The time for entering Stockshows and contests is nearing! I want to put some information out there to encourage more of our 4-H families to get involved in these events. Texas is known world wide for our outstanding stockshow systems because they of the support they generate for our youth through education and scholarship opportunities. If you are interested in trying out any of the activities below, please let me know as soon as possible so we can get your entered and get you the information you will need to get prepared. I have also linked each of the contests so that you can find more information about them, including rules, study materials, and dates.
2019 Fort Worth Stock Show Heifer Superintendent Beef Challenge- Open to senior 4-H members who have shown for 2 or more years at the Fort Worth Stock Show, Includes an Educational Information Challenge and and Sales Talk---- $50,000 in Scholarships given annually at a minimum Equine IQ Contest- Open to all ages of 4-H members, $40,000 Scholarships given annually at a minimum- Contest includes questions, identification, and a speech in the senior division Calf Scramble- Open to 4-H members born between 2001 and 2005, Kids who catch are awarded $500 towards the purchase of a show heifer Junior Horse Judging Contest- Team of 4 or Individuals can compete Goat Judging Contest- Team of 4 or Individuals can compete Meat Judging Contest-Team of 4 or Individuals can compete Range and Pasture Plant ID Contest- Team of 4 or Individuals can compete Wildlife Contest- Team of 4 or Individuals can compete The above judging contests also offer lots of awards and prizes San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo Horse Skillathon-The Horse Skillathon is an innovative contest designed for students to showcase their knowledge of horses and the horse industry. Contestants apply their book knowledge during a written exam and then perform tasks at hands-on stations. Finally, during a speech round they demonstrate their ability to communicate knowledge of industry issues. The Horse Skillathon is an exciting way for horse enthused students to demonstrate their talents and horse knowledge in a competitive event. Calf Scramble- 4-H members can compete to when money that will go towards buying a show calf for next year-- Money can be combined with the winnings from other scrambles Texas Agriculture Video Challenge- share Texas Agriculture through your eyes Agricultural Public Speaking- Use your voice to speak for Texas Agriculture Agricultural Science Fair- Satisfy your curiosity with a science project Ag Robotics Contest- Test your Contruction and Coding Abilities Beef Skillathon- Demonstrate your knowledge and skill related to the beef industry Food Challenge- Modeled after competitions like Chopped and the Iron Chef Junior Juding Contest- Juding Contests includ the following: Floriculture, Dairy Judging, Wool Juding, Meat Juding, Wildlife Recreation and Management Contest, Consumer Decision Making, Poultry Judging, Horse Juding, Livestock Judging Landscaping Challenge- Students will be tested on their landscape design skills and knowledge of plants, plant pests and diseases. The Landscape Challenge will culminate with a final round of landscaping plots on the grounds which will be an attraction for the general public during the entire Stock Show & Rodeo. Landscaping Skillathon- This hands-on and interactive competition challenges exhibitors regarding their knowledge of landscape design concepts. Elements will include a written exam, identification stations, and skill stations on topics such as plant identification, fertilizer information, landscape design, and insect and disease identification. Meat Science Skillathon- The Meat Science Skillathon is a hands-on and interactive competition that challenges contestants regarding their knowledge of meat science and BBQ concepts. Sheep Skillathon- Contestants will be challenged with questions, skill stations, and a public speaking component encompassing various facets of the sheep industry. This contest is not only designed for those exhibitors who exhibit sheep projects, but also those students who simply have a strong interest in the sheep industry. Swine Skillathon- Contestants will be challenged with questions, skill stations, and a public speaking component encompassing various facets of the swine industry. This contest is not only designed for those exhibitors who exhibit swine projects, but also those students who simply have a strong interest in the swine industry. The Junior Shoot Out- The Junior Shoot-Out offers qualifying Texas 4-H and FFA members the opportunity to compete in shotgun shooting sports for scholarships and prizes. Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Calf Scramble- Students compete to earn $1750 to go towards the purchase of a calf project, this money can be combined with the winnings of other scrambles. Agricultural Science Fair- Students study the application of agricultural scientific principles and emerging technologies in agricultural enterprises. Categories a student may enter include: Animal Systems, Environmental Services/Natural Resource Systems, Food Products and Processing Systems, Plant Systems, Power/Structural/Technical Systems, and Social Systems. Ag Robotics- The Ag Robotics Contest is designed to allow members to demonstrate their robotics, engineering and problem-solving skills. From a set of challenges, six revealed prior to the contest and two revealed at the contest, and within an allotted amount of time, teams of three to six members build, program, and test their robot. Teams then attempt to earn points by completing as many challenges as possible. Beef Quiz Bowl Contest- In this tournament-style contest, teams are tested on their overall knowledge on beef cattle production, including nutrition, reproduction, and cuts of beef. Each state can enter up to three teams in the competition. Judging Contests- Dairy Judging, Floriculture, Horse Judging, Livestock Judging, Nursery Landscape, Meat Judging, Poultry Judging, Range and Pasture Plant Identification, Wildlife Habitat Evaluation, Wool Judging Poster Contest- Projects in the 4-H and FFA Poster Contest focus on the conservation or enhancement of Texas wildlife habitat affecting multiple species or the preservation or enhancement of a particular Texas wildlife species. Tractor Technician- Start your engines! Teams race against the clock to locate and correct five deliberately placed malfunctions in diesel-fueled tractors. Each team is given two minutes to review a service work order and 25 minutes to complete the task. If successful, a designated driver then starts the tractor and drives it around a predetermined course.
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September was a crazy month for the Cass 4-H Program in terms of schedules. October is kicking off there are lots of deadlines coming up!
Livestock Projects- Don't forget to schedule your project visits with me! I need to come and visit your animal projects about every 6 weeks. It doesn't have to be a long drawn out visit, but I do want to see them and all of the hardwork you are putting in! October 22nd is the date for Fall Heifer and Goat validation. It will be held at Linden Kildare High School from 4-6pm. I have the forms available in my office if you would like to come by and get them to fill out early. If you have a registered heifer, make sure you have sent me a photocopy of your heifers registration papers. If you are showing at the Major Shows in 2019, I need your FORT WORTH entries by November 1st. All checks need to be made out to the Cass 4-H Fund so that we can write one check from the county. The Cass County Junior Livestock Show is coming up quickly. If you have an animal project, you may want to reach out to your buyers to remind them of the quickly approaching show. If you are showing cattle at the Cass County Cattleman's Association Show, there is a meeting on October 9th at the Expo Center in Atlanta. We will have hosting a horse project information night on October 25th. It will be in our Hwy 8 office. You do not need a horse to participate in this project area. If you are interested, please join us! There is also a beginners horse judging workshop in Commerce on November 3rd. If anyone is interested in going to this please let me know so I can get you registered. Family and Community Health Projects- We are hosting a Pie Contest at the Project Party. The Rubric will be posted below. The District 4 Photography contest entries must be registered on 4-H Connect by Friday, November 2nd. You can enter up to 10 photographs. We have matte board available in the office and are here if you need help dry mounting your photographs. I will need you photopraphs mounted and labeled with the correct label form (we also have those available in the office or can email them.) General 4-H News- 4-H Week is next week. To celebrate Ally Hamilton, Morgan Cooper, and Travon Grant will be talking about their 4-H experiences on KPYN, Tuesday October 9th at 9:30. If you can, try to listen! The project party is on October 13th. We have lots of fun activities planned for this day, so please join us! The 4-H Program Area Committee meeting is October 29th at 5 pm in my office. Make sure that your club is represented! Congratulations- Our 4-H members did really great at the 4-States Fair! Check out the 4-H Newsletter or the Cass County Sun for details on their performance. This week, the Hope 4-H Club competed in their first wildlife contest of the season. Tymber Reust placed 5th overall individually and the Hope team place 2nd overall. We are very well represented by this group! This is a busy week here in the office, as we prepare for so many upcoming activities. To start the week we had our County Show Rabbit pick up, where lots of show rabbits were placed into the hands of young people. We also had our 4-H Program Area Committee Meeting, where we lined out a new set of bylaws and discussed up coming events.
This morning, two of our County Council members presented our 4-H week events to the county commissioners court, and the court declared October 7-14 to be 4-H Week in Cass County. The girls also got approved to do a community service project within the Cass County Park. We will be using our seed bombs from the One Day 4-H Project for this activity. This afternoon, our 4-H members are picking up their chicken projects for the county show. The chickens are being picked up at Linden Kildare High School. This week we are presenting curriculum to area schools, with the hopes of developing some SPIN clubs or recruiting members for community 4-H clubs from within our county schools. If you have a school, church, or community group that would benefit from any of the curriculum offered at texas4-h.tamu.edu/school-curriculum/ please let us know. We can bring it to you and even present it to your class. This week we also have Steer and Commercial Heifer Validation for the Cass County Cattleman's Association Show. If you need to get your calf validated for this, it is being held Wednesday from 4-6pm. Thursday we have 20 people signed up to take our Pesticide Applicator Training. This is an exciting opportunity for the land owners and producers in our county since we've not offered this opportunity in several years. Friday, we have the junior goat show in Tyler for the East Texas State Fair. It is also the last day to order swine tags from the Queen City Ag Teacher for the major shows in the spring. Next Tuesday, October 2nd, is national night out. Extension will have a booth set up in the Law and Justice Center if you would like to come and represent your 4-H Club. Starting October 3rd and ending October 14th, Tractor supply in Atlanta will be having the biannual clover sale. Please make to run by and see what booths our clubs have set up during this time. Orders for spring major show goat tags closed on August 31st. We ordered 17 for Cass County.
Orders for heifer UIN codes are open until September 15th. I placed an order or 11 today, and will continue taking them until the deadline. This code will ensure that you are able to show your calf at the spring major shows. If you have already validated your calf, you don't need to order an additional UIN or validate again. Orders for Swine Validation for Spring Major shows is now open until September 30th. The cost of the tag is $16 and must be paid for when they are ordered. To show you calf at the Cass County Cattleman's Association Shows in the spring, you need to attend validation on September 26th. If you have not validated your calf, you will not be able to show. September 15th is the ownership deadline for all animals to be shown at the Cass County Junior Livestock Show in November. We have hog tags for this show available in the office for $1 each. Please don't forget to complete quality counts as soon as you can! In an effort to encourage the connection between consumers and the agricultural products that they use daily, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension is show casing the "Path to the Plate." The Path to the Plate is a program that works to educate consumers on the fidelity of the food system of our country and the efforts made by agricultural producers daily to ensure that we have a safe and secure food source.
To make this educational method more appealing to youth, several agents from Cass, Harrison, Marion, and Camp counties are working to develop an educational program for youth. For more information on the youth oriented Path to Plate Media Contest, please attend the workshop advertised above. In light of our recent issues with the lack of rain fall and the rising cost of hay, producers are looking for ways to feed their herds through winter without having to spend over $100 per roll for hay. One of the recommendations to prevent the need for hay use to establishing a great winter pasture to utilize grazing.
Before planting for cool season grasses, you need to prepare your pasture adequately. The first step that we recommend is usually a soil test. This test helps us to establish a base line as to what amendments that your soil will need in order to maximize production. Following your soil test you need to disk you pasture to eliminate the already established plants. This will give your newly planted grasses the best chance to get established. Once you have disked you can re roll your pasture to allow for optimal moisture retention. You will want to plant your choice of cool season grasses in the early fall, from September to October. You want your target planting date to fall 4-6 weeks prior to the first killing frost of the season. This is also when you would want to add your phosphorus and potassium based fertilizers if your soil test deemed it necessary. Once the grasses have been established you can amend your soil with nitrogen based fertilizers. You want to use nitrogen based fertilizers at a rate of 50-60 pounds per acre. When selecting the type of winter grass to work to get established, you will want to determine what will best suit your needs. Ryegrass is highly recommended because it has shallow planting requirements or 0-.5 inches. You want to plant rye grass seed at a rate of 25-30 pounds per acre. Ryegrass will produce viable grazing from February until May. The next option would be planting a small grain variety, such as wheat. Wheat has a little more planting depth required, needing 1-1.5 inches of planting depth, so a drill may be required for successful planting. Small grains should be planted at 80-120 pounds per acre. Once this is established, you should have adequate grazing from December until April. When choosing which winter forage to provide there are many factors to consider. Rye grass tends to be more cost effective, however wheat will give you a longer grazing period. Many ranchers have success with a ryegrass/ small grain mixture, or even a rye grass legume mixture that can ultimately benefit your summer pastures due to the nitrogen fixation provided by the cool season legumes. Adding a legume to the mix will not extend your growing season however, as they are prolific from February until May. Each year about 2.5 million animals houses in shelters are euthanized because there is simply not enough homes for them. 6.5 million animals enter shelters every year, and this number is finally on the decline thanks to the rising availability of affordable spay and neuter programs. Even though this number is on the decline, we must continue to educate communities about the importance of spaying and neutering their pets to prevent unwanted litters of puppies and kittens. Did you know that is 6 years one female dog on her offspring can have produced as many as 67,000 puppies? A female cat can have produced 370,000 kittens! Spaying and neutering your pet has been linked in extended life span, due to the decrease risk of specific types of cancer. The benefits of these procedures are evident, but the cost of these procedures can be an issue for many families, especially if they have multiple pets. The Cass County 4-H Youth Council has decided to work with Dark Horse Coffee, of Linden, Texas in order to help reduce the financial burden of having pets spayed or neutered. Your 4-H club has the opportunity to participate too! Dark Horse Coffee will provide your club with ceramic planters and paint. Your club and decorate the planters and once plants are established in them, they will be for sale in the coffee shop. The proceeds from the sale of these planters will go into an account to pay for spay and neuter procedures of animals in Cass County. If you club is interested in participating, please email [email protected]. 4-H contests, including livestock shows fall under the same restrictions that UIL activities do! This means that if you are not passing your classes at school, you are unable to participate in activities.
To ensure that all of our 4-H members are taking care of their academic business, any student who is going to be participating in a contest of any type, needs to submit and eligibility form to the 4-H office at the end of each grading period. If you don’t have the form, please email [email protected] to have one sent to you. If you are ineligible due to grades, your eligibility will not be renewed until the next progress check. You will need to submit a form stating this at this time be able to participate. This is especially important for our livestock exhibitors, because if you don’t submit the form, you will not be allowed to show. The livestock industry is always under scruitany so as producers of the safest and most affordable food system in the world, we are working to educate our youth to continue these practices. One of the many ways that we teach our youth how to continue our tradition is through our Youth Livestock program.
To ensure that our youth are being taught the safest and most effective practices of producing our world's food supply, Texas Youth Livestock Exhibitors are required to complete the Quality Counts program. This program has been in place for several years, however this year it is getting a face lift. Along with a new look, the curriculum will also require a self paced course that requires mandatory completion prior to taking the test. In addition to Quality Counts verification, the Texas Livestock Validation group also requires each exhibitor and their parents to complete an Ethics Form. You definitely need to read this form before you sign it to ensure that you fully understand the standards our exhibitors are being held to because if you do not concede to the policy, your validation could be cancelled. The ethics policy ensures the following- 1. All livestock projects must be under the supervision of an Agricultural Science Teacher or a County Extension Agent. This means that you need to make sure to schedule your project visits. 2. The livestock project must remain in the exhibitors care. The youth should be responsible for the primary care of the animal. This also means that if the animal leaves your care, you need to get your AST or CEA's approval. They will need to know when the animal left your care and when you anticipate the return of the animal. 3. You are allowed to show your animal at other shows, however if it sells at a show, you are not allowed to show it again. This is really important for Cass County since our show is in the Fall, before the spring majors. 4. Exhibitors and their parents need to be honest when showing. This means that you are truthful about the ownership and age of the animal project, no matter what! 5. Livestock Exhibitors are to use only ethical fitting practices. This is outlined in great detail in the ethics policy, but essentially, you should not be artificially modifying the look of your animal project. 6. Exhibitors and their parents are responsible for reading and abiding by the guidelines of each individual show that they enter, so make sure that you take the time to read the rules. 7. Exhibitors must have a quality counts verification number to enter any Texas Major Livestock shows. |
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August 2022
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