Twelve 4-H’ers from Gordon County competed at the Northwest Area 4-HPoultry Judging Contest in McDonough recently. They matched their poultry knowledge with 163 4-H’ers from other counties. The Junior Team placed fourth and Marie Swims took Third High Individual.

Team members prepared for the event by attending classes and workshops on egg production, meat quality, market egg candling, exterior egg quality, broken-out egg quality, and poultry parts identification.

At the competition, all contestants judged two classes of live birds for egg production and gave oral reasons for their selections on one class. In addition, they judged carcasses for meat quality, candled eggs to determine freshness and grade, and judged eggs for exterior and broken-out quality.

The Junior Team received 4th place at the contest. Junior Poultry Judging participants were Marie Swims, Gabe Soto, Caleb Carr, Brooke Carr, Cole Swims, Amber Gwin, Brayden Silvers and Allie Tankersley. Marie Swims was 3rd High Individual out of 116 Juniors at the contest.

Senior team members were Anneke Carr, Madison Holbert, Julia Rhinehart and Amanda Jo Morris. Anneke Carr was 9th High Individual out of 47 Seniors at the contest.

For more information on 4-H projects and educational judging events, please contact Beth Carlan-Watson at 706-629-8685 or visit the Gordon County 4-H web site at www.ugaextension.com/

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Photo cutline: Gordon County 4-H’ers competing at Poultry Judging contest. Pictured Left to Right. Front Row- Caleb Carr, Brayden Silvers, Cole Swims, Brooke Carr and Gabe Soto. Back Row- Madison Holbert, Julia Rhinehart, Amanda Jo Morris, Amber Gwin, Marie Swims, Allie Tankersley and Anneke Carr.