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Ronda MacClure, Whiting

Larry Kreger, Onawa

Gale Miller, Soldier

Laurie Benson, Danbury

Dave Hoagland, Mapleton

Judy Mulder, Mapleton

Amy Card, Onawa

Lisa Bruning, Castana

Katie Keitges, Onawa

Shelbi Vermeys, Hornick

Rick Watson Turin

4-H YOUTH COUNCIL

Calendar of Events

March 1 State 4-H Award Applications due to State 4-H Office March 9 Soup Supper for Fair Board, 5-7 pm March 15 4-H Summer Camp Assistance Due to County Office March 23 Fruit Delivery, truck comes 11:00 am March 25 4-H Leader meeting, 7 pm April 1 Club mini grants due April 13 FSQA training, Extension Office, 9:30-11:00 am April 15 FSQA training, Mapleton, 6:30-8:30 pm May 15 Livestock Identification Reports due to Extension Office June 25-27 State Youth Conference

MONONA COUNTY 4-H NEWS

NANCY MCGRAIN COUNTY EXTENSION County Youth Coordinator nmcgrain@iastate.edu

Geri Johnson, Onawa

Lisa Bruning, Castana

Laura Neldeberg, Whiting

Norman Parker, Mapleton

Robert Haack, Whiting

Sharon Holverson, Moorhead

Cheryl Warner, Onawa

Jean Powell, Mapleton

Kelly Coberly, Moorhead

EXTENSION COUNCIL

MELISSA BEERMANN COUNTY EXTENSION 4-H Program Assistant mbeerman@iastate.edu

March Newsletter

Need T-Shirts for your Club? The Extension Office would like to send an order for t-shirts in. If your club would like to order t-shirts, please let the Exten-sion Office know by March 22. The cost per shirt is $8.50.

Leader & Volunteers Honored at Banquet

4-H Volunteer Training

The annual 4-H Volunteer Leader’s Recognition Banquet was held Saturday, January 26, at Whiting Christian Church in Whiting. Congratulations to the following who were recog-nized for their support of the Youth and 4-H Program of Monona County: 4-H leader Clover Farm Bureau awards were presented to: 5 year: Laurie Mordhorst Jeff Mordhorst Gale Miller 15 year: John Streeter Lisa Meadows

4-H Leader of the Year: Julie Miller, leader of Bobcats 4-H Club 4-H Meritorious Service Award: Burgess Health Center of Onawa 4-H Alumni Award: Ron Ernst 4-H Honorary Member Award: Lisa Bruning Congratulations and thank you for being involved with the 4-H Program

Join 4-H volunteers in Monona County for a fun, hands on training about Experiential Learning. “Learn By Doing” is an integral part of 4-H, but there is more to Experiential Learn-ing than just “doing”. Supportive, caring adults help youth move beyond the “doing” to reflect on and apply the learn-ing experience to similar or different situations. By practicing and utilizing the experiential learning model, volunteers are able to help youth look back at their experience critically, determine what was useful or important to remember, and apply the new information to real life situations. As a part of this training, volunteers will design and build boats – then see how long the boats float as they load them down with “cargo”.

Staff will guide volunteers through the experiential learning model processing questions. Volunteers will get a chance to see if they can improve their boat designs and reflect and apply what they’ve learned. This experiential activity is easily replicated during a club meeting! This training is part of the statewide 4-H volunteer training and will be held on March 25, at 7 pm at the Monona County Extension Office. A bene-fit of participating in the face-to-face volunteer training is the interaction and sharing. If you are not able to attend the training, contact the Extension office to learn more about participating through other training options. Please register by contacting the Monona County Extension Office by March

21st.

Fruit Pick-Up The fruit truck will arrive on Saturday, March 23, tentatively at 11:00 a.m at Struble Agronomy. Clubs will have two times to arrive to pick up club orders, 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 noon. Would leaders please let me know at the leaders meeting on March 13th what time you would like to get your fruit. Your cooperation in spacing out pick up times is great-ly appreciated. Thanks!

Club Mini Grants Mini grants to support local community service projects are available to 4-H clubs twice a year from the Monona County 4-H program. Applications are due April 1 for a maximum of $250 of matching funds from the club.

Monona County 4-H Foundation

Please remember the Monona County 4-H Endowment Fund as your club considers community support for this year. If your club has made a 4-H 400 pledge, your $100 contribution may become a 4-H 1000 pledge. Out of this fund, it has been possible to provide over 94 seniors in the 4-H program each $200 or more college scholarships.

Again this year the 4-H Fund Board is raising funds by hav-ing a silent auction during the fair. Each club is asked to contribute an item for the auction so be brainstorming on what you would like to donate. The Monona County 4-H Foundation was established to help ensure support of 4-H locally now and in the future. Donations of a check by personal individuals and clubs can be made to “Monona County Extension” and sent to the Extension Office.

2013 4-H’ers for 4-H Campaign The annual 4-h’ers for 4-H Campaign begins March 1. The campaign is conducted by members of the State 4-H Council, and their theme this year is “My 4H. My Commit-ment.” The goal is to raise $30,000 by asking every 4-H club to consider a donation of $2.50 per member.

Some of the projects to be funded include new mattresses for Oak cabins at the Iowa 4-H Center; improvements to the 4-H exhibit displays for the Iowa State Fair; and finan-cial assistance to help youth attend 4-H camp or state con-ference. The State 4-H Council would appreciate every-one’s commitment to help “make the best better” for all Iowa 4-H’ers.

Senior 4-H Scholarships Senior 4-H’ers graduating this year can find the Monona County 4-H Foundation Scholarship application on the Monona County Extension website http://www.extension.iastate.edu/monona/kidsteens.htm, on the right side under Monona County 4H Scholarships. They are due April 1 to the county Extension Office.

FSQA Certified The 4-H Food Safety and Quality Assurance program is in place for the State Fair and Monona County Fair 2013 for Beef, Dairy, Goat, Sheep, Swine, Poultry, and Rabbits. Juniors all need to come to the training even if they came last year. (This includes bucket calf, breeding, and market beef.) Discover 4-H members with bucket calves, rabbits or chickens, don’t have to come. Intermediates and Sen-ior 4-H’ers need to come to the training also unless they took the test and passed it, or may take the test by ap-pointment. If you took the test as an intermediate, you need to take the test when you turn a senior 4-H’er. All exhibitors showing animals, except for horse and dog are required to attend.

When 4-Hers meet the 4-H FSQA certification, they have also met the Beef Quality Assurance and Pork Quality As-surance certification as well. FSQA training will be offered on Saturday, April 13th, at the Monona County Extension Office from 9:30-11:30 am. If you are an Intermediate or Senior 4-H’er and would like to take the test, you can take it at 8:30 am. A second training will be held at St. John’s Methodist Church in Mapleton on Monday night, April 15th from 6:30-8:30 pm. If you would like to take the test, you can take it at 5:30 pm. If you would like to take the test any other time, call Nancy at the Extension Office (712-423-2175) to make an appointment.

Sheep Tagging

If you have sheep that you are going to show at fair, ex-hibitors must come to the Extension Office and get 4-H tags and State Identification sheet and tag their own sheep. The Sheep Superintendent or Extension Staff must visit the home and see the tagged sheep and sign the identification sheet by May 15. The identification sheet must be turned in to the Extension Office by May 15. There will not be a rate of gain.

If you want to show at the state fair, you must go to a ver-ification site that does retinal imaging. Check with Craw-ford County weigh-in. They have a machine. All reproduc-tively intact sheep and goats must have an official scrapie program tag before being shown at the fair.

Swine Tagging Each individual member bringing hogs to the fair must come to the Extension Office and get 4-H tags and State Identification sheet and tag your own animals. Extension Staff or Swine Superintendent must visit your home within two weeks of tagging and see the tagged pigs and sign your identification sheet.

This must be done by May 15, 2013 to be eligible to par-ticipate at the Monona County Fair with your swine. To show swine at the fair, you must be FSQA certified and a copy of Certification must be turned into the Extension Office by May 15.

Bucket/Bottle Calf If you are thinking about bringing a bucket calf to fair, re-member, they must be born between March 1 and May 15.

There are classes from Discover to Intermediate (3rd through 8th grade). You must identify them by May 15 on the blue Livestock Animal Identification sheet.

Beef Identification If a 4-H’er identifies a market heifer in December, they have the option of changing the animal to a breeding heif-er until the May 15th deadline for breeding beef. If the 4-H’er decides to change her to a breeding heifer, she must be listed on the Breeding Beef Verification Form, and she is no longer eligible as a market heifer. A heifer cannot be identified as both market and breeding, the decision must be made by May 15th.

4-H Horse Projects Horse project family and friends meet and greet at the Beef n Brew in Mapleton on Saturday, March 16th from 1:00-2:00 PM. We are discussing plans for various horse related activities for this spring and summer. Please bring a friend as you don’t have to be a 4-H member for these activities.

We are encouraging spending time with friends while working with horses. Please feel free to contact Pam Groves at (712) 251-4645 or Michelle Hart at (712) 490-3737 with any concerns or questions. It’s time to get those horses in shape for fun!

State Fair Livestock Changes Information 2013

Beef *If a heifer is originally weighed-in, the animal does NOT need to be ID’ed again in 4hOnline as a breeding heifer. *Adding fall-aged heifers-born Sept. 1—Dec. 31 of 2011; also heifers born in 2012 are eligible.

Dog *Change the Sr. handling age division from 10-12 to 9-12. Horse *All horses MUST have photos uploaded to 4hOnline by May 15th *ID a maximum of 5 horses total per 4-H’er *No leasing of halter horses *Leased horses must have a completed lease form in 4hOnline *Each horse can only be ID’ed by ONE 4-H’er, unless there are more 4-H’ers in a family than horses *4-H’ers can Id horses in 4-H and FFA as long as they are DIFFERENT horses. *New 4H 511C Publication, Rules & Regulations for 4-H Equine Shows in Iowa *Dropped: 2/3 year old western pleasure, saddleseat pleasure, saddleseat equitation *Added: Halter: Mares 3-7 years, 8 years & over; Geldings age 3-7 years, 8 years & over, Halter: Pony all mares, then all geldings; Flags—timed event on same day as barrels and poles Sheep *All State Fair sheep must have a 4-H tag and retinal imag-es (market lambs, commercial ewes, and purebred breed-ing ewes)

Meat Goat *Removed the bracing rule and added new rule: All goats must have four feet on the foor in the show ring at all times. Lifting feet off the ground or placing on any sup-port or altered ring surface is not acceptable. Exhibitors will receive one warning if they are found lifting or slap-ping goats. Second offenses will result in automatic exhib-itor disqualification from the 4-H Meat Goat Show. *All meat goat wethers MUST have a 4-H tag in place and retinal images; breeding does must have either a 4-H tag OR permanent tattoo, no retinal images are needed for breeding does. Rabbit *All rabbits eligible for State Fair must be ID’ed in 4hOnline by July 1 with a tattoo and this applies to all breeding/fancy/market rabbits. Sheep *All State Fair sheep must have a 4-H tag and retinal imag-es (market lambs, commercial ewes, and purebred breed-ing ewes) Swine *Swine identification process is now posted on the swine page at, http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4h/projects/livestock/swine.htm. *All State Fair Swine need a DNA punch tag. *There will no longer be a State Fair 4-H Derby Swine Show *State Fair increase maximum weight limit for market hogs from 290 to 300 pounds Rabbit *All rabbits eligible for State Fair must be ID’ed in 4hOnline by July 1 with a tattoo and this applies to all breeding/fancy/market rabbits.

Moorhead Cultural Center

The Moorhead Cultural Center has two opportunities: Amateur Photography Exhibition and Amateur Literary Exhibition.

The deadline is April 8, 2013. Contact the Moorhead Cul-tural Center 712-886-5017 or 712-886-5415 for more in-formation.

Discover 4-H Meetings are the 2nd Sunday of the month at the Monona County Extension Office from 2:00-3:00 PM

Monona County Sharp Shooters meet the 1st and 3rd Sunday at the Monona County Arboretum in Onawa from 1:00-2:30 PM

4-H Cooking Club meetings the 2nd Saturday of the month from 10:00AM—Noon. Contact Brenda Wimmer for location.

“I learned to deal with peer pressure.” · “My parents love me.” · “I realized my parents have stress too.”

Youth who have participated said:

Food Preservation Guidelines

The Monona County Fair will be here before you know it! As you prepare for the county fair and start canning vegetables, fruits, salsas, etc., make sure that you are us-ing recipes and procedures approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Those recipes have been tested and will result in safe and delicious food. Check out Iowa State University Extension and Out-reach’s Food Preservation website at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/healthnutrition/food/resources.htm for links to approved recipes. Please note that only recipes that have been tested and approved by the USDA will be allowed to be displayed at the county fair. If you have questions, you can contact the Monona County Extension Office, AnswerLine at 1-800-262-3804, or Brenda Welch at bwelch@iastate.edu.

Unmask Your Opportunities! Iowa 4-H Youth Conference June 25-27

Attention all 4-Her’s, grades 8-12! Come and experience the Iowa 4-H Youth Conference held in Ames at Iowa State University. You will be able to attend workshops and par-ticipate in community service. Or, maybe you would like to attend animal science round-up and choose various animals such as sheep, beef, dairy, horse or swine to study.

Have fun in the evenings going to a formal banquet at Hilton Coliseum, dances, swimming, and a picnic. During the three day conference, experience dorm life and make new friends from across the state. You don’t have to be in 4-H to attend, so if you have friends you would like to in-vite – bring them along! Contact your local extension office for more information.

OUT OF COUNTY OPPORTUNITIES

“Snapshot Iowa” - A Photography Contest

For complete rules, see: http://www.iowaarchfoundation.org/index.cfm?nodeID=39628&audienceID=1

Open to Iowa students, grades 7th – 12th, including home-schooled students. UNMOUNTED, BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS SHOWCASING YOUR FAVORITE IOWA ARCHITEC-TURE. Photos should be 8” x 10” and printed on photo paper. Manipulation of photographs is discouraged.

One winner from each group will earn a $100 cash prize: 7th – 9th Grades and 10th – 12th Grades. Entries must be received by March 14, 2012. Winners will be announced by March 22, 2012. www.iowaarchfoundation.org. The student must take the photo, no group work al-lowed. Entries will not be returned. Entry images become the property of the IAF.

4-H & FFA Meat Goat Sale

4-H Summer Camp Assistance

If you are in need of financial assistance to attend a sum-mer camp at the Iowa 4-H Center, applications are due March 15 to the County Extension Office. You can find the application at: www.iowa4hfoundation.org/en/funding_opportunities. For camp opportunities at the Iowa 4-H Center, go to: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4h/page/immersion-wellness-camp-experience

There will be a Meat Goat Sale on April 14, 4 pm at the Dunlap Livestock Auction in Dunlap.

MONONA COUNTY 4-H NEWS Monona County Extension

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its program and activities on the basis of race, color, natural origin,

gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)

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Extension Service, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, and the United States Department of Agriculture cooperating.

Outdoor Adventure Club Update

The Outdoor Adventure Club got its start 2 years ago with the assistance of a grant. The club has really begun to take off since then. The club has hosted a variety of day camps, overnight campouts, fishing and hiking events. We re-cently went sledding in the beautiful Loess Hills. Members have constructed homemade compasses, used the Kid Wind kit (built their own wind turbines), navigated with a compass, and learned more about respecting the precious environment we all enjoy.

Regular meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month from 3:30-5pm at Central Elementary in Onawa. A fishing event is being planned for late May. Overnight campouts are also being planned for June and late August.

If you would like to learn more about discovering the outdoors, environmental sustainability, outdoor survival, navigation, plants and wildlife, you are welcome to attend our club meetings and other outdoor adventures!