It’s not everyday you find someone who can tell you how to market a chicken, but with the FFA Poultry team, it’s a whole different story.

The poultry team has skills in the production, processing, and marketing of chickens, turkeys, processed poultry products and eggs. The poultry competition is split up into different events.

“In FFA, there’s really something for everyone to enjoy,” Ag teacher Henry Goff said. “For some people, that thing is poultry.”

There is an event in poultry where the student has to judge eggs by the FDA standard and determine whether they are ready to be sold and cooked. There is also an event where the student has to identify different poultry parts.

“I like to identify the different parts of a chicken,” Junior Peyton Graves said. “The event where you have to judge the whole chicken is the easiest. We usually do pretty good in that.”

The poultry team members also have to take a rigorous exam. Found on the exam are different specific questions about chickens, eggs, turkey, chicken meat and etc. The test was developed with Texas A&M University and the Poultry CD Committee. To prepare for the exam, students take practice tests.

“I dread the test,” junior Iveth Molina said. “It is so long and time consuming.”

There is a team event where the team has to address a real-world problem in the poultry industry and find a solution.

“The team event is probably one of the hardest ones,” Graves said. “It requires critical thinking and a lot of background information.”

Much of the information these students learn in the poultry competition, they will carry with them in life. They learn general information that benefits them and can help in future careers.

“It’s really beneficial to be in poultry,” junior Savanah Guevara said. “Not only do you learn useful knowledge, you also gain a family.”

The poultry team has many goals. Their recent competition on Wednesday brought them even closer to their end goal. After many hard hours of practice, they are finally seeing a reward.

“We still need practice but we are close to our goal,” Molina said. “We have a goal of 1,500 points as a team. Right now we are around 1,400.”