Winner, winner, chicken dinner! It's no surprise that the Department of Poultry Science at the U of A placed first in the allied industry division of the Poultry Federation's 62nd Annual Poultry Festival BBQ Contest on June 18 for the second contest in a row.  

Each year the Poultry Federation hosts the Poultry Festival, which brings the industry together to meet and celebrate all things poultry.

"In my opinion, the biggest event of the Poultry Festival is the BBQ contest," said Rodney Wolfe, program manager in the Department of Poultry Science. "It's split up into two different categories — the industry division and the allied division."

The Poultry Science Department competed in the allied division, since the industry division is for companies that have a more direct impact in the poultry industry. Wolfe served as the team captain for this year's BBQ contest.

"I organized the team, got donations of product for us to cook and planned out the booth," Wolfe said. "All teams are asked to hand out samples of the cooked product to the public as a free giveaway on top of preparing food for the judges."

He said it served as a great educational opportunity and allowed students to interact with the general public.

"We get to talk to folks about our program here at the U of A and do some potential recruiting as a bonus," Wolfe said. "The students who do the actual cooking for the contest also get to build their teamwork skills."

A few students and others were the chefs for the day, while numerous other students helped out at the contest as temperature takers and speaking to the public about the U of A poultry science program. Trevor Lee was one of the graduate students who helped with cooking the chicken for judging and sampling, and he served as the chief cook for the contest.

"I sort of fell into this position, as I'm one of the few graduate students who has experience working with the department's smoker," Lee said. "My role included working alongside Rodney, coordinating and selecting team members, seeking advice from past BBQ cooks, setting up the booth and grilling."

Other members of the team included Travis Tabler and Blake Nelson, both poultry science graduate students, and Michael Kidd, professor of poultry nutrition. The winning sauce was provided by Lucas Graham, poultry science program associate and graduate student. Wolfe said it is important for students to have opportunities like this to interact with the industry for several reasons.

"They get to make contacts that could possibly help them out in the future," Wolfe said. "This could potentially result in getting a job or internship later down the road."

Not only do students get to make professional connections, but they are able to make personal connections too.

"My absolute favorite part of the contest was being able to socialize and spend time off campus with faculty, staff and other students," Lee said.

The team placed first, and Wolfe said he felt honored.

"I've been team captain for two years now, and prior to that we had a different staff member who did it for years," Wolfe said. "When I took over, I decided to bring in students to increase their involvement and let them do the cooking. The previous team captain had won two years in a row, so now we've equaled that streak."

Student contribution was a major part of the win, and there were dozens who helped with various parts of the contest.

"We had people passing out samples, cleaning up, serving as volunteer temperature takers for the entire contest and just interacting with the public on behalf of the department," Wolfe said.

The team effort made the entire contest worthwhile, but especially with a trophy to bring back home.

"I was extremely grateful and excited to learn we had placed first in the division," Lee said. "I believe it was well deserved after the amount of work everyone put into the competition."