Minnesota Poultry Testing Association (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Dates:

Active 1959

Active 1976

Biographical notes:

The Minnesota Poultry Testing Association was incorporated in January 1964. The Association and its predecessors (the Random Sample Test Advisory Committee and the Random Sample Test Advisory Board) conducted the Minnesota Random Sample Egg Production Test in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture-Division of Poultry Industries, the Department of Corrections, and the University of Minnesota Institute of Agriculture (1957-1974). These year-long tests, known initially as the Minnesota Chicken Random Sample Test (1957-1958) and as the Minnesota Central Random Sample Chicken Test (1958-1959), were conducted at prison farms at the Minnesota State Prison (Stillwater) and the Minnesota State Reformatory for Men (St. Cloud). They evaluated various breeds of chickens for such factors as egg size, interior egg quality, and income and cost data. Test results were made available to poultry producers by the Department of Agriculture, via yearly reports, as a tool to help them select commercial laying stocks.

Members of the organization included the head of the University of Minnesota Department of Poultry Husbandry; the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's director of poultry industries; and members of the Minnesota Poultry Hatchery Association. The group met periodically to make recommendations for the establishment of policy and practices in conducting the Random Sample Tests.

The tests were terminated after 1974 because of declining interest on the part of poultry breeders, and because of the discontinuance of farm operations at the Stillwater prison. The Association was dissolved October 21, 1976.

From the guide to the Association records., 1959-1976., (Minnesota Historical Society)