4H youth program

[ultrarunner]

My niece raised a pig for 4H and last weekend she participated in the exhibition and sale...

Lots of good looking farm stock at the fair and very attentive kids...

Turns out her pig was bought by a breeder so she was very happy.

Their home set up was a nice open area where the pig could come and go and it was a very friendly pig and always happy for company... weighed 240 on the nose the day of auction.

Aside from the 107 heat... it was a fun experience...

 

[mark02tj]

Very cool!! And nice for your niece (and the pig!) that the pig won't be butchered. 4H is a good thing!!



I watch a couple of PBS programs every Sunday morning. One is done by the Ohio Farm Bureau and is called "Our Ohio". The other is more national and called "America's Heartland". One of those shows (I think it was Our Ohio) did a story on a farm family where the mom wrote a childrens' book about her daughter's experience with 4H and the fact that the auctioned animal met a different end. It was interesting how they dealt with it. Unfortunately I couldn't find a link to the story or the book.

 

[ultrarunner]

It opened a new world to me... the SF Bay Area isn't exactly the tops in AG... at least not where they live.

The kids were taking it all very seriously and it was my niece's first foray into raising animals... they live in an old pioneer homestead with old barns and such so it was a natural.

When I worked in Austria learned that 4H is very big there... at least the organization that started from American 4H... the two students I hosted year before last were 4H and spent 6 weeks in Colorado and then stayed two weeks with me in here in Oakland.

 

[jwstewar]

My wife and I weren't in 4-H as kids, but we have all 3 of our kids in it. This will be our oldest kids 7th year in it. We've been impressed enough with the organization that we've jumped into it head over heals. We switched clubs this year and my wife and I are now advisors for this club. She is the organizational leader and I oversee the Cloverbuds. 4-H is how we got started raising goats. They didn't like selling them the first year and wanted something to take home. So we bought our first meat breeder and our first dairy goat that year. Now we have somewhere around 50 goats (down from 60 something). We've had to build a barn and now actually sell goats for other kids to take to fair. I'm also now a barn superintendent and will be quite busy at the fair this year. Fortunately we camp there, so that makes it much easier. Glad we have a camping spot, it takes 3-5 years to get a spot at our fair. We are the largest camping fair in the US with almost 1500 campers.

 

[ultrarunner]

The Contra Costa Fair is quite small... the 4H and FFA make up a lot of the fair which gives it kind of a hometown feeling.

I've been to other Fairs and loved the tractor exhibits and farming displays... even the AG Dealers showing their new offerings... nothing like that here... but I could tell how important it is to the kids and the farm projects.

 

[mark02tj]

Our County Fair is held on Labor Day Weekend which makes it one of the last (if not THE last) county fair to be held in Ohio. What's dumb is that the State Fair is held in early August so the county fair winners have to wait a year to head to the State Fair. Makes no sense.

Our county is mostly urban/suburban (based on population) but I live in a rural area of the county. Our school district doesn't start classes until after Labor Day so the kids could participate in the county fair!! Most of the districts around here start in mid-August.

 

[jwstewar]

Our County Fair is held on Labor Day Weekend which makes it one of the last (if not THE last) county fair to be held in Ohio. What's dumb is that the State Fair is held in early August so the county fair winners have to wait a year to head to the State Fair. Makes no sense.

Our county is mostly urban/suburban (based on population) but I live in a rural area of the county. Our school district doesn't start classes until after Labor Day so the kids could participate in the county fair!! Most of the districts around here start in mid-August.

You must be Montgomery County. You aren't even close to last. There are 25 fairs after yours.

Ross County is a good size fair. We have around 90 Steer, 22x+ hogs, 100ish sheep, a few dairy cattle, 190 market goats, 75 breeding goats, 30 dairy goats, and who knows how many rabbits and poultry. And our commissioners and fair board do a good job of running the fair and keeping the grounds up to date. They built a new 100x400 goat/sheep barn last year and we are already out growing it. Us goat folks need to boot the sheep out

 

[mark02tj]

You must be Montgomery County. You aren't even close to last. There are 25 fairs after yours.

I didn't know that! I learn so much on TBN!!

Of course, with 88 counties, if there are 25 after ours, that makes us number 63... so we are getting fairly close to last! :laughing:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I was in 4H, and my kids were in 4H, but we never did animal projects. Our fair (In ohio where I grew up) used to be the last week of August, but was moved to the beginning of Aug due to school starting before labor day. Our fair here in MD is in Sept, kids just miss school if they have animal projects. My neighbor girls all raised/showed cows in 4H.

 

[jwstewar]

I didn't know that! I learn so much on TBN!!

Of course, with 88 counties, if there are 25 after ours, that makes us number 63... so we are getting fairly close to last! :laughing:

I'd call you more mid-pack