The University of Idaho Argonaut

The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences will conduct its first Ag Olympics at 2 p.m. Saturday with games that match the college, including a pie baking and a pie throwing contest, only one of which is made from feces.
Similar events have been hosted by other agricultural programs, said junior Ryan Rademacher, chair for the Ag Olympics Committee, but the University of Idaho has just become one of them. The event is open to all CALS students or students associated with a department club.

CALS Associate Dean John Foltz brought the idea  to the table last semester and the Olympics committee formed in December. Heading the committee are members of the Agriculture Student Affairs Council.
“The students on it are elected student government and liaisons to the rest of the colleges and administrators on campus,” Foltz said, their role being to, “provide opportunities for students to learn leadership.”

Participating students are also expected to learn about teamwork and communication skills that will benefit them when they leave UI, Foltz said. The underlying theme for Saturday’s event, however, will be fun.

“I just thought, ‘Get students together and compete with each other,’” Rademacher said. “I thought it would be a fun thing to do.”
Many CALS events take place during fall semester before winter dampens Moscow for outside events, said Cyndi Faircloth, CALS special projects coordinator. Most of Ag Olympic events will take place in the Livestock Pavilion, which is mainly used for judging livestock.

“The last time we talked about using it, the hogs had just been in there and it didn’t smell too clean,” Faircloth said.
The state of the pavilion has changed since then. With its bleachers and dirt floor, Foltz said it is the perfect place to host the Ag Olympics. Every event is being coordinated by a CALS club or living group, such as the Sigma Alpha sorority. They will be conducting the sunflower seed spitting contest.

“Some of our events might get a little messy,” Rademacher said.
Other events include a milk chug, hay bale bucking/tossing, pie baking, siphon tube setting and cow pie throwing contest.
“A lot of the clubs that are involved in the CALS are pretty involved,” Rademacher said. “We had a couple issues with some clubs that didn’t have enough manpower.”
“It’s networking via fun,” Foltz said.

The Collegiate Farm Bureau is in charge of conducting the cow pie throwing contest. Junior Bill Brewer has already collected the pies from around the pavilion into the bed of his truck. He said the contest will be based on the distance the largest piece of the cow pie reaches. Unlike a discus, cow pies are harder to keep intact.
“You can pick through the whole pile of cow pies,” Brewer said. “But it has to be twice the size of your hand so they can’t clump it up into a ball.”

Students can sign up for the olympics in Room 40 of the Agricultural Science Building or by e-mailing Rademacher at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Contestants will be divided into teams of five.
Each teammate will be able to compete in two contests and the entire team will compete in the round bale rolling contest. Because round bales can weigh 1,200 to 1,600 pounds, this was the obvious team event, Rademacher said.
Along with organizing the events, clubs will provide prizes for winners, while Ag SAC will provide prizes for the athletes who do best overall and the three top-winning teams will be awarded separate prizes.

“They’ll be able to put it on their resume and say, ‘Hey, I organized this event,’” Foltz said.
Foltz said if at least 30 students participate this first year the event will be a success. After 17 years at UI, he said this is the first time he has heard of an event like the Ag Olympics.

“We’re not getting bowled over with clubs signing up,” he said. “If you’re going to try something new, give it three years.”
All students are welcome spectators to UI’s first Ag Olympics, Rademacher said. If the event is successful, he said he would like to extend the Olympics to all colleges. Foltz said he would also like to move the Olympics later in the spring and possibly into a larger, outside arena.