Did you know that approximately 8.54 million turkeys are produced in Iowa each year? Iowa has a surprisingly bustling turkey business, something that is not typically talked about when mentioning the produce of the state. One competition wants to change that.

The Gobble Up! Turkey Marketing Competition is a program designed to educate and engage students in helping their understanding of the turkey production business. With different opportunities for elementary, middle, and high-school students, the competition allowed students to creatively develop a marketing strategy for a product of their choice, while learning about the multitude of agricultural careers and skills it takes to develop and sell a product. The high-school student’s jobs were to work together to submit a marketing plan of their selected turkey-focused product. Their marketing plans included an introduction, product details, marketing tactics, a market analysis, and nutrition information.

In fact, the competition recently wrapped up and announced a winner for the high school level. Eleven schools participated, and out of that eleven, Mrs. Gravels Marketing class was the winner. Nine students from Senior participated in the competition, Gage Campbell, Maxwell Enabnit, Marquis Flowers, Tyler Kirk, Rebecca May, William Powers, Madison Sampson Brown, Jack Smith, and Joel Wilbricht.

The prizes included a $200 check made out to the school, a virtual tour of a turkey farm, catered lunch brought to the school, and a printed certificate.