Youth Market Turkey Show
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Collapse ▲About the Youth Market Turkey Show
Apply for the 2022 NC State Fair
Livestock Scholarship!
If you have showed a turkey at the Youth Market Turkey Show, you are eligible to apply for the NC State Fair Livestock Scholarship each year you are enrolled at an institute of higher learning at a minimum of 9 course hours per semester. This includes community colleges and technical schools. You may receive this scholarship a maximum of four times. Apply by March 1, 2022.
2022 YMTS T-shirt Design Contest
Submissions for t-shirt design contest are closed. The winning design will be announced soon. Thank you to all who submitted their artwork.
Congratulations to our past T-shirt Design Winners:
2022 YMTS T-shirt design winner: Announcement Coming Soon!
2021 YMTS T-shirt design winner: John Tucker
2020 YMTS T-shirt design winner: Camille Clark
2022 YMTS Pen Sign Contest
Art/Pen Signage Contest Rules YMTS Youth Ambassador Program
Submissions for 2022 are closed.
Congratulations to our first Youth Market Turkey Show Ambassador, Maggie Blevins from Davidson County for the year 2020. She did a terrific job under most unusual circumstances!
Important Dates
Drop Off/Weigh In – October 5, 2022, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Each participant’s turkey can be dropped off at location TBD anytime between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.; date will be finalized by TBD. Drive into the fairgrounds through Gate 4 on Youth Center Drive to drop off turkeys. When you arrive at Gate 4, signage will indicate where you will need to go.
Your bird with be checked for health and weighed. Your turkeys must be transported with bedding like shavings/straw (non-slick surface) to prevent slipping. Birds with infections or weighing less than 15 lbs. will not be accepted for show and will be returned to the exhibitor. Once birds are accepted, they will be numbered with a leg band and put in their cage. You will be asked to bring feed and water and provide it for your bird.
Turkey Show – October 6, 2022, 8 a.m.
The show starts at 8:00 a.m. in a location TBD.
Registration
Registration for 2022 YMTS is now closed.
Capacity was reached on March 1st, and on by March 2nd, all waitlist spots were filled.
Registration will always open the first Tuesday in March. First day of registration for 2022 will be Tuesday, March 1 at 9:00 a.m. Please be sure to have the following information for each participant: full legal name, county of residence, physical address including city, state and zip code, age, and t-shirt size.
The age divisions, based on age as of June 1 are:
Gobbler (5-8)
Junior (9-13)
Senior (14-18)
Fees
If registered for the 2022 show (and not wait-listed), you will receive a link to a Cashnet resource to be able to submit payment using Credit Card or Check. Cashnet will ask for the names of participants and your billing information. You will have the following Credit Card payment options:
If you are paying by check, you will still need to complete the Cashnet form. The Cashnet Form will generate an invoice. Checks should be made out to North Carolina State University. To submit payment for registration, please mail a check or money order with a copy of the invoice to:
NC State University
ATTN: Maxine D. Shelton
2711 Founders Drive; Scott Hall – Rm 229
Campus Box 7608
Raleigh, NC 27695
The name of the youth to be registered needs to be included with the check. Registration is $20/youth. A group check from a county office is acceptable if all registrants’ names are included.
Turkey Show Information
Poult Pick-Up
Poult Pick-up for the 2022 Youth Market Turkey Show will be June TBD, 2022.
A schedule for pick-up will be sent to participants. If you have questions, please contact Mary Fosnaught.
Pick up poults at the NC State Animal and Poultry Teaching Unit at 3841 Inwood Road (off of Lake Wheeler Road) in Raleigh, NC 27603.
In the past, when parents brought their children to Poult Pick-up, they may have provided their child’s Social Security Number (SSN), full legal name and address to N.C. State Fair personnel (Cheryl Jenkins and Carol Grant); this information is necessary in order for the state to issue prize monies. This year such information will only be collected through the state fair livestock group using Blue Ribbon Systems during the summer.
If you do not want to provide your child’s SSN, you may sign a form agreeing that you are opting to not receive prize monies.
University policy prohibits employees from handling SSNs. If you are an agent picking up poults for youth, those participants will need to have their parents call Cheryl Jenkins (919.839.4522) or Carol Grant (919.839.4531) at the N.C. State Fair office between TBD from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and provide the SSN of their child and verify their full legal name and address.
Courtesy of the NC State University Feed Mill Education Unit, each participant will receive 5 lbs. of feed to get the birds off to a good start.
Please bring a cardboard box with you for transporting poults.
Checking In
All youth who register for the show must enter their entire legal name that matches their social security card on a Youth Market Turkey Entry Form. Bring the form with you when you check your hen in at the Poultry Tent at the N.C. State Fairgrounds to prevent any check distribution delays.
Be sure to enter your name and current mailing address on the form. The form will also be sent to online registrants with paid fees.
The social security number is not required until the day the hen is brought to show.
Poult Pick-Up Questions
To help make the poult pick-up process easy, see our Q&A:
QUESTION: Is this where we normally pick up poults?
Preparing for the Show
Each turkey will be judged on a rubric which evaluates Confirmation and Fleshing of the bird and Management by the participant based on the Market Turkey Score Sheet.
Prior to birds coming to the state fairgrounds for the Youth Market Turkey Show, you should do the following:
Weigh your bird
Each bird must weigh a minimum of 15 lbs. If your bird does not make weight, it will be sent home. Your 15 week old Tom is expected to weigh 26-30 lbs. A bird almost 50% of its target weight indicates a disease and/or welfare issue. You are encouraged to weigh your bird throughout its lifecycle to ensure you are on track for bringing a successful market turkey to the show. You can weigh your turkey by holding it while on a bathroom scale.
Check Birds for Disease
Bathe your bird
Turkey Show Location
The Youth Market Turkey Show is in the Poultry Tent next to Gate 4 at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.
View the map and download or print a copy.
Turkey Judging
Participants are evaluated on the overall weight of their turkeys, the muscling in the breast and legs and how well each participant has taken care of their bird.
See how turkeys get judged with this video (1:54) featuring Dr. Carm Parkhurst.
Resources
Feeding
Game Bird Guidelines
Southern States Feed Guidelines
Aviagen Turkeys Feeding Recommendations for Commercial Stock ATI Feeding Feeding Turkeys for Meat Yield
Raising
Raising Turkeys
University of New Hampshire
Want to know more about all things turkey? Check out the National Turkey Federation website.
Acknowledgements
A special thanks to the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at NC State University for making this event possible.
Thank you to Prestage Farms and Butterball for providing poults for each participant.
For additional information contact
Dr. Mary Fosnaught
E-mail: mhfosnau@ncsu.edu
Phone: +1 919.515.5529