With generous spirit two Indus area 4H members Emma Gingras and Tiffany Kuryk teamed up with buyers from the 4H on Parade Auction to add to the freezers of the Chestermere Regional Food Bank. Mardi Oel, Food Bank President was on hand last week to receive the donation from the Bow Valley Beef and Multi Club.
Indus area members of the club helped Grand Champion winner Gingras and Kuryk deliver their lambs to the local food bank. Supporting this initiative was Gingras’ mother Jodi who is the club’s “Sheep Leader.” She said this is a project that the kids “Learn to Do by Doing.”
Gingras and Kuryk , students from Indus School, undertook the club’s challenge to raise a lamb or calf to market size. To participate in this project the members must feed and care for a young animal from January to the beginning of June. Animals are then entered into the 4H on Parade Show and Auction held down at the Calgary Stampede Grounds. This event is exciting for the kids to showcase their projects and compete for Grand Champion Status.
I had the opportunity to chat to these young girls as well as a few other members from the local club and left with an appreciation of their groundedness, confidence and eagerness about the project. The club strives to teach life skills such as small engine knowledge, wielding, photography, public speaking and sewing in addition to animal husbandry. A huge annual highway cleanup campaign is also part of their mandate. The club attracts kids aged 9 to 22 while the Cleaver Kids is for 6 to 8 year olds.
Part of the skill involved in getting a lamb or sheep to the 4H Auction requires marketing. The kids learn to use a variety of methods to attract buyers such as the design of brochures, invites to auctions, and letters to prospective buyers. Developing these skills help rounds outs the kids prospective for future success.
Through the project the members learn what’s involved in selecting a good animal for breeding or market. Many considerations are looked including genetics and physical characteristics, the longer the loin the better. The kids also look at the costs involved and profit received to learn about the business end of the venture.
The 2013 competition features 2 categories, Showmanship and Market Champions. The challenge for Showmanship is to raise a lamb for show. “To successfully show an animal you must know it. You have to have control of it, ” said Jodi. Market category involves getting the animal ready for sale in a timely manner.
Gingras’s lamb took the Grand Champion Prize in both categories. An additional category under Market Champions is “Pen of Three”. In this challenge 3 lambs are raised and judged on their finished look with attention to uniformity of size, color and features. Kuryk’s lambs were entered in the “Pen of Three” as well .
Fellow 4H Member Jocelyn Baxter informed me that the lambs are hormone free and grain fed.
The animals are then sold at auction with proceeds going to the kids. The females, ewes and heifers may be bought for breeding. Typically Grand Champions will fetch a higher price.
Both Gingras and Kuryk were successful in attracting buyers for their animals. Through the generosity of both these two girls and companies TEP Canada, Advanced Towers and Advantage Towers the clients of the Food Bank will have a chance to have a meal that was well tended, of high quality, and locally produced.
