The Chicken Of Tomorrow Contest Changed The Poultry Industry Forever

According to the USDA, the U.S. is currently the largest producer and second-largest exporter of poultry in the world. In 2021 alone, reports the National Chicken Council, the U.S. produced 9.132 billion chickens for meat. But, America wasn't always the industry giant it is today. In fact, Americans were devout red meat fans until about a century ago.

Suddenly, there was a huge uptick in consumer demand for chickens, which shined a brighter spotlight on the poultry industry than ever before. Prior to this war-induced poultry boom, the emphasis on chicken farming wasn't on meat at all: It was all about eggs. Things were looking awesome for U.S. poultry leaders ... until WWII started drawing to a close and food shortages began to ease. How was the industry going to hold on to its newfound popularity? The answer: Churn out impressive, high-quality meat.

For poultry breeders, consistency equals profitability. And that's with . It's largely a dice roll. effectively commissioning a nationwide call for innovations in genetic engineering. Enter: the "Chicken of Tomorrow" contest.

Poultry farmers around the country were challenged to strategically breed their birds into an ultimate superior meat-type chicken. Judging criteria included edible meat yield, economic production, how quickly the chickens were able to gain weight and on how much feed, uniformity of size, skin coloration, and fat distribution. The prize?

There was a series of state and regional contests in 1946 and 1947, with the national contest of 40 finalists in 1948. The finalists weren't judged as chickens, however — they were judged as eggs. Those eggs were delivered from farms all over the U.S. to a hatchery in Delaware, where they would be incubated under identical raising conditions in a controlled environment. The eggs were transported by train in the care of special handlers; other farmers personally delivered their eggs via private car.

After carefully monitored hatching, raising, and processing, the meats of the different chicken species were blind judged. Brothers Charles and Kenneth Vantress' hybrid flock won the highest score in the contest by crossing Red Cornish males with New Hampshire Red females. The Chicken of Tomorrow contest literally created new species of birds, revolutionizing the poultry industry at large on a fundamental scale. The industry was so jazzed about the results that A&P sponsored another competition in 1951. Since then, the rest is history. Supermarket chickens have never been the same.

Per an official documentary by the National Chicken-of-Tomorrow Committee, ,  former chief of the USDA's poultry branch, was brought to rapture by the implications of the contest. "The success of the contest proves conclusively that it is possible to breed chickens with superior meat-type characteristics," Termohlen commented. The Vantress chickens demonstrated rapid growth at six weeks with a mortality rate under 7%, exceptionally resilient for poultry flocks of the time.

Today, Cobb-Vantress, Inc. is a global poultry supplier with a presence in 130 countries. It's owned by household-name brand Tyson Foods and remains headquartered at the site of the 1951 "Chicken of Tomorrow" contest site in Arkansas. 

According to the USDA, as of 2023, U.S. chicken availability has increased by over 100% since 1980, making the U.S. poultry industry marginally larger than the beef or pork industry.  – and the Chicken of Tomorrow contest is largely to thank for poultry's enduring popularity.