Jacob Hall Takes First In Contest

The 2013 National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference was held November 20-21 at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville, with Trenton resident Jacob Hall coming home with a first-place finish.
Hall, the son of Gary and Becky Hall, took first place in the turkey barbecue contest, bringing home the Robert Hogue Memorial Award, a gold pin and $250.
This annual conference allows 4-Hers from all over the country to compete in educational events that help them learn to make and defend decisions, speak publicly, and gain poultry-related skills.
Other winners in the cooking contests included Anne Catherine LeBlanc from Louisiana for chicken barbecue and Emily Falica from Kentucky for egg preparation demonstration.
The annual 4-H conference includes five separate competitive events. In the Poultry Judging contest, participants are required to judge ready-to-cook chicken and turkey carcasses, live production hens and market eggs. In the Chicken and Turkey Barbecuing contests participants barbecue three chicken halves or two turkey fillets and give an oral presentation on the corresponding poultry industry.
In the Egg Preparation demonstration contest participants prepare an egg dish and give an oral presentation on the nutritional value and versatility of eggs. In addition to these events, the conference includes an Avian Bowl contest which is a round robin tournament in which the contestants are required to answer questions regarding poultry science, poultry meat and egg production, and information about the poultry industries.
A Poultry Careers workshop is also held at the conference, exposing the 4-Hers to hands-on information from poultry food industry personnel and the participants are given pertinent information about career and educational opportunities in poultry industries. This year there were two speakers at the workshop. Ms. Tracy McKinney spoke about her job as Flock Advisor with Perdue Farms. Dr. Carey Ritz from the University of Georgia discussed the career opportunities available in the poultry industry and how to pursue a college program that will give students diverse experiences in poultry to develop a successful career.
At the 2013 National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference, 157 senior 4-Hers, representing 26 states, participated as teams or individuals in the various events. Twenty-one teams and four independent individuals participated in the Poultry Judging contest and 13 teams competed in the Avian Bowl contest. Eleven individuals participated in the Chicken Barbecue contest, nine in the Turkey Barbecue, and nine in the Egg Preparation Demonstration.