4-H Clubs

[Muttley]

Just wondering how popular 4-H clubs are in other areas of AB. In this area there are a couple of very active Beef clubs, with a membership that remains steady. In an area a few miles away there is a multi-club which includes beef, small motors and canine.
Many of our area young adults have stayed in 4-H until they graduated from High School. They always seem to make it back for achievement day, to encourage the younger members.
Our family has been through both Horse and Beef 4-H. Done the bawling when the first steer was sold, and had the rope burns from the first attempt at halter breaking, but it was a great time for parents and kids and even grandparents.

[cowman]

I wouldn't let my kids join the beef clubs but other than that I believe 4H is an excellent social club and a good way to make connections that could last a lifetime. Example: One of the companies I do some contract work for is owned and operated by a guy I met through 4H when we were both boys. We were friends long before we ever got into a business deal.
The reason I don't like the beef clubs is it teaches the kids the wrong thing about the beef business? That it is okay to lose money on a steer and its who you know, not how good of a job you do, that determines what kind of price you get! All right for the purebred business, but not the reality of commercial production?
Now having said all that against the beef 4H...I will admit I loved it and had a ball! But then my old man had the connections and he used us kids to advertize his product! Don't blame him one bit...it was just good business.

[cowman]

4-H teaches the members how to run a proper business meeting, and also how to keep records and do public speaking plus a lot more. I agree that it doesn't necessarly provide a hard dose of real life when it comes to selling their project at the end of the year but I do think that 4-H Beef Clubs give the members a good understanding of feeding an animal, basic animal health knowledge etc., plus any members taking females learn a lot about genetics, calving and care and feeding of a bred female. I am not a fan of 4-H horse clubs because I have seen some of them focus on how fancy the tack is and how much the horse costs vs teaching basic horsemanship.
I know that it isn't fair to see the less than top end steer sell for three times as much as one that is a much better animal, but we all know it happens. In our area, lots of parents work in oil related businesses so have access to some pretty good corporate support.

[blackjack]

...emrald I agree its alot more than just looking after the animal ...I think its great how the kids today seem to get up in front of a crowd and seem so relaxed... cowman I would have to admit I am guilty of encouraging the kids to do 4-H to see how the calves would grow... but I would have to add it doesn't take long for the kids to know which calves in the herd are the best... the older the kids have got the more they like the money which the majority of it goes for their future education ...

[blackjack]

blackjack, a lot of young adults in my community have paid for a large part of their post secondary education with the dollars they saved over the years from selling their steer projects .
You are correct, the 4-H experience shines through when people are called upon to speak in public.

[cakadu]

I hope to continue to be a 4-H speaking judge - it was great the first year I did it. The ability to learn to speak in front of people is a great tool to have and will serve a person in many walks of life.

Unfortunately for me, I was too much of a sports fanatic in my younger days and my parents were of the opinion that it was one or the other, I couldn't do both, so the sports one out. Team sports do teach you a lot as well, just not how to speak in public. Heckling is another matter though! ;-)

[cakadu]

I have been a public speaking judge several times over the years and the ability of even the youngest members amazes me.
Our farm began sponsoring awards for our local beef club when it began, and this year marks the 25th anniversary of the club. It has been a real pleasure watching the successes that many of the members have had over the years. We always sponsored the award for the outstanding first year member, that way our award goes to a different member each year.

[grassfarmer]

It's been good to see the strong support the 4H clubs have in Canada. I was heavily involved in "young farmers" in Scotland, same idea but with some differences. There the age range was 14-28 but the entire organisation was run right up to National level by the young people themselves. It was a good lesson in committe work, organisation and resposibility. A calf project wasn't a feature of our organisation but there were cattle shows for members cattle - at a very high standard too. We did the speechmaking, cattle fitting,farm safety,sheep shearing, stockjudging as well as lots of sport competitions. One advantage I see in Canada is that with the younger ages you have here the girls maybe tend to remain in the organisation and retain their rural roots - in Scotland as soon as our girls could drive a lot of them took jobs in the city and never came back to the country - a sad sign of the times when agriculture and rural areas are in decline. Speechmaking was by far the most beneficial thing we did - especially as is was not in the school curriculum in my day - it's made for many good industry leaders and I'm sure that will be the case in Canada too.

[grassfarmer]

In the clubs I have been associated with and those that I am familiar with locally, the girls outnumber the boys in the Senior level. This may not be the case in other areas.
The opportunity exists for young adults in university or college to remain active in 4-H until they are 21. The multi clubs allow non farm young people, to be involved with canine, small motors etc., although I would think that beef clubs are the most common.