Dairy Meetings - Larimer Dairy Project

DAIRY FUN FACTS

Learn more about dairy cattle and have fun doing it!

Cow Fun Facts History of Milking Machine Parts of a Cow Purebred Dairy Cattle Association

DAIRY JUDGING

HOW TO JUDGE DAIRY CATTLE

CARING FOR YOUR DAIRY COW

Taking great care of your animal is the number one item we all need to remember.

Growth Charts Dairy Ethics Tying your Animal Ear Tag Application ANIMAL CARE & HOUSING FORM

SHOWING YOUR DAIRY COW

There are so many great resources on the internet, and we have just a few listed here to get you started.

Showring Ready Guide Fitting (clipping) your animal Learn to Show (video)Showring Rules

DAIRY E-RECORD BOOK

Every project member is required to fill out and submit their record book

DAIRY E-RECORD BOOK

LEASE-A-DAIRY DOCUMENTS

The Larimer County Lease a Dairy Program is sponsored by the Larimer County Dairy Enterprise Committee and generous other sponsors under the direction of the Larimer County 4-H Extension Office.

LAD RULES LAD WORK LOG

January- April Workshops

We have 4 meetings/workshops during the year and Lease-A-Dairy members are required to attend at least 3 of these. Record Books begin in January. Record books are available online or from Shari. You should begin your record books as soon as you have your animal picked out. Record books must be up to date at Dairy Check in at the Larimer County Fair in August and turned in for completion in September.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 2024

January 2024: First meeting/clinic for ALL dairy members will be January 26th starting promptly at 6:30pm at the McKee 4-H building at the Ranch. Snacks will be served. There is a lot to cover to help you get your projects started on the right hoof! (LOL)
Remember that attendance at meetings does count toward the Mike Dickenson award, awarded at the fair. If you are unable to come to a meeting all you need to do is contact me PRIOR to the meeting and you will not lose points. Also, Lease A Dairy participants have to attend 3 of 4 meetings.
MQA (Meat Quality Assurance training) is required for the dairy cattle project! The 2024 date is February 24th at the Ranch. More information can be found in the January 2024 4-H newsletter (sent by e-mail through the extension office).
In January, the digital version of Hoards Dairyman Judging contest starts. Hopefully I will have some hard copies at the January gathering. For the new participants in our group, this is a fun way to learn about what to look for in future projects. It is also a required part of the Lease A Dairy Project. This event also is used for the Mike Dickenson award selection. This judging contest is not only a national contest through the dairy magazine but also for our county fair. This is open to ALL 4-H participants, families and siblings! Yes, there are awards for all ages at county fair for those who participate! There are some great learning videos I encourage you to watch on the Hoards Dairyman youth link that we have in several places on our website prior to our meeting that are available to watch now. If you need assistance on how to get to the videos or articles, please contact me. Also remember to write down or take a picture of your final Hoards selections to send to me. If you send only to Hoards dairyman, I do not get a copy of your results. I send in your selections as a group to compete in the 4-H group division. Good Luck!

Time for the Hoards Dairyman’s Judging Contest! Link to Hoards Dairyman below. Remember this is a required event for the Lease-A-Dairy and Cow-less Dairy projects. This is also the tiebreaker for the Mike Dickinson Award. There are some very informative videos on the Hoards Dairyman website under the Youth tab about judging this contest. You can contact me about any questions.

HOARDS DAIRYMAN JUDGING January 2024 MoosLetter

FRIDAY, FEBRAUARY 23, 2024

February 23rd @ 630pm at the McKee Bldg at The Ranch. We will have a Dairy Nutritionist as our guest speaker, talk more about Hoards Dairy Judging and how to pick out your calf. For record books, we will talk about feed expenses and filling out your animal purchase page, animal inventory and animal information pages.
Livestock Field Day and MQA Training – (Meat Quality Assurance workshops) Saturday, Feb. 24th @ 9am-3pm at The Ranch.

If this is your first year in 4-H or your first year in a livestock project you must attend. You must attend once as a Junior member, ages 8 to 13 and once as a Senior member, ages 14 – 18 as of December 31, 2023. All eight year olds and all 14 year olds must attend this year.

This is an in person event. You will have the opportunity to go through a series of exercises and learn about different management practices and how they benefit your project. This process will take between an hour to one and half hours to complete.

Schedule

9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Best Practices for Poultry presenter Avian Team from CSU

10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Poultry Project Orientation

11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Predator Mediation presenter from USDA

12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Basic Ruminant Nutrition Presenter Ashley Schilling

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Livestock Selection Presenter Bailey Schilling

2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Evaluating your Calf’s Progress (This session is for members in the Larimer County Stock Growers Catch-A-Calf Program)

February 2024 MoosLetter

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2024

March 29th: Working with your animals; meet our two volunteer junior leaders; Record Books – transportation expenses; Tack boxes – scheduling to work with your animals, what to bring, wear, what to expect; showmanship/tying a halter/catching your animal
Additional Events:
March 10th: Last day to turn in Hoards Dairyman contest results to Shari – please email or text Shari your placings
March 20th – Mike Dickenson Scholarship application due

Mike Dickenson Scholarship March Moosletter

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024

April 2024 Workshop/Field Trip – Weather permitting we will meet at The Heifer Authority in Carr at 630pm. It is about a 30min drive from Windsor/Loveland – Please visit their website for information and directions.

Heifer Authority Directions

If the weather is bad we will meet in the new Community Livestock building at the Ranch at 630pm instead. We will be talking about showmanship and answering any other questions you have about the dairy project.

April Moos

SUMMER INFORMATION – MAY-SEPTEMBER 2024

May 2024: School is out and the fun begins! Please try and work with your animals at dawn or dusk when the weather is coolest. Calves can be worked about an hour, but not much longer. Get them used to the halters and being tied. Brush them and love them. Our next show will be Dairy Extravaganza in June! We will clip our animals the week prior to the show. As a club we have clippers to share and we will have a sign up sheet for Shari/Stan/Jennifer to come and provide clippers and assistance. You will clip where your animal lives.

May Moos