Early morning as the fog was lifting off the river at the Bulkley Valley Exhibition grounds, Mid Valley 4-H club members were up and working with their animals. Thursday of the fair is the day for animal weigh-in and beef is first up.
That is just the beginning of the day for the young 4-H members. They go into prep and clipping to get ready for the next day showing and the culmination of their year.
Friday at the competition beef is first up again for showing and judging. Showing is not just about getting their steers ready, but the members will be in their show clothes.
However, the scoring for the beef judging is all about the animals. The auction for the 4-H steers starts at 2 p.m. on Saturday, but these young, club member entrepreneurs will talk to buyers all day.
Mid Valley 4-H meets in Telkwa and is in the Yellowhead West District. There are four clubs: Mid Valley, Evelyn, Quick and Topley.
Members don’t have to live on a farm. Categories for projects, other than the big animals, beef, horse and sheep also include rabbit, junior leadership, self-determined and ambassador. There is also the possibility of many more categories such as gardening, sewing, etc.
When my daughter was in 4-H, I was once asked to judge a demonstration competition which made me nervous. How to be fair? To my relief I didn’t know who won until I tallied up their individual marks.
As we can see from the categories, and away from show time, 4-H, for the large part, is about young club members.
Robin Evans, a leader for the Mid Valley Club, has been in 4-H since the fair was on Main Street. One of her memories, of those young 4-H days, is chasing her steer through town and catching it when it made its way all the way to the train station.
