4-H News

August 13, 2015 by Staff Report

Geauga Dairymen

On Aug. 2, Geauga Dairymen 4-H Club held a meeting at the Hasting’s Dairy farm. The meeting started at 5 p.m. Members started the meeting with writing their letters to buyers for the basket. Members were supposed to bring people’s addresses so they could write them letters and tell them about the dairy basket. Each member wrote two letters to someone.

After everyone got done writing the letters, members ate pizza and donuts for dinner. They also had Brenda’s milk for drinks and juice boxes. The meeting started while people were finishing up their dinner.

The Geauga Dairymen started their meeting off by roll call. They used their favorite colors. After that, they voted on their king and queen for fair. I don’t want to ruin the surprise of who they voted for, but members wish everyone good luck.

The club also motioned to buy a new show halter. This way, no one has to spend a lot of money on their own show halter because they are very expensive. Members don’t have enough for the Hasting’s cows. Speaking of showing, club members talked about the judging. Emma gave everyone a show card for the showmanship class, which describes what the judges are looking for. It is very helpful.

Fair is coming up really soon. Members had to talk about barn setup and decided it would be Aug. 30 at 9 a.m. The club always gets food at fair and members decided this year it would be a subway tray.

There are 14 animals this year in the club’s group, which is one more then last year. Members also had to decide on what days they want barn duty. After making that big decision, they made an even bigger one. Instead of the kelly green shirts, they decided on hot pink shirts. The letters are going to be white outlined in black. There is also going to be a quote on the back of the shirt – “Rough hands, farmers tan. Dirty boots, country roots.”

The last big decision club members made of the night was to buy a power washer for washing the cows at fair. Members wash the cows every day and it will go a lot faster with the machine. It was a very fun meeting and the group got a lot done.

For more information about Geauga Dairymen 4-H Club, contact Emma Niehus at 440-221-3812. (Submitted by Lizzie Knopp, news reporter)

Field to Plate 4-H Experience

Geauga County 4-H’ers took an amazing field trip exploring many different agricultural relevant locations. The first stop was an equine specialty hospital in Burton. Here, the 4-H’ers took a tour of the facility, seeing the surgery room and also a specialized water treadmill that is used for rehabilitation and exercise purposes.

Next stop was a miscanthus farm in Pierport. They were able to learn about miscanthus, which is a crop that has many different purposes, one of which is paper products such as Chipotle bowls. The 4-H’ers saw the miscanthus in the field and also learned about the tools used to cultivate it.

The 4-H’ers boarded the bus and were off to the Linesville Fish Hatchery, where they were able to see tons of growing walleye fish.

The last stop was the Linesville Spillway in Linesville, Pa. The group brought bags of bread and fed the many carp.

It was a fun opportunity to learn more about different aspects of agriculture. Thank you to the Geauga County 4-H Advisory Committee and the Geauga County Farm Bureau who made the wonderful trip possible. (Respectfully submitted by Maggie Kinkopf)