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Georgia: Student have 4-H fun

By: Mike O'Neal
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TRENTON, Ga. — There is more to fall than football for many young North Georgians.

It is a time to compete at county fairs and in livestock show rings — not on the gridiron.

The Tri-County 4-H Lamb Show on Thursday night featured about a dozen youngsters and their livestock at center stage in the Dade County Ag Center here.

“These kids really enjoy it,” said Brian Nichols, 35, as he helped his son Dakota, 10, and daughter, Kenadi, 8, prepare their lambs for the show.

“Mine aren’t into organized sports, this is their niche,” Mr. Nichols said. “I didn’t think I’d find anything other than hunting and fishing that Dakota would be interested in.”

While usually thought of as being directed toward a rural/agricultural community, today’s 4-H focuses on leadership and life skill training through citizenship, healthy living, and science, engineering and technology programs, officials said.

It also continues the tradition of connecting public school education with farm life and appeals to different children for different reasons, according to Cooperative Extension Service staff, parents and participants.

Since coming to Dade County about 20 years ago, Ted Dyer has made 4-H development a priority for the local Extension Service.

“I was involved in 4-H but not as involved as today,” Mr. Nichols said while running shearing clippers over a docile lamb. “We mostly went to meetings as a way to get out of class. Until Ted came, we didn’t have real leadership.”

The 106 land-grant universities across the nation deliver research-driven programs through Extension Service agents in more than 3,000 county offices.

4-H, the nation’s largest youth development program, operates from those Extension offices to serve about 6 million youth, from ages 5 to 19 in approximately 90,000 clubs, according to the program’s Web site.

All fifth-grade students in Georgia public schools are required to have 4-H instruction, but many join sooner than fifth grade and continue throughout their high school years.

“I’ve always lived here and started 4-H when I was in second grade at Dade Elementary,” said Zach Cross, 12, now a seventh-grade student at Chattanooga Christian School. “I didn’t even know about 4-H until my dad brought home a show lamb.”

Several years of showing animals — dairy heifers, beef heifers and hogs, as well as sheep — have led the youngster to think of someday becoming an Extension Service agent or a veterinarian, he said.

“I’ve always loved animals. It is educational. I can talk to people, age doesn’t matter, about the things that interest me. Every time I go to a show I learn something new. You can never know it all,” Zach said.

This year about 750 Walker County students and about 400 Dade County students are participating in 4-H, according to officials.

“All my (nine) kids have done something different; band, color guard or football,” said Joe Dilbeck, of Rossville, whose youngest, 13-year-old Brittany, was in Thursday’s competition. “She is really bashful, and 4-H has given her an opportunity to reach out.”

Though he will soon be working as a beef specialist in the Gordon County office of the Cooperative Extension Service in Calhoun, Mr. Dyer said he will continue to live in Dade County and be involved with its 4-H programs. His younger son, a third-grader, is starting to show cattle.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with the youth in Dade County and being able to make a difference in their lives,” Mr. Dyer said. “Watching 4-H grow has been a great experience.”

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