Isaiah Groom and Ryan Stoney

This year was the first year since Mrs. Burton has been at Potosi High School in which the FFA has had a poultry judging team. Originally Ryan Stoney, Isaiah Groom, Kadin Walsh, and Connor Robbins tried out for the wildlife team, but because of the high competition for the wildlife judging team, they did not make it. When taking judging teams to competitions, Brunton is only allowed to take one team of four for each category. Even though the four boys did not make the cut for the wildlife team, they knew that they still wanted to judge something this year. 

Ryan and Isaiah were the masterminds behind the idea of judging poultry. When talking to Ryan about how they prepared for the competitions, he said, “We did not have enough time to really get far into judging chickens before going to UWP, which would qualify us for state, but after getting into state we were able to come to Brunton’s [classroom] during power hour and study hall to learn more about what we are supposed to do.” Brunton has kids who plan to judge in the spring come down during study halls and power hours when they are free to study and practice to do the best that they can, but the juniors had to wait until after ACT prep to start their studies. To study for state, the team watched many videos, read through books, and handled senior Gavin Wunderlin's chickens. 

Before the team went to state, I sat down with key members Ryan and Isaiah. Isaiah told me, “I believe we could do very well at state because of the preparations we have had.”. Ryan went on to say, “Indubitably, we will.” Some skills that they knew they needed to master before going to the state competition included learning how to pick up a chicken, the cuts of the chicken, and exterior egg quality. 

The poultry team placed seventh at the UWP, where the top eight teams qualified for the state competition at UW-Madison. The team then went on to earn seventh at the state competition, which may not have gone as well as they wanted it to, but they did well for their first season. Ryan and Isaiah plan on continuing to judge chickens next year, in hopes of doing even better.