Goat Project

Quality Assurance

When: May 12th at 6:00PM

Where: Victor Weed District 121 Tudor Street, Victor (old fire hall building)

Who: Members must become Quality Assurance certified once between the ages of 8-13 (as of October 1) and once again between the ages of 14-18 (as of October 1).

Weigh-in

When: May 26th

Where: Ravalli County Fairgrounds

Sheep Project

Quality Assurance:

Weigh-in:

Swine Project

Quality Assurance

When: Thursday, April 29, 2021 @ 6:00 PM

Where: First Interstate Building, Ravalli County Fairgrounds

Who: Members must become Quality Assurance certified once between the ages of 8-13 (as of October 1) and once again between the ages of 14-18 (as of October 1).

Weigh-In

When: Saturday, May 15th from 8:00 AM- 12:00 PM

Where: Ravalli county Fairgrounds 

Spring weigh-in this year will only be offered as an in-person format with members required to bring their animals to the fairgrounds to be tagged and weighed. The only exception to this is if you have a swine breeding operation, in which case you need to contact me for details prior to the scheduled weigh-in at the fairgrounds.

Jr. Swine Barn Superintendents

This program will be open to youth ages 13+ as of October 1 and there will be an application process in order to be selected. The Jr. Swine Barn Superintendents will help assist the Swine Barn Superintendents with various duties both leading up to the fair and during the fair. Applications will be available beginning April 1, 2021 at the Extension Office or by emailing Brenda Beard at beardlivestock@gmail.com and must be postmarked or emailed NO later than April 30, 2021 to submit a completed application. All further information and directions are on the application.

Please feel free to call Brenda Beard with any questions at 361-1120.

Marias Fair Judging invitational

When: Sunday, May 16 Registration starts at 12:30, with judging starting at 1:00 and awards by 5:00

Location: Marias Fairgrounds Shelby, MT 

What: 10 classes – beef, sheep, swine, goat, and a surprise. Reasons will be given on 4 classes. Individual and Team awards will be given for junior (8-13) and senior (14-18) age categories.

Who: All 4-H and FFA members

Registration info & Form

Fees: $5 per participant, payable to Toole County 4-H

Registration Due: By Friday, May 14

Families are encouraged to have realistic conversations about the time and other resources that animal projects require. Animal projects will take a minimum of one hour daily to care for the basic needs, such as feeding, watering and vet care of the animal. Market beef projects typically start in November or December and continue through until July or August. Pig, sheep and goat market projects start in April or May and continue through July or August. Training and preparing an animal for show will take several additional hours per day. Breeding projects are a year-round commitment for both the member and family.

Rules and Regulations (updates for current 4-H year coming soon)

The Livestock Committee developed Rules and Regulation for each of the Livestock Project areas to help members know what to expect throughout the year and at fair. Download your specific project Rules and Regulations for the Fair. Please print from the following links.  These are also available at the Extension Office.

Quality Assurance 

For any animal project, large or small. Guidelines for a 4-H or FFA member will be required to take QA two times:
  1. once for youth 13 and under and
  2. once for youth 14 and over. 
For Market projects, Quality Assurance must be completed prior to sale.
 
If you need youth Livestock Quality Assurance training for 2020, there is an inline pathway for you to complete that this year. We do not know when we will be able to have face to face meetings this spring or summer, but we do have this option for you to complete.
 
1)      Go to this link on the internet.  https://www.healthyagriculture.org/training/youth-4-h/
 
On this website you will find four interactive modules for Quality Assurance and biosecurity in your livestock projects. Follow along with each of the four modules, and complete the activities on each one.
 
2)      When you are done, go to this link:  https://forms.gle/SeJzmRCUCjnmBfCcA
When you get done with the QA modules, this link is a registration form documenting completion. After you complete the modules, go to the website and fill this out, and have an adult also sign that they agree, you did the four modules. That will certify you for QA this year.

Weigh In

In order for you to show your market animal for sale at the Ravalli County Fair, it must be tagged and weighed in.  Read the 4-H newsletter for event details.

We will be doing a self-tagging for market lambs, swine, and goats for the Spring weigh-in this year. You will be able to pick up tag(s) and a tagger at the Extension office in Hamilton May 5th – May 27th. There will be a $25.00 deposit for the ear tagger and it will be returned to you once the tagger and your paper work are returned to the Extension office. We have limited taggers available, so they will have to be returned promptly so that all members can use them if needed. You may tag in multiple market animals, just as in all other years.
 
An information sheet must accompany each market animal that you weigh in. Two forms / member (on same page) were included with the letter sent you to last week. If you need paperwork, please call us at the Extension Office. This information sheet must be completely filled out once your animals(s) have been tagged and it must be turned in to the Extension office by 5pm May 27th.
 
This paperwork can be dropped off at the Extension office during business hours, or mailed to the office at: Ravalli County 4-H, 215 S. 4th St. Suite G, Hamilton, MT 59840.
If you need help tagging an animal you can call the species Superintendents, a club project leader, or Patrick at the Extension Office, and we will come help you. 
 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Montana State University and Montana State University Extension prohibit discrimination in all of their programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital and family status. Issued in furtherance of cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cody Stone, Director of Extension, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717.