Arkansas 4-H members compete at National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference in Louisville

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ten Arkansas 4-H members put their poultry knowledge and cooking skills to the test at the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, during the North American International Livestock Exposition at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center Nov. 15-16.

Andrew Bolton, extension instructor for poultry science and youth programs, said the conference provided important opportunities for competition and connection.

POULTRY PARTICIPANTS — Arkansas 4-H members at the 2023 National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference Awards Banquet held on November 16, 2023 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Back row, left to right: Jackson Russell, Andrew Hendricks, Duncan Patterson. Front row, left to right: Vallie Yancey, Cadence Almas, Keira Keck, Anna Kate McKinnon, Blakley Thompson, Hunter Kelley. (Division of Agriculture photo.) 

“Being new in my position, it was great to see all the different contests that we can take our kids to on a national level and getting to interact with some of my peers from other universities across the nation,” Bolton said. “I think all of our kids had some really great opportunities to compete, but they also got to go on tours and meet new people.”

The conference is the highest level that 4-H members competing in poultry and egg contests can reach. Students start competing at the county level, then winners advance to the district level, and those winners compete at the Poultry Federation Festival held in Rogers, Arkansas, to qualify for the national level.

“It’s really the culmination and final step of competition,” Bolton said.

Arkansas 4-H members’ registration and hotel fees were sponsored by the Poultry Federation.

In the Avian Bowl, students are quizzed on their knowledge of several species of poultry, food safety, physiology, nutrition and more. Poultry Judging teams consist of three or four students who compete individually, but their scores are counted together.

“They go around through different stations and judge live birds, they judge ready-to-cook carcasses, they judge the quality of eggs both interior and exterior, and they judge further processed parts, like nuggets, patties and wings,” Bolton said. “They really judge the entirety of the poultry industry in that window.”

Bolton said competitors’ scores are based on their ability to identify the “best” specimen among live birds — and rank the birds accordingly — and on their ability to identify defects and damage in carcasses, eggs and processed parts.

“They’re looking at these birds and products and assessing as if they were on the assembly line or working as an inspector who grades for those things,” Bolton said.

Blakley Thompson of Clark County won fifth place in the Turkey Barbecue Contest, and Anna Kate McKinnon of Howard County won fifth place in the Egg Chef Challenge.

Exciting opportunities

Bolton said that in addition to competition, the conference is a great opportunity for 4-H members to broaden their horizons.   

“I’m a big proponent of kids getting new experiences,” Bolton said. “If some of these poultry judges or barbecue cookers have never had the opportunity to travel or leave the state, or sometimes even leave their county, this is an amazing chance to go and see new things.”

This year, students toured Churchill Downs in Louisville, the horse racing complex where the Kentucky Derby takes place, as well as the Louisville Slugger Museum.

“Our 4-H’ers get to interact with a lot of different kids from across the nation,” Bolton said. “There are kids who fly in from California, New York, Mississippi, Alabama, the Carolinas and all over, so it’s a great gathering of people.”

Bolton added that a goal of the conference and contests is to interest participants in pursuing careers in the poultry industry.

“For us, this hopefully continues to build interest in these youth in our poultry industry,” he said. “I think we want to build interest in agriculture regardless, but we definitely want to skew that just a bit in the poultry direction.”

Bolton said he’s seen from personal experience how participating in 4-H can lead to a career in the agriculture industry.  

“I would say, and I’ve lived this, that 4-H is a gateway to get into such a great industry,” he said. “Whether you’re in the poultry industry or the agriculture industry, there are so many opportunities, both schooling-wise and career-wise. We have a great poultry department at the University of Arkansas, and there’s tons of scholarships available through being a poultry science major, contests like this, and other organizations.”

The Arkansas 4-H members who competed in the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference are:

Avian Bowl Team: Madison County

• Cadence Almas

• Andrew Hendricks

• Keira Keck

• Vallie Yancey

Coaches: Caramie Edwards and Darrin Henderson

Poultry Judging Team: Carroll County

• Hunter Kelley

• Jason McCullough

• Duncan Patterson

Coaches: Lisa Patterson, Torrie Smith

Chicken Barbecue contestant: Jackson Russell, Izard County

Turkey Barbecue contestant: Blakley Thompson, Clark County, with coach Cindy Ham — 5th Place

Egg Chef Challenge contestant: Anna Kate McKinnon, Howard County, with coach Samantha Horn — 5th Place

4-H is a youth development program operated by the Cooperative Extension Service, part of the Division of Agriculture. The program teaches participants life skills through the “learn by doing” model. Program participants gain knowledge through non-formal, science-based, experiential education activities.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. 

Arkansas 4-H members bring the heat to state barbecue contest, advance to nationals

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture

ROGERS, Ark. — Sixteen Arkansas youth put their grilling chops to the test at the 4-H State Barbecue Cook-Off, and the first-place winners in chicken and turkey barbecue will advance to the national competition in Louisville, Kentucky.

WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER — Jeremiah Moix, 18, took first place in the chicken barbecue category with a recipe that focused on his grilling technique and used hickory chips to infuse the chicken with smoky flavor. (Photo submitted by the Moix family.)

The contest was held June 10 in Rogers at the 63rd Annual Poultry Festival, hosted by The Poultry Federation. Jeremiah Moix, 18, was the first-place chicken barbecue winner, and Blakley Thompson, 14, was the first-place turkey barbecue winner. Moix and Thompson will advance to the national competition, which will be held at the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, from Nov. 15-16.

Moix has been a member of the Paron Lion’s Pride 4-H Club in Saline County for three years and has competed in the barbecue competition each year since joining.

“I’ve grown up watching my dad grill, so I already knew some basics,” Moix said. “It just sounded like a fun thing to do. We’d never cooked on charcoal, so I had to learn different techniques for that, and I got to learn how to cook chicken.”

Thompson has been a member of Clark County 4-H since he was 5 years old. Thompson said he also shows goats and lambs at the national level. This was his first year competing at the state level of the barbecue contest.

“I just fell in love with turkey because I like the taste of it, and I also like to turkey hunt,” Thompson said. “Turkey is all-around my favorite bird.”

The road to state

Sara Orlowski, assistant professor and extension poultry specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, coordinates the district and state 4-H barbecue contests. She said 4-H members first compete in the barbecue contest at the county level, starting in March and April. Those winners advance to the district level in one of four district barbecue contests held in Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Arkadelphia and Little Rock. Only 4-H’ers aged 14 and older can move on to the state-level contest.

“One of the big draws is that we hold the state barbecue contest for the 4-H kids at the Poultry Festival,” Orlowski said. “They grill in the morning, and then they spend the rest of the day at the festival. There’s usually a concert at night that the kids get a ticket to go to, so it’s a big weekend for them. They get to come up to Rogers and compete, but also have some fun afterward.”

At the county and district level, participants bring their own grills, but for the 16 youths who qualify for the state competition, a grill is provided for each of them. They then get to take that grill home with them as part of their reward for making it to the state level.

Orlowski said contestants are judged not only on the taste of their barbecue, but also on their preparation and food safety skills.

“There’s a section that they’re scored on before the product is even tasted,” she said. “They’re judged on how well they can light their charcoal grill, how they control their fire and how they put on sauces and check temperatures.”

Contestants also must prepare a trifold poster board with information about safe food handling and the poultry industry, as well as nutritional facts about their chosen meat. This accounts for a quarter of a contestant’s overall score.

Practice makes perfect

Moix said he begins preparing for the county barbecue contest early in the spring.

“Usually at the start of the season I probably haven’t grilled in a while, so for my first practice, I’ll light up the grill outside and I’ll do my food prep in the home kitchen,” Moix said. “But by the time of my last practice before the competition, I have everything set up outside. I’m trying to simulate the competition as much as I can. I come inside to get the chicken and take it outside to prepare it, just like I would in the competition, and I’m timing myself.”

Contestants are allotted two and a half hours from the time they light their grill to the presentation of their dish to the judges.

Moix said his family has tasted many versions of his chicken recipe and provided plenty of feedback.

“My harshest critics are my siblings,” Moix said. “I get pretty immediate feedback — they’ll tell me too much seasoning, or not enough seasoning, or I didn’t get enough smoke in this part of the meat.”

Thompson said that after qualifying in his county competition, he practiced every week for the district contest.

“I worked on getting my timing right,” Thompson said. “I marinated my turkey for the first hour while my fire was getting ready. And I actually didn’t put my turkey on the grates, I put foil down on the grates and then put my turkey on top of that. This was to render the spices and the vegetables that were on the turkey into it, to make it a better-tasting turkey.”

Moix said that over the years he’s competed in the barbecue contest, his recipe hasn’t changed much, but his technique has.

“What I try to go for is a very simple seasoning that’s not very strong or overpowering, but I add some hickory chips to the smoke,” he said. “Getting that into the chicken — which is sometimes harder to do than perfecting your seasoning — to keep it nice and moist, and get crispy skin without burning the skin, that’s really what I’m practicing each time. It’s a simple, good recipe, and it lets my actual grilling technique show through.”

Thompson said that on a trip to Puerto Rico with his family, they met a soldier who worked as a commercial chef, who influenced the flavors Thompson chose for his turkey recipe.

“I’ve always wanted to meet with a chef who’s been all over the country, so my recipe came from Puerto Rico,” he said. “We learned of these flavors from him and then tried them, and it improved the turkey in so many ways.”

The key to Thompson’s recipe is using lots of white vinegar in the marinade, which he says opens the pores of the meat and allows for garlic and peppers to infuse their flavors into the turkey.

Preparing for nationals

Moix said that at the national barbecue contest, competitors must give a 10-minute presentation on the poultry industry and respond to questions from judges.

“It’s a step up from the poster board, and then you have to go grill,” he said. “I’ve taken some speech classes in high school, so I’m pretty confident on that part.”

Thompson said he’s most looking forward to participating in the competition side of the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference, as in previous years he’s shown goats and lambs.

“I’m super excited to learn from other people who are big into this,” Thompson said. “Even at the state competition, people are like, ‘Oh, I’ve been here eight times,’ and it’s my first year. I’m excited to meet with the kids who are cooking those chicken and turkeys and have been there in past years and won that contest, to see what it does for you and how it helps.”

For their fellow 4-H’ers interested in the barbecue contest, Moix and Thompson both recommended plenty of practice and keeping a cool head during the competition.

“Every now and then I see people who have barely practiced, and they can sometimes do well based on luck, but if you want to perform well consistently, practice,” Moix said. “Know how much charcoal you’re going to use, know how much seasoning you’re going to use, so that at the competition, it just feels natural and like you’re cooking at home.”

The Arkansas 4-H youth development program is operated by the Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach arm of the Division of Agriculture.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.

NWA radio personality reaches winner’s circle at Kentucky Derby

by Paul Gatling (pgatling@nwabj.com)

Derek “Deek” Kastner of Springdale has been picking horses since he was seven. Several months ago, one of those picks was his most wise investment.

Kastner, a popular radio personality in Northwest Arkansas and lifelong horse racing fan, was in Louisville, Ky., this past weekend, where he watched a horse he owns win the sport’s most famous race.

At 15-1 odds, Mage won the 149th Kentucky Derby before a crowd of over 150,000 at Churchill Downs. It was the horse’s fourth career start. He’d only won one of the previous three.

https://talkbusiness.net/2023/05/nwa-radio-personality-reaches-winners-circle-at-kentucky-derby/

Derek "Deek" Kastner and his wife, Lexi, following the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 6, in Louisville, Ky. (Photo courtesy Derek Kastner).