With files from United Beef Club press reporter Kennah LeBlanc
Local youth are getting hands on experience in a variety of agriculture-related fields as they work towards the Emo Fall Fair.
The United Beef Club, operating out of Stratton, has had two meetings so far this summer as part of their program that will see them learning about farming and hand-raising their very own animal for show or sale at the Emo Fair in August. 4-H leader Tami LeBlanc noted that part of the program is that each meeting is run in as professional a manner as possible, with a president, vice-president, secretary and press reporter elected to run and document each meeting.
The United Beef Club’s first meeting took place on May 16, 2023, where Andrea Schram was elected president, Bryce Rudolph was elected vice-president, Sydney Romyn was elected secretary, and Kennah LeBlanc was elected press reporter.
“We have six meetings altogether, and they learn about training their animal, feeding their animal and getting them ready for the fair,” Tami said.
“Some of our kids have steers that they’re going to sell, and then some of our kids have heifers that they take home with them at the end of the fair. Our club is just one of five in the district, and each club picks a topic that we cover for the year. This year, we decided on cattle handling facilities and housing.”
As part of that topic, the United Beef Club determined that they would go hands-on and build a small-scale replica of a cattle handling facility, working towards learning the functions of each part of the process and building their replica with small pieces of wood to show off what they’ve learned.
According to press reporter Kennah LeBlanc, the first meeting involved an activity where club members matched parts of a cattle handling facility to their descriptions, and then began the planning process for their club project. The second, which took place on May 30, 2023, saw the club members do an activity that was similar in nature to a puzzle, taking the separate pieces of a cattle handling facility and then working to piece them back in order. After that, it was back to work on the club project.
“We then split into our two working groups that were selected at the first meeting and started to build our club projects,” Kennah reported.
“Group 1 is busy building a barn to house beef cattle and Group 2 got right to work building their handling facility complete with holding pens.”
The final replica cattle handling facility display will be on full display at the Emo Fair in the exhibition hall, where it will be judged as part of 4-H activities.
The group, as part of both their project and the animals they are raising, will also learn about the financial side of agriculture, with different things like upfront cost of their animal, along with the price and amount of feed being documented.
“Then at the end of the year after they’ve sold their animals, they’ll be able to tell what their profit is,” Tami said.
For more about the United Beef Club and their progress as the summer marches towards the Emo Fair, keep an eye on the Fort Frances Times for future updates from press reporter Kennah LeBlanc.
