By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
If you could hear a pin drop on dirt between notes of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” you would have heard it just before the Market Turkey contest at Galveston County Fair and Rodeo. Baylee Bennett’s voice rang out, and everyone — barnyard animals included — was silent.
Then the wings started flapping, and young people held up turkeys as the birds’ breasts were patted down by a man in a white coat, a turkey judge.
Judging the bird with only his hands running up and down, he indicated with a pointing gesture which side of the pen the bird and its handler should go to.
Once all the entrants were lined up on either side of the pen, there was more holding up poultry, more sliding of his hands up and down the breast of each bird and more indicating with his hands where each person was to stand.
The ritual went on for what seemed like an impossible amount of time and no one in the pen except the judge knew what the pecking order was.
Twenty turkeys were needed for the auction, and 56 had been entered. This meant there was a first round of cuts that paused the competition for some while contenders were again put through the ritual several more times. This process meant intense waiting and not knowing what was on the mind of the judge.
Carlie Young, a senior at Santa Fe High School won Grand Champion. She got her turkey for this year’s competition on her 18th birthday in December.
Robert Boysen III, a junior at Hitchcock High School won second place. His turkey is the reserve turkey. Boysen has been raising turkeys for six years.
The top twenty turkeys will be auctioned Wednesday.
Young people who exhibited turkeys and/or any other animals at the fair are learning how to care for barnyard animals properly and humanely, thanks to their schools’ agriculture programs, 4-H clubs, and other animal husbandry organizations.
