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LSU poultry judging team wins big at annual competition

LSU poultry judging team wins big at annual competition Writer: Johnny Morgan at 225-578-8484 or jmorgan@agcenter.lsu.edu
(04/14/16) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU poultry judging team took numerous awards at this year’s U.S. Poultry Foundation Ted Cameron National Poultry Judging Contest held April 6-8.
For 69 years, LSU has hosted the event, and this year’s team competed against 10 other schools from as far away as Penn State and the University of Wisconsin.
The team placed second overall in the contest and won a number of the other awards including:
– Third high team in production judging
– First high team in breed selection judging
– Third high team in market products grading
Individual winners from LSU were Trent Dugas, who was the overall high individual in the contest, and Emily LeBlanc, the fourth high individual overall.
This year’s team was coached by retired poultry science professor Dennis Ingram.
LSU AgCenter poultry professor Theresia Lavergne, who coordinates the event, said the competition allows students to learn to evaluate birds for past and future egg production and for breeding purposes.
"Also, the students learn U.S. Department of Agriculture standards for grading eggs and ready-to-cook fryers,” Lavergne said. “These skills are important because they are used in commercial poultry production."
“The U.S. Poultry and Egg Association National Poultry Judging Contest strives to increase student enrollment in poultry science," she said. "The competition allows students the opportunity to demonstrate how well they have mastered the U.S. Department of Agriculture rules and regulations governing the grading of eggs and poultry carcasses."