FFA Poultry Judging: Class 5 - Carcass Placing

>>This is FFA Poultry Judging: Class 5 - Carcass Placing
Class 5 is a placing class of four ready-to-cook
chicken or turkey carcasses.
Each chicken carcass will weigh more than 2 pounds,
but not more than 6 pounds.
Each turkey carcass will weigh more than 6 pounds,
but not more than 16 pounds.
If you notice, the carcasses will be placed in pans usually
or suspended from shackles and be numbered 1 through 4.
It is important for students to determine the grade
of each carcass based on USDA grading standards.
Items such as feathers, pin feathers, hair,
preen glands, visible scales, excess skin and medullary bone
are not considered in this class.
So it is important for students not to use
those criteria when judging the carcasses
and determining the grade of the carcasses.
Students should prepare a piece of paper
with the number of the chicken
and a column for the grade to be labeled.
Now we look at each chicken individually
to determine the grade.
We’ll start with chicken #1.
On close visual examination,
we look for things like broken bones,
that are either protruding or non-protruding,
torn skin, missing meat, dislocated bones, cut tail
or other types of defects.
In this case, we notice that there is a missing wing.
An entire wing is missing from this chicken.
Therefore, this chicken is a Grade C.
The rest of the chicken may be visually inspected as well
just to see if there are any other defects.
Although in this case, it will not change the grade.
It is already a Grade C.
The student would then write down the grade
of the chicken next to the number of the chicken.
Looking at chicken #2, we do a visual inspection
on this one as well.
Carefully examining the skin, looking for broken bones,
protruding bones, missing wings,
missing other parts, missing meat,
tail cuts and so forth.
We notice that there are no missing wings
or any disjointed parts, but as we go around the chicken
we notice that one leg is broken.
This leg is broken and it is easy to determine
that it is broken because when it is compared
to the other leg which is completely straight
you notice that this leg is angling downward
and is clearly broken.
But the bone is non-protruding.
Therefore it is a broken, non-protruding bone
in one leg of the chicken and this downgrades
the chicken to a Grade B.
That means, barring any other defects on this carcass,
this chicken is a Grade B.
We visually examine the rest of the chicken
to make sure that there are no other defects
that will downgrade the chicken further.
For example, if there were a missing wing
or a broken and protruding bone
or a large skin tear on either the leg or the breast,
that would downgrade the chicken to a C.
However, since none of those defects are present,
this chicken is a Grade B.
The student would then go back to the notepad
and write the grade for the chicken,
which is a B, next to the number for the chicken.
Next, we continue with chicken #3
and we start a visual examination of the chicken.
We look for skin tears.
We look for damaged wings and legs.
>>If you’ll notice, the wing tips
have been removed from this chicken.
That’s still acceptable for a Grade A carcass.
Also, we evaluate around the area
where the abdominal cut occurred.
This is a typical abdominal cut.
It's called an evisceration cut
and it’s not used to judge the chicken.
It is not used to downgrade the chicken either.
If you look at the tail, it’s evenly cut with the body.
The tail has been removed,
but it’s not cut in to the body cavity.
This is still a Grade A bird.
Because this chicken doesn’t have any broken,
unexposed or exposed bones, no torn skin, no meat missing
and only the wing tips and tail removed
even with the body, it is a Grade A carcass.
Students should then go back to their notepad
and mark the grade of the chicken
next to the number of the chicken.
Finally, we look at chicken #4.
And again we do a visual inspection
of the chicken to make sure that there are
no torn skin areas or broken wings
or dislocated bones and so forth.
And what we notice as we go around looking
at this chicken is that it has a large evisceration cut,
but again this is not used in judging the chicken.
It has the tail. There are no tail cuts.
There are no skin tears or cuts,
but there is a half missing wing.
In this case the wing has been cut in half.
The drummette is still attached
to the body of the chicken,
but the flat has been removed.
Because the wing has been cut in half
and is missing, this is considered a Grade B carcass.
Once again, the student should refer to their notepad
and write down the grade of the chicken, which is a B,
next to the number of the chicken, which was #4.
Once this has been done then the student can decide
how to place the chickens.
It’s easy for students to determine which chicken
would be the best and first in the order,
that’s the Grade A chicken.
And which is the worst and last in the order,
that’s the Grade C chicken.
But how do we determine which one should be placed
first amongst the two Grade B chickens?
I think that the Grade B chicken
that has a missing part is a worse downgrade
than a chicken that has a broken, non-protruding bone.
So, I would say that the broken,
non-protruding bone chicken
should be placed higher in the order
and the missing half the wing chicken
should be placed lower in the order.
So now we have our final placing.
So now we have the correct placing.
#3 is the chicken that was the A Grade carcass,
#2 is the B Grade carcass with the broken, non-protruding bone,
#4 was the B Grade carcass with the half missing wing
and #1 was the C Grade carcass with the entire wing missing.
This is the easiest way to place the chickens.
© 2012 University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences