Thurston County 4-H News
May 2017
Nebraska Extension - Thurston County
Stacey Keys, 4-H Assistant, stacey.keys@unl.edu
Email: thurston-county@unl.edu
Website: thurston.unl.edu
Location: 415 Main Street, P.O. Box 665, Pender, NE 68787
Phone: 402-385-6041
Facebook: facebook.com/UNLExtensionThurston/
Twitter: @UNLThurstonCty
Upcoming Dates
May 1 - Drop/Add 4-H Projects DUE
May 4 - Favorite Foods & Presentation Contest Registration DUE
May 8 - Thurston County 4-H Council Meeting
May 11 - Favorite Foods & Presentation Contest @ Pender (7:00 pm)
May 11 - Northeast Regional 4-H Speech Contest Registration DUE
May 12 - Horse: County ID DUE & District & State Entries DUE
May 25 - Northeast Regional 4-H Speech Contest @ Norfolk (2:00 pm)
May 29 - Office Closed - Memorial Day
May 31 - Dakota-Thurston County Sheep & Goat Weigh-In @ Fairgrounds (6-8 pm)
June 9 - Ponca Day Registration DUE
June 12 - Joint 4-H Council Meeting @ Dakota City (7:00 pm)
June 12 - District Horse Show - Lexington
June 13 - District Horse Show - Taylor
June 14 - District Horse Show - Wayne
June 15 - All Livestock Affidavits DUE
June 15 - Quality Assurance Deadline
June 15 - Ak-Sar-Ben Sheep, Swine, Goat & Feeder Calf DNA DUE
June 19 - Ponca Counselor Training
June 19 - District Horse Show - Hemingford
June 20 - Ponca Day Camp @ Ponca State Park
June 20 - District Horse Show - Lincoln
June 26-27 - PASE/Life Challenge @ UNL
July 4 - Office Closed - 4th of July Holiday
July 10 - Thurston County 4-H Council Meeting
July 16-20 - State Horse Show @ Fonner Park, Grand Island
July 19 - ALL Dakota-Thurston County Pre-Fair Entries DUE
July 26 - 4-H Clothing Day Judging @ Emerson
July 29 - Pre-Fair Clean Up
July 30 - Aug 1 - Pre-Fair Judging Shows
Need to Know
Summer Workshops
Workshop Scholarships for 4-H Members
Nebraska 4-H/Nebraska FFA License Plate
Nebraska Youth Range Camp - June 5-9
The 54th Nebraska Youth Range Camp will be held June 5 – 9, 2017 at the Nebraska State 4-H Camp in Halsey.
Eligible students need to be between the ages of 14 – 18. We are accepting applications online this year and they can be found at http://www.nesrm.org/YouthRangeCamp.html . More information about Range Camp can be found there as well!
The fee for students to attend is $200 but every student should be able to get reimbursed for all or part of their fee by their local Natural Resource District, FFA Chapter, 4-H group, or local businesses. To find contact information for your NRD, please visit https://www.nrdnet.org/nrds/find-your-nrd .
The Nebraska Youth Range Camp consists of a four-and-a-half day dynamic curriculum that appeals to students with a wide array of interests including, but not limited to, rangeland management, conservation, ecology, animal science, and wildlife. With over 50 years to perfect and evolve this curriculum, every student, no matter what prior experience they have, will learn substantial information that will help them become more aware of Nebraska’s most prevalent landuse; rangelands. The students that attend this camp will be actively involved with field activities, lectures, hand-on experience, and recreational leadership and team-building activities that are all led by up to 20 of Nebraska’s most respected and dedicated leaders, teachers, and professionals from various agencies, colleges, and universities. Each student will be sent home with a binder that is filled with educational materials.
Please direct questions to Shelly Kelly (Range Camp Co-Director) at shelly@sandhillstaskforce.org or 308-214-0065.
4-H Clover Chase: A Nebraska 150 Event Starts March 1
Nebraska 4-H, in partnership with the Nebraska 4-H Foundation, is celebrating the Nebraska Statehood 150 with the 4-H Clover Chase!
Between March 1 - August 15, 2017, Nebraska 4-H will be hosting a photo scavenger hunt for all 4-H members. Using an app, participants will complete challenges and submit photo entries on social media using #NE4HChase. After submitting photos and earning 150 points, participants will be eligible to receive a commemorative water bottle from their local Nebraska Extension Office and will be entered into a drawing to win a drone with video capability. The Nebraska Extension Office with the highest percentage of participation wins a free National Youth Science Day kit!
Complete details about the 4-H Clover Chase can be found at http://4h.unl.edu/clover-chase. Celebrate Nebraska’s Statehood, and Nebraska 4-H, by participating in this fun-filled opportunity with your friends, club, or family!
Dakota-Thurston County Fair UPDATES!
The Exhibit Hall will have AC this year.
The Fair Board is also looking to set up a schedule for each 4-H Club or Staff to do a short shift in the information window of the Fair Office. Let the Extension Office know if you're interested.
Lower Elkhorn NRD offers Scholarships to attend 4-H & NRD Camps
The Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District (LENRD) is accepting applications for 4-H & NRD summer camp scholarships from youth throughout the 15-county district. The LENRD will reimburse the winning applicants for their camp registration fee.
Scholarships are available for various 4-H and NRD sponsored camps around the state, including the Nebraska Range Youth Camp, and the Adventure Camp about the Environment (ACE Camp).
4-H scholarship winners must register for the camp of their choice, arrange for their own transportation and pay all fees. The LENRD will reimburse the registration fee after the scholarship winners send camp attendance verification to the LENRD office.
Any 4-H member who would like to apply for these scholarships should contact their local Extension office for more information and an application form. All applications must be received by Friday, May 26th. 4-H scholarship winners will be notified the week of May 29th.
For more information, and a complete listing of all area camps, visit the University of Nebraska Extension 4-H web site at: www.4h.unl.edu.
To complete the registration form, contact the Thurston Extension Office.
Save the Date for Ponca Day Camp
Member Information
Favorite Foods Revue Contest
Please pre-register if you want to participate by calling the office (402-385-6014) or email Stacey (stacey.keys@unl.edu) by May 4th.
Presentation Contest
Please pre-register by calling the office (402-385-6041) or email Stacey (stacey.keys@unl.edu) with the following information by May 4th.
Registration Information:
Name
4-H Age (as of January 1, 2017)
Title of Presentation
Type of Presentation (Poster, power-point, multi-media)
Check attached flyer for more information.
National 4-H - "Raise Your Hand"
- Raise Your Hand – Complete the form at http://4-h.org/raise-your-hand to show your pride as a 4‑H alum.
- Compete for your state – Raising your hand is a vote towards a $20,000, $10,000 or $5,000 award for the states with the most alumni hands raised.
- Pay it Forward – Tweet, post and share your #4HGrown experience or support and tag fellow alumni asking them to raise their hands for their state at http://4‑H.org/RaiseYourHand.
With every alumni hand that is raised, Nebraska 4-H has the opportunity to receive $20,000, $10,000 or $5,000 from National 4-H Council.
Citizenship Washington Focus Trip - 2018
If you will be 14 and not older than 18 on or before December 31, 2017, you are eligible to participate in the trip. This trip is a multi-county trip of 4-Hers in the Northeast Extension District. The tentative dates of the trip are Thursday, June 7 through Saturday, June 16, 2018. These are tentative as schedules may change, but based on trips we have taken in the past, we try to book similar dates every three years.
Please indicate you are interested in participating in this trip by completing the bottom portion of the Registration/Information Sheet (found here: http://go.unl.edu/uein) and returning it to the Nebraska Extension Office in Wayne County on or before June 1, 2017, along with a check for $350 made payable to University of Nebraska - Lincoln. We are estimating the total cost the best we can based on airfare and bus rates.
This trip includes stops in many historical places on the East Coast as well as a six night stay at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland. 4-Hers learn about our National government during workshops at the National 4-H Center and will visit most of the popular sites in the Washington DC area.
Consumer & Family Sciences
2017 Life Challenge
The 2017 Life Challenge contest will be held on June 26-27, 2017, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus Union.
The Life Challenge contests encourage youth to explore and study family and consumer sciences project manuals and UDSA/ NIH/CDC or other cooperative extension websites and other government related resources . Youth will then apply their knowledge to the various Life Challenge contests listed below. The main purpose of this event is to help young people apply their knowledge of family and consumer sciences to everyday situations to enable them to be capable citizens.
The following areas are components of family and consumer sciences:
- Foods and nutrition
- Clothing and textiles
- Design/housing/home environment
- Child and human development
- Personal finance
2017 Culinary Challenge Contest
Continuing Education
4-H Seniors - Don't Forget 4-H!
Nebraska 4-H Foundation Scholarships 2017
All scholarship applications must be submitted to pjeffries1@unl.edu.
2017 Scholarships Available:
- Tom Holman Scholarship (due September 23)
For guidelines and more information, please visit our scholarship guidelines and application form.
More information can be found at http://ne4hfoundation.org/recognition/.
Plant Science
2017 Online Horticulture Contest
The 2017 Nebraska 4-H Online Horticulture Judging contest is just around the corner. This year the contest will be available from June 9th at 8:00 a.m. until June 19th at 8:00 a.m. It is composed of three parts; general knowledge questions, plant part and seed identification, as well as a judging portion. It is open to all 4-H youth, as well as adults, and even Extension individuals. No password needed, the link listed below will take you directly to the contest.
http://go.unl.edu/2017onlinehortcontest
Please have the youth fill in all of their information completely. The online contest should only be taken once by each participant, if it is taken multiple times the first score entered will be the one used. No study materials are to be used while taking the test. The contest will allow an opportunity for the participant to review the answers prior to submitting. Once submitted, the participants will see their score, but they will not be able to see which questions they missed. After the contest has ended, the participants can request to see their scores and their answers. If this is your county contest and you need the scores from individuals in your county(ies), please let me know and I can forward them to you once the contest is done.
Study Materials for the Online Horticulture Judging Contest and the State 4-H Horticulture Judging Contest held during State Fair are the same and they can be found at:
http://4h.unl.edu/fairbook/plant-science/horticulture-id
http://njha.org/contests-projects-activities/horticulture-identification-judging-contest/
Animal Science
2017 Animal Exhibitor Handbook is Now Available
Beef-Swine-Goat-Sheep-A-Rama
Beef-A-Rama & Swine-A-Rama, Saturday, May 27, 2017
Goat-A-Rama & Sheep-A-Rama, Sunday, May 28, 2017
For more information: http://extension.unl.edu/statewide/boone-nance/
Nebraska Youth Pork Conference
The Nebraska Youth Pork Conference, “Makin’ Bacon … and a WHOLE Lot More!” has been rescheduled for Wednesday, May 31 through Friday, June 2. Attached, you’ll find a flyer that you can be used to promote the event. We conducted a pilot of this program in December of 2015, and the youth who participated were extremely complimentary and excited about the program. I hope you will be willing to advertise this conference through your various newsletters and encourage your youth to apply, particularly those who have an interest in the swine industry, food or meat science, and/or culinology. Intermixed throughout the conference, youth will be engaged in interactive activities to enhance life skills including leadership and communication. There is no cost for any youth participants, as the conference is 100% funded by the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, the Nebraska Corn Board, and the Nebraska Soybean Board in addition to Animal Science and UNL Extension! As a result, we do ask that all potential youth participants apply online at http://www.nepork.org, then under the “youth” tab, select “Makin’ Bacon ..” Applications are due April 1, and we will notify those individuals selected to participate no later than April 15.
2017 Lively Livestock 4-H Sheep/Goat/Swine Jackpot Show
Cream of the Crop Dairy Cattle Show
Cuming County Fairgrounds, West Point, NE
For more information contact:
Nebraska Junior Dairy Association - Carl and Jan Aschoff, advisors
1585 River Road, West Point, NE 68788
Cell phone Carl: 402-380-2465 or Jan: 402-380-4461
Email: carlaschoff@yahoo.com
Complete Show details can be found here: http://extension.unl.edu/statewide/thurston/AnimalExhibitors/AreaShows/2017/Cream%20of%20the%20Crop%20Dairy%20Cattle%20Show.pdf
Hustler 4-H Progress Show
Cuming County Fairgrounds, West Point, NE
Swine - Sheep - Cattle - Goats
Swine & Goat Check-in 7:00-9:00 a.m.
Sheep Check-in 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Cattle Check-in 8:00-11:00 am.
For more information see: http://go.unl.edu/mrfr
Platte County Swine Progress Show
Check in & Registration begins at 12:00
Show starting at 1:00
(Lunch and concessions will be available)
$15 Entry Fee/Animal
$5 Showmanship Entry Fee
More information call: Jerry Osten (402-910-8509) or Jamie Meyer (402-276-7501)
Tractor Safety Training 2017
All youth aged 14 and 15 and working on a farm or ranch other than their own MUST be certified through a Hazardous Occupations Course. Successful completion of the course will allow trained youth to operate an approximately 20 PTO horsepower tractor, or to connect or disconnect an implement or any of its parts to or from a tractor. Cost: $60
Kearney Fairgrounds - May 30 & 31
Auburn Fairgrounds - June 1 & 2
Valentine Fairgrounds - June 6 & 7
North Platte WCREC - June 13 & 14
Gering Legacy Museum - June 15 & 16
Wayne Fairgrounds - June 19 & 20
Gordon Fairgrounds - June 22 (Day 1 is online)
McCook Fairgrounds - June 23 (Day 1 is online)
Grand Island College Park - July 10 & 11
Advance registration is required. More information can be found at: http://go.unl.edu/va72
3rd Annual Papio Valley Broiler Show
Elite Showman Competition at Nebraska State Fair
The Nebraska Department of Agriculture along with the Rural Radio Network will be hosting the 12th Annual Elite Showman Competition on Saturday, September 2nd at the Nebraska State Fair.
Ak-Sar-Ben Moving to State Fairgrounds in Grand Island
AKSARBEN says they will move the classic 4-H livestock show to Grand Island in order to have more space to grow the 89-year-old event.
This year, it will be held September 28 through October 1 at Fonner Park in Grand Island, in the facilities built for the Nebraska State Fair.
The 2017 AKSARBEN Show Schedule, Programs and Judges can be found at: http://www.aksarbenstockshow.com/p/events/359 Additional information can be found at: http://www.aksarbenstockshow.com/
YQCA
We are excited to announce that the new QA Curriculum called Youth for the Quality Care of Animals (YQCA) is now active. Anyone who has not registered for the LQA online course for 2017 should now navigate to the NEW online YQCA course at yqca.learngrow.io. You will use your FAMILY 4HOnline login and password information to access the courses for the ACTIVE youth in your family. Only ACTIVE members will show in the drop down menu for access to the course. All registration questions with YQCA should be directed to help@yqca.org. There will not be local support for the YQCA program. All 4-Hers need to use the 4-H tab and not the FFA tab even if they are members of both organizations. There is a button for families that have forgotten their password. 4-Hers that have started their QA training in the LQA site will be able to complete their modules and print off their certificate of completion and take it to their Extension Office. The YQCA site is user friendly and should make it easy for 4-H families to complete their QA training for this year.
Youth Livestock Projects and the VFD Regulation
Effective January 1, 2017, all livestock producers that use antibiotic medicated feeds to prevent, treat or control animal health issues will be required to get a written order or directive from a Veterinarian to purchase and feed these feeds. The regulation will only affect antibiotics administered in feed or water for livestock.
Antibiotics are important to both human medicine and animal health, to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance in both areas; producer must follow the FDA Approved Labels. These labels determine what animal health issues can be treated with that specific antibiotic, dosage and proper administration.
The first step youth producers should take is to develop a Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship by visiting with their veterinarian. Within this discussion, producers need to review their herd/flock health plan and evaluate vaccinations and treatment plans for the animals they care for. If you determine that medicated feeds should be used, plan on how to acquire a VFD Order from the veterinarian.
Copies of the VFD must go to you and your feed supplier/dealer before you can purchase or feed these feeds. Youth Livestock Participants may visit with their feed supplier/dealer to plan a nutrition/feed program prior to getting their project animals to discuss if medicated feeds should be used and if a VFD is required.
For more information visit the Nebraska BQA VFD Webpage at: http://bqa.unl.edu/veterinary-feed-directive Or Contact Rob Eirich, Extension Educator/Director of Beef Quality Assurance via email at: reirich2@unl.edu
Premise ID
All State Fair exhibitors will be required to obtain a Premise ID for 2017. This will not be required for county-only exhibitor unless the county chooses to do so. Further education, in partnership with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture will be coming out by January 10th for counties to use in print form via email blasts and newsletters. These resources will explain the reasoning behind both EID and Premise ID while also giving families a step-by-step process for obtaining the Premise ID.
While that is being developed, what follows is a brief explanation on why Premise ID will be required in 2017. Also attached to this email is a rough document going through the process of obtaining a Premise ID. This document is for your reference only and a more complete resource will come out by January 10th that can be easily disseminated to youth.
- In 2016, through our partnership with NDA, we were able to obtain an exemption from USDA that did not require each exhibitor to obtain a Premise ID. Thus why each county extension office or fairgrounds has a Premise ID number.
- That exemption will not be renewable for 2017, thus requiring this step. The Premise ID Application process can be completed online. That URL will be available in the coming resources.
- Swine exhibitors, through completion of PQA, already have a Premise ID so they have already completed this step. They can continue to use the Premise ID generated through that program for other species as well.
- Cattle, Sheep, and Goat exhibitors who do not have a Premise ID will need to obtain one. In some cases, a farm or ranch may already have a Premise ID in the parents (or other relative’s name). As long as the livestock are being housed and cared for at that location, the existing Premise ID should be used.
We are well aware that there may be some not willing to comply with the Premise ID step; however, this process is vital in our youth understanding the shape of the agriculture landscape and the world economy as it is changing. Source verification programs are becoming critical, and as the world population becomes more interested in where their food is grown, Premise ID will play a major role in our youth’s future in agriculture.
While acquiring Premise ID is the choice of a family/exhibitor, those who choose not to get the Premise ID will not be able to show at State Fair or AKSARBEN. Exhibitors can contact me (bbennett8@unl.edu) and I can help to answer their questions.
2017 State Fair Livestock Fees
Species Fees Total
Breeding Beef $18+$15 $33.00
Market Beef $18+$15+$3 $36.00
Dairy $10+$15 $25.00
Market Sheep $5+$5+$3 $13.00
Breeding Sheep $5+$5 $10.00
Market Meat Goat $5+$5+$3 $13.00
Breeding Meat Goat $5+$5 $10.00
Market Swine $5+$5+$3 $13.00
Entry Fee: Beef-$18, Dairy-$10, Sheep/Goat/Swine-$5
Bedding Fee: $15 Beef/Dairy, $5 Sheep/Goat/Swine
Drug Testing Fee: $3
2017 Nebraska District 4-H Horse Shows
Reminder: All Entries for the State Horse Show must be mailed by May 12, 2017. These include Showmanship, Halter, All Cattle Classes, Hunter Hack, Dressage, Advanced Hunter Under Saddle, Hunt Seat Equitation, Western Pleasure and Horsemanship. Trail, 2 year old and 3 year old Western Pleasure and Working Ranch.
The website http://4h.unl.edu/horse has been updated with the correct information for the 2017 District and State 4-H Horse shows. There are changes to the halter classes so please be aware when looking at the entry form.
2017 4-H Horse Show Dates and Sites
- June 12th - Lexington
- June 13th - Taylor
- June 14th - Wayne
- June 19th - Hemingford
- June 20th - Lincoln
- July 16-20 - 2017 State 4-H Horse Show - Fonner Park