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In the News - October 2008
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| KIDS WITH KIDS - 4-H'ers taking part in a goat clinic at the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center share a light moment with their charges as they learn the ABCs of goat care and management. (Cooperative Extension Service photo courtesy Jodie Pennington) |
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| LINE ‘EM UP - 4-H'ers taking part in a goat clinic at the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center show off their goats in a lineup. (Cooperative Extension Service photo courtesy Jodie Pennington) |
LITTLE ROCK - Just about any county extension agent has loads of stories to share - about 4-H'ers, fair time and the 4-H program in general. Two of them - and a teenaged 4‑H'er - share some of their experiences with us.
Jessica Street remembers the first time she entered her project in a fair as a teenager, and she can relate to the youth under her tutelage in Benton County.
"The first year you get real nervous about whether you're going to do well or not," says Street, Benton County extension agent with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. "Any time you get up in front of other people and are judged on your work, it can be a little nerve-wracking."
4-H'ers work on projects all through the year, and right now they're getting their garden, livestock, craft and food projects ready. Most focus on a project or two.
"As long as they're doing the best that they can do, at that point, there's nothing more they can do," says Street.
Allen Davis, Greene County extension agent, voices concern for the time, effort and money his youth - and their families - must invest just to get signed up for the state fair.
Each youth may nominate four hogs or four sheep or goats, and each nominee must have a DNA kit at $15 each.
"At my house, my kids nominated four hogs apiece - so that's eight hogs for my two kids," says Davis. "Then you have your expenses of going to the state fair and the feed and all the costs of taking care of the animal."
Davis, however, is sold on the 4-H program.
"I think it's one of the best leadership programs. It teaches the kids tremendous responsibility and management - of their time and money," says Davis. "There's a lot more to it than feeding and washing their animals."
And 4-H youth can get scholarships.
Davis' oldest son, a senior at the University of Arkansas, put himself through college on show money and scholarship money.
Langston Ashmore, a 4-H'er in Greene County, has shown his projects at fairs for seven or eight years. He started out with chickens.
"You'll raise those chicks for seven weeks, and you've got to put them on automatic feeders," says Ashmore. "You've literally got to get up in the middle of the night and go stir the chickens up and make them go and eat."
Ashmore now shows hogs, and he hopes to go into hog breeding as an adult.
He relates how he selects a 40-pound pig and pictures it at 280 pounds down the road. For two weeks before the fair, he clips his hog, bathes and conditions it every evening and practices walking it in the show ring.
"It's a lot of work," Ashmore concedes. "But it's my life and it's what I like doing. It's not all about winning for me although that's nice every now and then."
Ashmore wants eventually to help kids out with their 4-H projects.
To learn more about 4-H, visit www.uaex.edu or talk with your county extension agent, who most likely is just waiting for someone to ask him about 4-H.
The Cooperative Extension Service is a part of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
October 3, 2008
By Kimberly Dishongh
For the U of A Division of Agriculture
Edited by Elizabeth Hill
Media Contact: Lamar James
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2187 or (501) 753-0207
ljames@uaex.edu
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