4-Hers gather for community service

By Sam Waller

Shackelford County 4-H members continued preparations for the upcoming county livestock show with approximately 30 club members helping clean at the show barn Monday, Jan. 9 as their community service project for the month.

“Our job was sweeping the bleachers and sidewalks,” Shackelford County extension agent Kelsey Bell said. “We swept under the rabbit pens, picked up all the trash and cleaned the bathrooms. It went pretty quick with that many hands helping.”

A total of 32 club members will take part in the show, but Bell said the cleaning crew included 4-Hers who are not showing animals.

“Most of them do, but a few came because that was our community service project for the month,” she said.

Bell said exhibitors will begin getting animals ready for the show ring in the next few days.

“We’ll do some clipping and washing at the ag barn, probably Sunday and Monday while the kids are out of school,” she said.

On Sunday, Jan. 8, final weigh-in for commercial steers was held. Bell said the show’s newest class has five entries of pens of two.

“The kids’ record books have been turned in and will be judged by a group of Taylor County extension agents,” she said. “That will be a portion of their score.
We want the entrant with the most knowledge of their project and feeding beef cattle to be the one to win.”

Horse Club

Club members met Friday, Jan. 6, for a horse judging workshop and trail ride at Bell’s residence. The program was organized by Faith Fry in her role as an Equine Ambassador with sister Grace Fry assisting.

“They have online resources and video classes,” Bell said. “We watched the class and kids judged just like they were watching in person. We had about 15 kids at that event.”