2022 Convention recap

The Mississippi Poultry Association honored two of its members on September 17 at the Association's 85th Annual Convention.

Pic Billingsley of Laurel was named to the Mississippi Poultry Hall of Fame. His portrait will be hung later this year at the Miss. State University Poultry Science Department, joining 35 others in the Hall of Fame, created in 1973. Those inducted have given most of a lifetime to starting, growing, and adapting the poultry industry into the state’s largest agricultural industry,

The honor happened to come on the 37th anniversary of Billingsley’s first day at Sanderson Farms, which recently became Wayne-Sanderson Farms, LLC. During his career, he has overseen the construction of eight poultry complexes, each of which includes a hatchery, feed mill, processing plant and around 100 poultry farms. He has served four times as chairman of Miss. Poultry Association Board of Directors.

A native of Picayune, he is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Retail for Wayne-Sanderson Farms. Earlier this year, he received the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association Lamplighter Award which pays tribute to individuals for “sustained and exemplary service” to the poultry and egg industry.

Doug Morgan was named the 2022 MPA Allied Industry Leader of The Year. He is Southern Regional Sales Manager with Baader, a manufacturer of a wide variety of food processing equipment. He has been with Baader for 24 years and prior to that ran processing plants for two different companies. A native of Starkville, Morgan now lives in Brandon. The award recognizes salespeople known for their outstanding service to poultry companies.