By Mackenzie Hall

Rowan Cooperative Extension Intern

On July 19, three teams from Rowan County participated in the North Carolina State 4-H Poultry Judging contest held in Raleigh. We had one junior team and two senior teams competing, with a total of 10 youths involved. This contest is an activity where participants demonstrate their poultry judging mastery.  

Senior A Team won first place in the overall senior division. Team A consisted of Lauren Hayes, Sierra Simmerson and Grace Walters. Walters also was the highest individual scorer in the senior division. These girls will go on to compete at the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference contest in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Senior B Team included Josie Correll, Miranda Miller and Sydney Swing.

The junior team, consisting of Talton Correll, Adyson Medley, Emry Starnes and Joshua Wilson, took home first place in the overall junior division. Medley was the high scoring individual in the junior division and Talton Correll was the second-place high scoring individual for juniors. 

During the contest, 4-H’ers were judged on how they placed/graded different classes revolving around poultry. There were three divisions of this competition. 

Division 1: Egg Production Hens involved youths judging two classes of past production hens and giving one set of oral reasons to a judge. In these classes, youths are judging live birds to determine which hen shows the best production qualities. Youths  handled and examined every aspect of the bird. 

Division 2: Market Poultry involved judging ready-to-cook hanging carcasses and poultry parts. Youths had to grade the quality of the meat and be able to identify different meat cuts from a chicken. 

Division 3: Eggs focused on youths judging exterior and interior quality of eggs, as well as broken out eggs. 

These 4-H’ers began practicing in May and put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this event. We are extremely proud of everyone that competed.