# HELP & SUGGESTIONS!



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Alright guys n'gals I could really use some ideas...
Back in May the 4-H Livestock club & poultry club participated in the 1st ever Ag Day event at a local Catholic elementary/middle school and it was a huge success, so they have asked to make it an annual event!
Last year families volunteered to do it, and we worked on things outside of the 4-H meetings.
This year we're trying to get all of the kids involved whether they show/raise livestock or are doing the country ham project (cure a ham & write a speech). Honestly more than half of the club are probably country ham kids.
We had tents set up in a U and each station had different animals - goats, horse, beef cattle, alpacas, sheep, poultry, then other things like fiber, soil, feed and a couple of walk through blow up tunnels with information about soil and I know I am forgetting something

I've been asked to over see goats/sheep, and the kids are supposed to present a poster and information at the Feb 24th meeting - talk and learn about them. Well, I admit, I know nothing about sheep really, so I am hoping to get a senior 4-H member on board to lead that as she is super knowledgeable and would be perfect for it.

The biggest issue is we haven't started on this at all, only asked the kids which station they'd be interested in participating in. 
I'm going to suggest to our agent that either the regular meetings get slimmed back to 40 minutes, and add an extra 20 minutes to give the kids 40 minutes of ag day work time, because otherwise I don't know how he is expecting the kids to get this done - it needs to be the kids putting it together not me!

So the reason I am posting is... I'd love ideas on bringing the world of goats to the 4-H kids so they in turn can teach the Ag Day kids about goats! Sadly they only get 10 minutes maybe 15 tops. 
Last year they talked about the myth 'do goats eat everything?' between our 2 families we had some different Boer goats/ages/colors there and the kids got to spend a few minutes petting them and asking questions which of course is a big hit.

The hardest thing is coming up with a topic! The kids struggled with this last spring. The kids will take turns talking and presenting animals who will be in pens. 
My daughter, and my friends 2 kids really want to talk about Boer goats which is what we all raise, and showing. So I'm not sure if we should just let them take off with that idea, and then have a poster to represent Dairy goat breeds/uses?

My daughter and I made this poster for her to display at the state fair this summer when we attended the ABGA show. I'm wondering... if maybe the kids should make something similar to this one, that includes facts, breed standards and pictures of them showing, then they could display the poster at the state fair next summer? it wouldn't be a 1 time use?









That poster got soooo many views from people stopping to read it. Totally worth the time to see people interested as they walked through the building at state fair.
But instead of farm name the kids would put our county name 4-H ?

I also plan on making a hand out with information about goats in general/facts and on the back side about showing in 4-H and different ways to show (meat/dairy) with contact information if they have any questions.
I did this last year and they turned out great.

Last year the state sheep & goat assn. donated some stuff and included some coloring books which were copies/printed, but still very nice. I'd love to find something like that again, but not the exact same thing they got last year.

Any ideas would be great to make this another successful event! We've considered trying to reach out to our county schools to get them involved in having an ag day.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

If you only have 10 or 15 minutes to speak, I would keep it simple and maybe figure out what would keep the attention of the kids.


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