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Impact Report

For plan Youth Development (Grant County)
Date October 10, 2007, 8:15 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Grant County 4-H has increased participation in almost all areas this year. With an entirely new staff to the office, many new ideas have been implemented and ultimately the youth of Grant County have benefited. To substitute for weather cancellations, the Grant County 4-H Council participated in the Southwest District Officer Training, held in Soccorro. The two day event allowed officers from the district to participate in hands on team building and goal setting activities. Workshops were presented by district agents and members of the state 4-H office staff. Future plans include rotating the event around the district in future years. With knowledge gained from the District Officer Training, the Grant County 4-H Council including the 4-H Agent, held county leadership training. Twenty members from around the county attended, they were able to take leadership skills and some needed parliamentary procedure back to their clubs to help participation and organization in their club meetings. The 5 hour training was a success and will be presented annually in the future. School enrichment this year consisted of eggs-to-chicks programs, farm week presentations, citizenship programs, classroom recruitment visits, and agriculture awareness programs. Students from Harrison Schmitt Elementary, Stout Elementary, Snell Middle School, and Calvary Christian Academy were provided programs at the request of teachers and administrators. Eggs-to-chicks was the most popular program reaching 20 kindergarten and pre-k students, and 8 high school students at Calvary Christian Academy, 29 first graders at Stout Elementary, and 64 (3 separate classes) of kindergarteners at Harrison Schmitt Elementary. Previous success in hatching eggs promoted more classes to participate this year than in years past. Improvements to visual aids and new hands on diagrams helped to make difficult sections of embryology easier for young minds to understand. The program ran from March 7th to May 8th, utilizing the agent for 3 hours a week 40 hours total. Hatching success was near 50% and all chicks were returned to egg producer. The donor of eggs is already on-board for next year. Other school enrichment/ag awareness programs provided include: Citizenship at Snell Middle School in Bayard. Nearly eighty students were provided a program on being a better citizen. During the hour workshop students were first provided a definition of citizenship and then provided examples of situations on the board. They were to choose a way of handling the situation, with cause and effect type evaluations. The Cobre School district is working toward better behavior at school. This program was part of the solution. Increased enforcement and lower tolerance have helped to promote good behavior now and in the future. This Agent provided ag-awareness/animal safety programs at Stout Elementary during their Ag in the Classroom visit last spring. With support from local farmers with young animals and some displaced eggs-to-chicks, a program on animal types and breeds, and animal safety was presented in 1 hour rotations. Due to a USDA release on salmonella and small chicks minutes before the program was to begin, modifications on animal safety were added to the program. Students were given time to identify types of livestock from a coloring book, allowed to color them and from that a teachable moment on phenotypical breed characteristics allowed for a different component to the lesson. Chicks from the eggs-to-chicks program were showed to the kids, noting on the finer points of the ETC program. The lesson was finished with animal safety issues such as washing hands after handling, cleaning shoes and clothing after entering animal enclosures, and how to prevent animal sickness and disease from spreading. 4-H literature was presented to teachers for future use. This program reached 73 kindergarten students. Within the next month many of the teachers wanted to see more young farm animals and have programs on some of the facts about that particular animal. This agent gathered a piglet for them to look at. Students asked questions and topics were addressed from their questions. The 38 students were provided information on basic pig care and the importance of shade and water to not only swine but all animals. Plans for visits with farm animals are already made for the spring of 2008. Many of the students from that school are now signed up as cloverbuds and looking forward to animal projects. During any program, this agent allowed a small amount of time at the closing portion for 4-H recruitment. Teachers from all over the county agree in the importance of agriculture in education. Many teachers admit lacking the knowledge or background to teach agriculture. This has allowed for many programming opportunities and the addition of new in school 4-H clubs to take place. Currently the Calvary Christian Academy has started a 4-H club. This club is a traditional type club which meets on weekends, but through support from the school administration has allowed class time for this agent to educate on agriculture by working on 4-H project materials. The club is currently at 23 members and 1 adult leader. Hunter Safety programs were in full swing during March and April. Two classes were held in Silver City, one class at Mimbres, and one in Santa Clara. A total of 20 volunteers gave instruction on safe gun handling, hunting history, traditions, wildlife conservation, survival afield, and shooting fundamentals. This program reached 64 youth and 9 adults. Of the 73 participants, six were already enrolled in 4-H, two new members were gained from the Silver City class. The classes passed 64 of the participants, the remainder did not pass due to attendance. Grant County is very competitive, this Agent with help from office staff and FFA advisors, spent numerous hours working on judging practices. Teams that competed in livestock, wool, wildlife (FFA and 4-H), shooting sports, range plant, and horse were coached by the 4-H and Ag agent with help from the Silver High FFA Advisor in livestock. Home economics and speaking contestants were coached by the 4-H program assistant, Home economics teachers from local schools, and the Grant County Home Economist. Parliamentary procedure teams were coached by the Silver High FFA. Grant County 4-H did well with all teams competing placing in the top 3 in every contest entered at State or District. Nineteen youth participated at district contest, and 24 participated on the state level. Some honorable mentions are the Livestock Team, which will be traveling to the American Royal to compete on a national level after their 2nd place finish at state. This agent has also spent numerous hours working this year with Valencia County, they had qualified for the National Wildlife Habitat Evaluation contest held in Cedar City, Utah. With the Valencia County 4-H position open, this agent was asked to coach and travel by the Extension Wildlife Specialist who serves on the National Committee for this contest, making that individual ineligible to coach teams. Livestock is a large part of the Grant County 4-H Program. This Agent began the year by helping families to select their animals at numerous sales across the state. This agent also began project checks in early April continuing to the fair in late September. The Grant County 4-H agent is the only way you can get your animal tagged for state fair, this year tag days were set with little room for leniency with the new retinal scans on show animals. This agent and the agricultural agent are certified to collect retinal scans and hopefully will be able to teach local FFA advisors to collect retinal scans if need be. Efforts are currently underway to increase FFA advisors in helping with county livestock validations, only future years will tell. Participation held strong this year with 32 lambs, 30 swine, 15 beef, and 5 heifers traveling to state fair. 30 4-H members traveled to the state fair. At the County Fair, 114 4-H youth showed 189 swine, 70 lambs, 15 goats, 19 steers, and 6 heifers. The junior livestock sale broke an all time record with $164,000 going back to Grant County Youth. This is up 15k from last year’s sale. Overall the numbers of animals have held steady from last year, however the addition of a market goat class allowed for more diversity in our livestock project areas.