Tomorrow is the first day of the county fair, the first county fair our eldest child is participating in as a 4H Kindergarten, Cloverbud. Ever since school got out we have been working with this calf for his Cloverbud project. Notice I said we? Yep, my son and of course my husband and I have to be just as committed, actually more than our 4H member. A 5-year old is pretty limited on capabilities involving halter breaking.
Now I grew up on a dairy farm and showed dairy cattle as a Cloverbud for exactly one year. However, I went on showing cattle until I graduated from college in the open class dairy arena. I took part in county and district dairy shows for years where I would work several head of cattle to show. Needless to say, I had developed a strong passion for showing cattle yet I can’t say it was due to 4H rather than a passion for working with dairy cattle. My childhood memories of 4H were very haunting and intimidating. Meetings were not informative on my passion and I felt very uncomfortable as I was on the spot during meetings. So I dropped the 4H part and learned showing from friends, neighbors who showed dairy cattle. It wasn’t until I discovered my passion for agriculture would lead me to a predominately, agricultural 4 year university that the hauntings of 4H would come back. The regrets I had for not having the 4H background all my college friends held was unsettling. I was certain 4H participation would have provided me with stronger communication skills. So when our son was born and began to show interest in all things farming, I decided we needed to get him involved in 4H.
I wasn’t prepared for the world of 4H parents. The thing is I had already been witnessing through my job and I also had some vivid memories of parents at the fair from years past. The reality of 4H is that parents are heavily involved from work load to financial responsibilities and sometimes they may offer a little too much input. It truly is no different than the parents coaching softball every weekend and wanting their kid to be the best player ever. Only add some animals with feed and supplies, along with about a years worth of projects and demonstrations into 5 days. Don’t forget there are still the normal chores at home to do too and you should probably take the week off from work. Yes the realities of being a 4H parent, no wonder most of them look cranky! I think as the parent we see a value in our children participating in 4H and the fair and that value is so tremendous we allow this week of the year to reign a little havoc on us.
The reality of 4H is these kids have spent the past several months if not most of a year, preparing animals or projects for this week. What would they have been doing or what else could they do that would teach them responsibility if it weren’t for their involvement in 4H? I give special kudos to the kids who take on livestock projects that don’t live on a working livestock farm. The extra commitment involved in that situation is noteworthy. As a beef producer we should be telling these kids thank you for taking time to learn about my industry and for teaching the general public about cattle while you are at the fair. If it be at the State Fair in a few weeks, or this week at the county fair please do our industry proud. And to you mom and dad, hang in there, these kids are miles ahead of the kids playing softball all summer or the kids who aren’t involved in anything. I have witnessed this many time as a 4H judge. I always walk away thinking wow, where are these amazing kids all year? Oh yeah, they are at home working with their fair projects!
As a rookie 4H parent, bring it on! If my kids pick up half of what some of these 4H kids have in work ethic and communication skills I will chalk it up to this being a successful stressing moment. All that matters now is the fair box is loaded in the pickup with care, in hopes that feed and bedding is already at the fair, the calf is nestled all snug in the barn, while visions of my husband stressing will be here all week long!