Throughout Homecoming Week, students from various agriculture-centered clubs came together and decorated hay bales for the annual Homecoming hay bale decorating competition, leaving them outside for all those passing by to enjoy.
This competition is a longstanding LSU Homecoming tradition. Now hosted by the Student Agriculture Association (ASA), it brings together the students in the College of Agriculture by having them decorate a hay bale that represents their club and the Homecoming theme.
ASA President Abbygail Davis, an animal science major with minors in agriculture business and youth development extension, enjoys the competitiveness and the way it connects students in the College of Agriculture.
“Before I served in this role [as President], I did the competition with another club, and it helped me find new people in the club I never knew,” Davis said. “Essentially, that’s what our mindset was. It was to bring clubs a good, fun activity, but also a little friendly competition.”
This year, there were eight bales brought in by one of the LSU Central Research Beef Units, and organizations were able to claim them on a first come, first serve basis. With the overall Homecoming theme of “Golden Days & Purple Nights,” the clubs had to get creative and find a way to represent it alongside their organization.
The clubs that participated this year were the Student Chapter of the Society of Wetlands Scientists, Block and Bridle, Dairy Science Club, Aquatic Ecology Club, Collegiate 4-H, Les Voyagers, Timber Tigers: The Society of American Foresters at LSU and Student Nutrition & Dietetics Association.
ASA communication chair Allie Hubbard, an agriculture and extension education major, explained how the competition at its core is a way to bring attention to the importance of agriculture.
“It’s an opportunity for the clubs to showcase who they are, what they are and what they do while also following the Homecoming theme,” Hubbard explained. “We try to get our clubs to incorporate agriculture to bring awareness to their club and agriculture as a whole.”
Not only is this competition a fun event, but it also works to minimize waste. Instead of discarding the whole hay bale at the end of the competition, they are taken back to the LSU Beef Unit and stripped of all decorations. Once they are thoroughly cleaned and checked, the bales are used to feed the cows in the pastures of the unit.
This eco-friendly mindset is taken into consideration by all the clubs’ decorating. They make sure that decorations stay on the first layer of the hay bales, which can easily be peeled back and removed. Some clubs choose to instead paint paper and wrap it around the hay bale, avoiding the need to paint on them directly.
For the judging of the competition, three to five people in the agriculture department are chosen. Each judge is given a rubric to score the bales based on their incorporation of the Homecoming theme, their student organization and agriculture.
Director of Alumni and Donor Relations for the LSU College of Agriculture Aimée Lemann was chosen to judge this year, spending her morning scoring the hay bales.
“I was honored to be asked,” Lemann said. “Anytime I get a chance to work with our students and our student organizations on campus, it’s an easy yes. I’m just so proud of the students.”
On Friday, Oct. 10, the winners of the competition were announced. In first place was Les Voyagers, second place was the Student Nutrition & Dietetics Association and third place was the Dairy Science Club.
Additionally, ASA introduced a new category to the competition: Fan Favorite. This part of the competition was conducted online through voting, and anyone could participate. The organization Student Nutrition & Dietetics Association had the honor of being chosen as the competition’s first fan favorite hay bale.
ASA is open to all students interested in agriculture at LSU, even those not in the LSU College of Agriculture. Those interested in their events can visit their Instagram, which posts a monthly newsletter.
