The community is invited to support young farmers and ranchers at the 2014 Hawaii County 4-H Livestock Show and Sale Friday and Saturday at Mealani Research Station at 64-289 Mamalahoa Highway in Waimea.
The community is invited to support young farmers and ranchers at the 2014 Hawaii County 4-H Livestock Show and Sale Friday and Saturday at Mealani Research Station at 64-289 Mamalahoa Highway in Waimea.
The small-animal show for poultry and rabbits will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday.
On Saturday the large animal show starts at 8 a.m. with the market lamb classes, followed by the hog classes, and beef market steer and breeding heifer classes. Buyer’s registration and lunch starts at 12:30 p.m. The sale of the 4-H projects starts at 2 p.m., with beef steer and heifer, hog, lamb, poultry and rabbit projects to be sold at auction.
The 4-H livestock program provides youths ages 5-18 with hands-on, experiential learning opportunities by raising and training livestock projects. Students learn animal husbandry skills, humane handling skills, record-keeping, financial planning for their projects, and daily responsibility. Livestock projects are the results of months of diligent daily care, feeding, and training of their project animals.
“The participants in the livestock show are judged on both the quality of their animals and on their showmanship — their ability to present their animals effectively and their project-specific knowledge,” explained spokeswoman Michelle Galimba.
Grand Champion and Reserve Champion ribbons and trophies are awarded for each species of animal, as well as for Grand Champion and Reserve Champion Junior and Senior Showman.
The 4-H Livestock program has nearly a century of tradition in Hawaii, with the first livestock club formed in 1918.
“As such, the 4-H program has a proven track record of not only exposing and educating young people to positive, hands-on experience in agriculture, but has also instilled leadership and life skills to generations of islanders, many of whom have gone on to be leaders in our community in agriculture and other fields,” said Galimba. “We must strongly support agricultural education for our young people if we are to increase Hawaii’s resilience and sustainability.
“Supporting young people in agriculture helps to re-build local agriculture both immediately and in the long-term, and is one of the most effective ways, besides buying local, to contribute towards the sustainability of our island home.”
For more information about 4-H, contact University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources extension agent Becky Settlage at settlage@hawaii.edu. For more information on the 2014 4-H Livestock Show and Sale, contact Galimba at mgalimba@kuahiwiranch.com.