Livestock Kids

[farmmom73]

Another 'Barn Mom' and I were talking the other day that we need to do something to help our 4-H livestock kids get to know each other better.  We have a pretty small fair, but we have some new folks to the barn and we would like to help the kids get to know each other and have some fun.  Scooping stalls and sleeping in their chairs is just not getting it!
 
Just fishing for ideas on things you do to get all the kids together. 

Some of my best friends were people I met in 4-H and I want that for my kids as well.

Thanks in advance for any ideas you have!!

 

[frostback]

Not sure it would work for the whole fair but our club has a farm tour. We all meet at one place and then the kids show everyone there projects, then we caravan to the next place. Then we end up at one persons place and they happen to have a little dugout the kids play in. Before that it was some ones place and had a water fight. We BBQ a few burgers and everyone brings a side dish or dessert. Works to get the parents talking too. I am amazed to see all the parents with no alcohol enjoying themselves too. Our club got a bit large and spread out for the tour now but we still have the summer meeting and pot luck lunch. I loved going to see the other places layouts and how they do things. Got some great ideas and learned some too.

 

[vanridge]

We do the farm tour as well, and its great! Team grooming is also a great way to get kids to mix and as a bonus the young kids learn from the older ones!

 

[obie105]

Ours does a mentor program. Where an older member is assigned a junior member to do activities with. Newer members are assigned an experienced one too. It seems to help mix things up while at the fair. We also do the potluck too.

 

[Ms Ray]

we used to have games and contests at fair during down time,

 

[vc]

We had a monthly weigh day, our entire club went to each house and weighed the fair animals, we hauled a pig scale and a tow behind livestock scale (that is until the club bought a set of digital scales) the kids would all help set up the scales load animals and just got to see each other. We all met at the Jilberto's for a late lunch after we hit the last house.

One of the local feed stores has feed reps come in and do feed and animal care clinics in the evening once a year, gets all the kids together.

You might also consider a few training days, a hog showing clinic one time, a steer showing clinic the next. Have the older experienced members help out the new members, after the clinic have a BBQ or pot luck. You might want to have what we call, a mini fair, about 1 1/2 months prior to the fair we have a fair for all the kids in the area, the FFA kids (4 or 5 schools) and several 4H clubs, we hire judges, give ribbons. The judges we hired the last time were real good at giving pointers and helping the kids learn what they needed to work on prior to our fair. It really helped them seemed to help the first timers out.

 

[simba]

There's a ton of good ideas in the above posts. Here are some team events that I've competed in at junior shows and really enjoyed:

Team Grooming
Show Team Judging
Great Griller (Steak grilling competition)
Relay Races
Team Marketing
Team Quiz Competitions
Show Team Basics- This is my favorite one, aside from team marketing. Each team has a junior of each age category and 4 head to take care of (they choose the animals). It starts at 6am and they must make the stall, wash, blow & feed their animals before 9am. Judges tour the barns and watch all the teams. They look for a team that works well together, uses their time wisely and does quality work. It's a neat competition and a great way to meet people.

 

[paj315]

At our county fair we have the" Battle of The Barns" which consists of several different games between the cattle barn ,swine barn, and sheep barn.  Its ends up being water fight when its all said and done but really helps kids get to know each other .

 

[subcattleco]

About 7 years ago we started hosting dances for the exhibitors. For the first few years it was only the young kids dancing ( i guess the older ones were to cool). However if you go to one of our dances now those young kids have grown up and are still dancing. It's fun to watch kids of all age groups dancing and socializing together. We usually provide all the soda they can drink and sometimes buy some Pizza. Our FFA chapter has even started a Christmas toy drive dance where you have to bring a toy to get in. (The state officer team even made an appearance last year) It is a huge hit with all the school kids and I think it helps get new kids interested in the FFA program.