KELSEYVILLE – Hi, my name is Victoria Hayes. This is my fifth year in the Kelseyville 4-H Club. For the first three years in my 4-H club I was the storekeeper and my fourth year I was historian. This coming year I am going to be vice president, working my way to the top has been a fun road to be on.
We have one club meeting a month. My other project meetings meet here and there throughout the month. I need to complete 80 percent of my club meetings and 100 percent of my project meetings to be able to go to fair.
Then there are my projects, which are poultry, shooting sports, sewing, and horse. The project that I like best is poultry. I am taking two broad breasted bronze “market ready” turkeys to the Lake County Fair, Aug. 27 through Sept. 2.
“Market ready” means that my turkeys make a certain weight by the time fair is here. For turkeys, the minimum weight is 14 pounds.
I also work on my showmanship skills, how to hold, walk and show all the parts of the turkey -- in turn being able to show off my knowledge to a judge in a showmanship class with other members of my age.
After the fair is over the paperwork begins. I log all my meetings and what we learned. An advanced livestock report is filled out on how much money I spent on my turkeys in feed and supplies. It helps me keep track and I am able to show a profit or loss in my project.
I do the same thing for each project that I am in. This is called a record book. I take my record book to my first club meeting of the year. Our club puts together a committee of adults to judge the books. If you get a Gold Seal in your book this means that, you can go on to County Level Record Book Judging. The judges are members of the Lake County community.
It is lots of fun to be in 4-H. It would be great fun to see you at the Junior Livestock Auction this year during the Lake County Fair.
4-H Youth Development is a program of the University of California Cooperative Extension. For more information on the 4-H program contact U.C. Cooperative Extension, 883 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport, 263-6838.
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