With Golf Tournament and Poster Session, Chicken Community Rallies for Students
A golf tournament fundraiser supporting poultry-industry scholarships raised a record $40,000 that will help college and graduate students pursue degrees giving them a start in the chicken community.
Delmarva Chicken Association hosted its College Scholarship Golf Tournament in mid-September at GlenRiddle Golf Club in Berlin, Md. The event is an annual tournament that devotes 100 percent of its profit to DCA's College Scholarship Program. The 2026 tournament raised $40,000 for the scholarship fund, a major gain over the $30,000 it raised in 2025. Since the scholarship program began in 1985, DCA has provided more than $300,000 in awards to students pursuing degrees that would set them up for success in chicken and poultry careers.
The winning foursome in the tournament was made up of Scott Conaway, Tyler Conaway, Jerimiah Patten and Steve Sprankle, on the Farm Credit team. Major sponsors of the DCA College Scholarship Golf Tournament this year include Horizon Farm Credit, Marydel Ag Supply, Darling Ingredients, and Denali Water Solutions.
Also in September, for the first time in six decades, student research had a place on the floor during the National Meeting on Poultry Health, Processing, and Live Production.
The Applied Poultry Research Poster Session, held September 15 at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, Md., drew 24 abstract submissions and put 20 posters in front of the veterinarians, growers, processors and allied industry professionals attending the 61st National Meeting. Presenters came from eight institutions across the United States and Europe.
Fahmi Dwilaksono, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, won the $500 first prize for research on anaerobic co-digestion of poultry litter and switchgrass. The work pairs litter with switchgrass grown on salt-damaged farmland, treating a disposal cost as an energy feedstock and a nutrient-management tool at the same time.
Patricia Soster de Carvalho, a Master of Avian Medicine resident at the University of Georgia and a researcher at Ghent University in Belgium, took second place and $300 for work using sound and computer vision to monitor broiler health and welfare automatically.
Bishal Bhattachan, a graduate student at the University of Maryland, received the $200 third prize for a live-bird method of assessing woody breast myopathy - a muscle condition that costs the U.S. broiler industry more than $1 billion a year and is currently identified only after processing.
The session was established by Dr. Mostafa Ghanem of the University of Maryland, working with Dr. Michael Quist, veterinarian at Mountaire Farms and chairperson of DCA's National Meeting Planning Committee, and Holly Porter, DCA's executive director. DCA covered registration for every accepted student presenter and funded the awards, giving students access to both days of technical sessions alongside industry professionals, established researchers and government officials.
Abstracts were reviewed by a committee drawn from universities, diagnostic laboratories and industry, with applied value to the poultry industry weighted most heavily of the six scoring criteria. Posters were judged in person during the session.
"This poster session adds to DCA's existing investment in the next generation of chicken leaders," said Holly Porter, DCA's executive director. "We were impressed by the depth and relevance these student researchers brought to their research subjects, and it wouldn't surprise us to see them as presenters in the National Meeting in the years to come."
The National Meeting traces its history to 1965, when DCA, then (Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc.) held its first meeting for chicken processors and growers. Six decades on, the conference draws more than 450 attendees from across the country each fall. Next year, the 62nd National Meeting will be held Sept. 27-29, 2027, again at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City.
Major sponsors of the 61st National Meeting on Poultry Health, Processing, and Live Production include Best Veterinary Services, Clear View Enterprises, Farm Credit, Insta-Pro International, Kersia, Elanco, Poultry Labor Solutions, Aviagen, Darling Ingredients, DeChem, Energize Delaware, WATTPoultry.com, Arkion Life Sciences, CracklessEgg, VSI, Lanxess, Xgenex, Proxy-Clean Products, and Delmarva Custom Applicators.
Members of the first-place team on DCA's College Scholarship Golf Tournament with Holly Porter, DCA executive director.
Left to right: Bhattachan, Soster de Carvalho, and Dwilaksono.
About Delmarva Chicken Association
Delmarva Chicken Association, founded in 1948, is the Delmarva chicken industry's voice as the premier membership association focusing on advocacy, education and member relations. DCA's vision is to be the most-respected chicken organization in the United States. For more information about the Delmarva Chicken Association, visit www.dcachicken.com or call 302-856-9037.