Grain production is the primary agricultural enterprise in Daviess County encompassing more than 150,000 acres annually; nearly half the land surface of the county.   An important task assigned to farmers, production salespeople, extension agents, and agronomists each growing season is the evaluation of growing crops for pest control issues related to insect, disease, and weed problems. Crop evaluation of these occurrences requires time, training, and knowledge.  Most farm crop-related occupations relate directly to a knowledge of crop scouting, yet most in the industry have not received formal training in this important skill set or had in-field experience in high school agricultural curriculum.  Extension Plant Pathologist, Dr. Kiersten Wise has increased the opportunity for high school students in Kentucky to gain crop-scouting knowledge through her leadership in implementing the Kentucky High School Crop Scouting Workforce development competition.  The Cooperative Extension Service in Daviess County worked with a team of Daviess County High School students in summer 2021 and 2024 to teach them about proper crop scouting methods to implement now and later in their chosen agricultural career path.   The students were trained in the identification of major diseases of corn, soybeans, and tobacco.  They were trained how to properly estimate the development stages of growing crops and were taught how to diagnose and determine the cause of field problems.  They were taught how to utilize pesticide product labels and properly calibrate pesticide application equipment.  The students also received weed and insect identification training.  The team’s knowledge gain was demonstrated by their second-place accomplishment out of 12 teams competing in the Kentucky High School Crop Scouting Competition in July 2024 at the Grain and Forage Center of Excellence in Princeton.  The team competed at the National High School Crop Scouting workforce development Competition at the University of Minnesota St. Paul Agricultural Campus September 14, 2024 placing ninth out of 13 teams.  A long term outcome of this program is that one of the students from the 2021 team is now employed by a large acreage commercial grain farm where his knowledge of crop scouting as it pertains to weed, disease and pest control decisions is relied on by the farm owner for advice through out the growing season.