Dairy Meetings

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.

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.  

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

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.

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.