4-H livestock exhibitor projects
As I type this article, I am still trying to bounce back from a busy trip to the Georgia 4-H and FFA Junior National held at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, Georgia.
Many know that my siblings and I exhibited steers, heifers and market lambs in our 4-H career. My daughters and nephews showed steers, heifers and meat goats.
Now, I have nephews that show heifers and goats.
On this trip, we hauled five show heifers from the Bowman farm to Perry. Show day started early with us leading heifers from the tie-outs at 3:45 a.m. to get the first heifer ready for the show ring. I don’t have the final Gordon County 4-H counts, but approximately 20 youth from Gordon County exhibited around 75 head of steers, breeding heifers, market heifers, breeding does, breeding ewes and market hogs in the 2023 state shows in Perry. Today, I would like to share information about the importance of the 4-H livestock projects.
For starters, Gordon County 4-H had a great showing in Perry. Our show team is one of the largest and most competitive show teams in the state. The young folks did extremely well in showmanship classes where their show ability is evaluated and then topped it off with many wins in classes, divisions and overall show championships.
I am sure our Gordon County Extension/ 4-H Facebook page will be flooded with photos soon from the trip. My siblings and I mainly showed livestock for Gordon 4-H in the 1980s and the programs were strong then, but they are even stronger now not only in number of participants, but in the ability of the exhibitors and quality of animals shown. I will add that in 2022, we started a 4-H Chick to Chicken project for youth that do not have the space for a large animal. In 2023, we are even establishing a Rabbit Club for youth that wish to show rabbits. I guess you can say that we are expanding the livestock projects offered.
Why is showing livestock important? I have stated many times that I am a competitive person by nature. Most know that I coached my travel teams fiercely and when I or one of my daughters showed livestock or played basketball, we were going to try to win every time out. There is nothing wrong with setting high goals. I have learned though that overtime the ribbons will fade and the trophies and plaques can tarnish, but the life skills learned by the young people involved with the projects will last a lifetime.
The first life skill I would like to discuss is the skill of responsibility. As I stated earlier that while we were in Perry that the heifer show day started very early for my family. We were leading the heifers from tie-outs to the show barn before 4 am. We did not go to bed the night before till about 11 p.m.
It would have been easy to say what is the worth of it all. Showing livestock teaches you to care for another living thing and at times putting the needs of that animal before your own. Trust me, these show animals are fed the best of feeds, washed, hair and skin conditioned and exercised just to name a few. They are fed on a tight feeding schedule also. As youth get older, their activity lists can get longer. The youth have to make it a high priority to take care of their show animals before they go to their next activity of the day.
The skill of time management can be enhanced by participation in a livestock exhibitor project. In my high school days, I not only showed livestock, but I was on Mr. Dyer’s and Joe Darby’s 4-H livestock judging team. I also played high school basketball and tennis. I was good enough to earn a tennis scholarship to Young Harris College.
Our 4-H livestock judging team was very competitive and we represented Georgia at two national competitions in Kansas City, Missouri, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was always busy in high school so time management was a must. Somehow, I was also in National Honor Society so it was a balance of managing my sports, livestock projects and my grades.
Decision making and money management are two additional skills that can improve by 4-H livestock project participation. Some of the best times we have as a family is when we start looking for the show animals for the next season. This may mean going to farm to farm that raises show animals of that species or spending hours looking at videos of online auctions of show caliber animals.
You narrow those selections down and then may have a family meeting to go over the pros and cons of each animal. I will admit that showing livestock is not a cheap project especially with the larger species. You have feed costs, entry fees, show supplies, vet costs and travel expenses to consider. You need to budget to make the money work for a show season.
Finally, good sportsmanship, teamwork and building self-confidence are additional traits or skills learned by 4-H livestock show team participation. In the next few weeks, 4-H’ers will start preparing for show season 2023-2024. If you have an interest, contact our 4-H staff at UGA Extension- Gordon County at 706629-8685 or email gbowman@uga.edu.