My introduction to soil judging came during the 2025 BSSS early careers conference where I met Richard Hewison, who enthusiastically encouraged me to get in touch with the society and the coach Jay Ryan. This was the first I’d heard of soil judging, and following some research and communication with BSSS I learnt that a British team would be supported to attend the 5th international soil judging competition in Nanjing, China. After sending an expression of interest I was lucky to be chosen to join the team, with expenses covered by BSSS. This included the registration fee with accommodation and meals as part of the competition, alongside a separate £600 towards travel costs.
Soil judging is closely aligned to my recent experience working on the state of soil classification as part of the England Ecosystem Survey. This introduced me to the process of soil classification and the range of different systems used to describe soils, and fostered a fascination with digging out soil profiles. I was hence very excited and somewhat amused to hear that there is a competitive sport of soil judging, and extremely glad to be selected for the British team.
Our preparation for the event stated months in advance, with online and in-person training in soil classification provided by both the international union of soil scientists and our coaches Jay and Richard. The first sign that this would be a long process was learning that both the World Reference Base and Soil Taxonomy (two international systems for assessing soils) were being used in the competition, as these systems differ significantly from the English system I was familiar with. Nevertheless, we arrived in China with a bank of resources and were eager to put our skills to the test.
Soil judging is an unusual sport in that teams are competing to describe a soil profile as closely as possible to an assessment made by experienced professionals. This involves describing the key characteristics of the soil and making judgment on the soil type, as well as the suitability of the land for different uses. In practical terms this means considering the depths of different horizons, the soil colour, structure and texture, redoximorphic processes, simple surface features like ground cover and slope, and lastly calculations to assess characteristics such as available water holding capacity. This information is then used to determine diagnostic features and assign a soil reference group with qualifiers (for World Reference Base) and soil order, suborder, great group and subgroup (for Soil Taxonomy). The whole process is tightly timed with intervals inside the pit for collecting samples and time outside the pit to write up the scorecard.
The participants spent the first three days in training sessions learning about the regional soils and the specifics of the classification systems. Following this was a full competition practice run, and the competition day itself, during which we assessed two pits individually and two pits as a team. At the end of a long week we gathered for the awards ceremony and a fantastic Chinese banquet meal in Nanjing.
A particular highlight was exposure to an interesting range of different soils. It was especially exciting to see paddy soils that are non-existent in the UK. These have unique characteristics, notably a dense ‘plough pan’ that farmers purposefully develop to prevent water from seeping down the soil profile when fields are flooded for rice cultivation. This is unimaginable in the UK where plough pans are usually avoided as much as possible to prevent waterlogging and restrictions to root growth. The result of seasonal flooding also leads to interesting soil processes such as the reduction and oxidation of minerals. This is evidenced by characteristic intense grey and orange colouring where iron is reduced and oxidised respectively.
Separately from the competitive aspect of soil judging itself, I was very glad of the opportunity to engage with soil scientists from around the world. Our first introduction to the other teams was during the opening ceremony, during which we took part in a gift swap that was intended to promote international cultural exchange. We bought along several jars of homemade marmalade as a representation of British culture, that we gave out to teams from Germany, Korea, Russia, Japan, Spain and Mexico.
In exchange we received some beautiful gifts including a key ring, fridge magnet, sweets and postcards, shown in the attached image. Not pictured is the shot of tequila offered around by the Mexican team, one way to cure the jetlag! Throughout the rest of the conference there were numerous opportunities meet the rest of the teams, and it was inspiring to learn about everyone’s diverse backgrounds in soil science.
Having had no prior exposure to soil judging as a sport, and very little understanding of international classification systems, the whole week and the months leading up to the competition was huge learning opportunity. With the help of the coaches, we have become competent at carrying out soil assessments and gained a great deal of knowledge about soil processes. Taking part in the contest was not only fun but valuable for my career in soil science, and I would very much like to include more detail consideration of soil classification as part of my PhD research.
I’m also excited by the prospect of brining soil judging to the UK. Our team was one of the only countries not to have national or regional soil judging events, putting us at something of a disadvantage against more experienced teams. By learning more about how such contests are held successfully we now have the understanding to support the development of soil judging back home, and I’m looking forward to being involved in conversations with BSSS to make it happen.
It was a huge privilege to represent BSSS and take part in an extremely unique event. I’m grateful to the NCEA soils team at Defra for getting me into soil classification in the first place. More important I’m hugely thankful to Richard who suggested I apply (and I’m sad couldn’t join us!), Jay who gave so much time to prepare us for the competition, and BSSS staff Ella and Dominic who gave so much support in the lead up and during our time in China.
