4-H’s roots began many years ago in agriculture education for youth. While, we have expanded programming since our early years we still take pride in our roots and understand the importance of agriculture education. In fact, Georgia’s largest commodity is Broiler Chickens. There are countless careers in the poultry industry and college students who graduate with agriculture degrees generally have a job waiting for them due to the high demand of the industry.
Therefore, to promote the poultry industry, agriculture, poultry knowledge, and the like Georgia 4-H hosts a Poultry Competition annually. This competition specifically teaches youth in grades 4th-12th about poultry part identification, egg quality, broiler quality, and live bird production quality. The competition also promotes reasoning skills, critical thinking and public speaking skills.
To learn more about GA 4-H Poultry Competition go to the below link:
https://georgia4h.org/programs/focus-areas/agriculture-stem/agriculture/livestock-and-animal-projects/judging-teams/poultry/
Many counties in Georgia offer this great educational activity. I encourage parents, teens, and military base staff to reach out to their County 4-H Program to see if this program is offered locally. The competition occurs in May and practices generally begin about 1-2 months before competitions depending on practice schedules.
If I asked you what the difference between a breast quarter, breast with ribs, or a whole breast could you explain the difference? Do you know how poultry scientist determine if a hen is a good layer or what molting is? Youth who participate in Poultry Judging learn how to analyze hen production quality and understand the parts of chickens, which allow them to be better consumers all while gaining valuable aquiculture knowledge. We hope you will look into promoting and/or offering this great educational judging team this fall. Parents, be sure to check with you local 4-H club to learn how to sign up!