ATHABASCA — Horses and cows and chickens, oh my!
May 14 is 4-H Skills Achievement Day and all the area clubs, from Boyle to Colinton will be joining the Thundering Hooves equine group at the Athabasca Ag grounds to show off their projects and answer any questions people may have.
“They decided to do just a showcase to have the members create little stalls for each project and let people see what the project is all about,” said district 4-H president Robyn Jackson. “And we want the community to come out and be at this event so that they can see that 4-H isn’t just about cattle, and you can do a lot of different other things in the program.”
Starting at 10 a.m. there will be a silent auction fundraiser and a luncheon for everyone to enjoy as well as games for anyone who wants to take part.
“There's going to be beef, heifers, carcass steers, sheep, canine, swine, equine and the members will be doing a presentation on their project and telling people what it's about and what they had to do to take care of them, feed them and all that kind of stuff,” said Jackson. “And all the 4-H criteria that they do within 4-H, they'll be showcasing that and just letting people see what it's all about.”
And no, a carcass steer isn’t the carcass of a steer hanging from the rafters.
“They'll be able to talk about the carcass project and the purpose of it and how it's different than the market beef,” she said. "It's more about the meat aspect of it than the showing and the grooming and all that kind of stuff.”
Beef Achievement Day
Beef Achievement Day June 6 will provide an opportunity to buy some beef on the hoof.
“Monday, June 6 at the Iceberg arena in Colinton and the Colinton 4-H club is hosting that one,” said Jackson. “The show starts at 11 a.m. and the sale will be at 3 p.m. and there will be 16 market steers available for sale.”
She added there will also be heifer projects and cow-calf pairs there and a couple more animal projects; rabbit and poultry set up just like little stalls at the Life Skills Achievement day.
“We try to encourage members to look at other projects,” said Jackson. "Boyle has always been beef or sheep (but) back in the day they did sewing and clothing and stuff like that.”
4-H isn't just about cattle, she said.
“There's all these other different things you can do,” she said. "And the other thing too is finding leaders to do those projects because if you don't have a leader then you can't have the project.”
To sign up as a leader or keep track of what events are going on, use the website www.4hab.com.
