New 4H leader

[Dozer45]

I was asked to become a 4H leader for a lcoal club who has a few new beef kids and no leader to help show them the ropes. I agreed to help because I love teaching kids new skills and I love cattle. My questions is what kind of activities/ workshops or anyother ideas can I do to make my meetings fun but still a learning experience?
thanks in advance
<cowboy>

 

[LostFarmer]

I am in the same boat.  I have never shown beef cattle and now have kids involved and no real leaders.  Looks like I am going to be the leader.  HELP!

 

[pjkjr4]

First of all, you need to find out what age ranges you're going to have. Then,(if it were me) at the first meeting, go through the opening formalities of the meeting, and then do something completely un-ag related (swimming party, etc.), and just get to know those kids.....don't be afraid to play with them. Then have them tell you what they would like to accomplish for the year, individually, as well as a group. If they trust that there are going to be smiles and laughter along with seriousness and hard work, they will look forward to your meetings, thus learning more.

My kids' 4-H leader is dry as dust, and she won't give it up, though the numbers keep declining every year, and I hate that because it's a great bunch of kids with lots of potential.

 

[LT]

My folks were 4-H advisors for a mostly beef club and we were too.  Although we had other projects. There are resources out there to help you plan.  Ck with your extension office they will be able to give you some basics to build on.  We had the older kids in each project field take a meeting and help you plan the program.  It can be about their project field with a learning game to a video or demo.  This helps the older kids step up and take charge, (and it looks good on the report form) and the younger kids like being involved with the older ones.  We took a trip to our state meat lab at the University...that was a great learning experience.  We use our skillathon kits to build on and play games with (the younger ones love it and it keeps them busy while learning.)  Feel free to write me or call me if any of this interests you and you want more ideas along these lines.  Not sure what ages you are working with.

LT

 

[justme]

I'm a 4-H leader too.  My kids just hate going to just a business meeting were the parents do all the decision making.  I have kids from grade K-7 so its a broad range there.  We do a little business meeting, but I always incorporate a craft, a game, or we do a little community service in our towns park everytime.    One thing they did love was filling Easter eggs for the community Easter egg hunt and Christmas Caroling. (OK the residents of our town enjoyed the caroling more than the kids but hey they survived)

Feel free to send me an email.  I love sharing ideas for meetings.

 

[PeeWeeChamp]

just wanted to say GOOD FOR YOU!  I admire anyone who helps shape our future leaders!  <party>

 

[Dozer45]

Thanks guys all of these give me some good brain storming ideas. While I was an FFA officer we planed all kinds of stuff but it was for members our age. Not quite the same as 8 or 9 year olds!!! I will find out next month what kind of numbers and ages I have. Think its going to be pretty small. We dont have much of a cattle industry in this part of CO. We do have a fancy salebarn and feedlot. Maybe we could work out something with them, Like LT said about going to the meat lab.  :

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

If you can start before the kids select their calves, you can work with them step by step. Selection, feeding, halter breaking, daily care, show stick introduction, changing feed, clipping, fitting, showmanship, etc, etc. While the ages may vary quite a bit, it has been my experience to start at the basics with all of them and progress them forward from there. It's amazing how many older kids do not know the correct way to do things with a show calf. This can be a very rewarding experience for both you and the kids, make sure that you BOTH enjoy it. RW

 

[OLD WORLD SHORTIE]

i got all kinds of activites for the kids such as cleaning day at my barn, shaving down all the cows for the summer, feed bag burning, ohh and we can forget clearing pastures of mesquits with machetes. Sounds like a good source of cheap labor to me, ohh and if they want a swimming day, i have a pond.

 

[Dozer45]

I know when I was little and showed sheep we could take them to a few meetings and practice. Do people do this with steers? I was in FFA by the time I started steers so we never had meetings like that

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

It's really hard to beat hands on experience of any kind. RW

 

[Dozer45]

Thanks RW that what I thought too

 

[jamesgang892]

I know when I was little and showed sheep we could take them to a few meetings and practice. Do people do this with steers? I was in FFA by the time I started steers so we never had meetings like that

First off I commend you for volunteering. old World Shortie people do do this in the past my dad (the beef leader) has held a mock show where he covered showmanship. It also was an experience for the calf.

 

[Dozer45]

Thank you, hope Im not gettin in over my head 
I was thinking about something like that. Holding some "show" in our hores pens to teach everyone showring etiquette. As a begginer showman I always felt uncomfortable and rushed in the showring and dont wany my members to feel that way.

 

[kvhranch]

From being a new 4-H beef family and even after county fair having no idea who our beef leader was, these are some of the things I would like to have seen

Checklist of everything that needs done during the year - we missed one of the classes we had to take for the carcase contest
A Showmanship clinic - get some of the older kids to do a showmanship clinic - bring their steers, show how it's done and then let the younger ones practice - careful selection of the cattle brought
Show Fitting clinic - how to clip and groom for the show
Feed clinic - we didn't know to switch to finisher until mid June which I think hurt our steer
Field trip to a non 4-H show - let them see how the big boys do it
Field trip to a processing place - so they see the end

 

[Dozer45]

Thanks Kvhranch!

Sorry about your rocky year but it was nice to hear what a new beef family needs/ wants to have done. Hope this year goes better for ya

 

[kvhranch]

I hope so too.  We are seriously considering changing clubs.  I thought joining the biggest club in the county they would have all their stuff together.  Other than making sure the kids went to the main meetings and got their 2 community service things done, they actually never did anything project wise.  To me that's wrong.  4-H should be mainly about the projects with running meetings and community service secondary.  The leaders should be teaching the younger kids with the older kids helping the leaders.  We also did horse and luckily I know what to do there or we would have been lost there also.  The county holds a ride night which is basically chaos in the arena.  When asked if they were going to do more with the kids, I was told they didn't do that type of stuff and if I wanted that, I needed to hire a trainer.

Be a proactive leader.  Make sure your kids know who you are and can call you if they need help.  Make sure you have stuff on the project scheduled for every month, even if its just talking about feed or parts of the animals or stuff like that.  Everything we learned this year was done the hard way and if it wasn't for a couple leaders in other clubs we stumbled on to AND my knowledge that 4-H really is a great experience for kids, we would have been done with 4-H after this year.