Ohio State Fair visitors who stop to have a seat in the stands during one of the event?s many youth livestock exhibitions will have plenty to see. Sure, spectators will notice the livestock, but it is the dedicated youth in the livestock barns that are worth the time to watch. Any passerby will undoubtedly witness young people from around the state demonstrating a level of sportsmanship, hard work and camaraderie with their peers that are too-often absent in other parts of society.
These high quality young people are not there by accident or coincidence. The character of the young people in the show ring at the Ohio State Fair has been shaped over many months and years of work in the barn, wins and losses and countless livestock-related events and activities.
?Every time I finish judging a show, I always like to remind people that we are not here using kids to make better livestock, we are using livestock to make better kids. That is really what it comes down to,? said Hank LeVan, Ohio State University Livestock Judging Team coach. ?The young kids that get involved in extra-curriculars in the animal science field just become better people. They are easier to employ and it is easier for them to apply for college or scholarships. People want to work with people who are able to handle different things in life and the people with an agricultural background I think are very well received.?
The show ring is obviously a very important avenue for young people to be involved with livestock and that involvement opens up a myriad of additional opportunities for learning, character building and leadership development.
?Junior livestock showing has really exploded in the last five years here in Ohio and there are more hands-on clinics now within the show industry that allow kids to get more hands-on education and involvement with professionals,? LeVan said. ?Many families have been very supportive because it gives them more of an inside track and getting more young people involved in animal agriculture allows us to build upon what we?ve got so far.?
The Ohio Beef Expo Judging Contest had almost 500 participants.
One example was the Ohio Beef Expo this spring where youth exhibitors participated in cattle judging.
?Our judging contest at the Ohio Beef Expo had almost 500 kids in it. That was a huge event. We moved it up a day and made it on a school day and had more kids than we ever had,? LeVan said. ?I?ve also got to work with events like Beef 509 and Quality Assurance and the Sheep 509, the Ohio State University Livestock Judging Camp, the Showpig.com All Star Camp, and the No Show Lamb Show. I think the biggest thing with youth education, to make a long story short, is that they are our future. I was in their shoes 10 years ago participating in 4-H and FFA events and now I?m here educating those young people. Youth are the people who are going to make decisions for us in the future and the more we can do to help them understand and the more we involve them the better off we will be.?
Through interest generated by showing livestock, these kinds of youth-targeted events help take leadership development to the next level. The Livestock Judging Camp, for example, dealt with the mechanics of judging different species, but also included team building and leadership activities. The June Showpig.com All Star Camp, held in Columbus, also featured extensive programming to help prepare participants for life including developing an understanding of the food chain from farm to fork, visiting a commercial hog operation, touring a vet clinic, and learning the business side of the show pig industry.
?We wanted to try and give something back and try to do it in a different way and impact young people,? said Kevin Wendt of Showpig.com. ?We?ve been very fortunate to have our staff get behind it. Lots of volunteers get behind it and really take this thing to a whole new level. We?ve really got young people here from coast to coast and the intent down the road is to build this into something where they can go back home regionally and then get other young people involved in the hog industry, but then also move up the line through service and projects and helping your community. That was our goal and it has worked very well.?
The No Show Lamb Show was a one-day event put on by the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association (OSIA) LEAD Council in late April at Ohio State University designed to educate young sheep exhibitors and their families about the Ohio sheep industry.
?We couldn?t have asked for a better turn out. This is a well-rounded event with a lot of opportunities for the kids. We had 286 in attendance, which was up significantly,? said Lisa Shearer, co-chair of the event. ?We had six sessions and we did offer some opportunities for parents to sit in some sessions. We wanted to give parents good information about how the shows run and what to expect about the weigh-in process or the rules and the drug use notification forms at livestock shows. We wanted it to be a family event so parents would come and get involved right along side of their kids.?
The program included a broad look at Ohio sheep production.
?Going into this event we really wanted it to be all about the kids. We wanted it to be very educational and informative and expose them to some things that they might not have the opportunity to see. We wanted to include breeding sheep elements and market sheep elements and bring both of those groups here together to expose them to different things,? Shearer said. ? And the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association LEAD Council sponsors made it a free event. The response has been great.?
The program for the No Show Lamb Show included a sheep fitting demonstration, a character building session, meat judging 101, a look at retail lamb cuts, and suggestions for showcasing agriculture on social media, said Roger High, OSIA executive director.
?We really feel like there is a lot more to the industry than the show ring and want to convey that to these kids showing their breeding sheep or market lambs. We?re trying to teach them a variety of things including how to deal with social media, judging breeding sheep and market lambs, looking at the end product with the carcasses, and how they break down into some of the retail cuts. The kids can get a better understanding of not only the live animal but into the real value of what their lambs are when they are showing them,? High said. ?We are pleased with the turnout and we have these fabulous facilities here at the University to get a lot of people through. We have a lot of young new families starting to get involved so it is important to introduce them to all aspects of the sheep industry and the show program that OSIA lead program is involved with through the summer.?
High also stressed the importance of preparing young people in agriculture to represent the future of the industry.
?Youth education is very important to our association and the industry. With all of the social media out there it is important to talk to the kids about the things they should and should not put on social media to help teach their non-ag friends and family that we are doing good things in agriculture,? High said. ?We are doing good things and we want that message to get out. They are the ones out there talking to people at fairs, visiting reporters and doing social media. It is important for them to know that they have a good story to share. When they are done with 4-H, then we will have some people out there advocating for agriculture too. They are important to carry our message.?
And that is precisely what they will be doing at the 2017 Ohio State Fair and other livestock exhibitions around the state this summer for anyone taking the time to observe the most valuable crop produced by Ohio agriculture.
Ohio State University meat science Extension specialist Lyda Garcia talked about the retail lamb cuts with a carcass at the No Show Lamb Show.
