday July 29^th, 2014, the University of Guelph OAC Weeds Team participated in the Northeastern Collegiate Weed Science Contest hosted at the Pennsylvania State University Agronomy Research Farm located near State College Pennsylvania.   One graduate and five undergraduate teams plus one individual from OAC competed in the competition.  The purpose of this contest is to provide students with an educational experience that tests their applied agronomic skills in the disciplines of crop protection and agronomy.  A total of 65students participated, representing five different schools.  The universities represented were Ohio State, North Carolina State, Cornell, Virginia Tech and Guelph.

This year three undergraduate teams from the University of Guelph placed first, second and third in the competition.  The first place team consisted of Tom Heeman, Johanna Burrows, Stephen Boersma and Chris Budd.  Members of the team that placed second overall were, Jacob Nederend, Jordan Eyamie, Matt Underwood and Joshua Burrows.   The third place team consisted of Andrea Smith, Alex Vanhie, Dylan Magnus and David Jefferson.

Top over all individual undergraduate performance awards were given to Stephen Boersma, Chris Budd and Joanna Burrows who placed first, second and third respectively. The remaining students from the undergraduate and graduate teams competed well and placed competitively within their categories.

The OAC Weed Team was coached by Clarence Swanton and Darren Robinson.  Special thanks to Peter Smith, Mike Cowbrough, Eric Lyons, Francois Tardif, and Robert Moloney for their contributions to the success of the 2014 OAC Weeds Team.

The financial support of Monsanto Canada, Syngenta Canada Inc., Bayer CropScience , BASF, FMC Corporation, E.I. DuPont,  Nufarm Agriculture Inc., Dow AgroSciences, Valent Canada, Grain Farmers of Ontario and the Ontario Weed Committee is gratefully acknowledged.