Livestock Quality Assurance

New Project Handbook!

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Just a few updates for you all this Friday.

Project Handbook is Available!!!

This is the handbook with all project requirements and livestock charts with requirements, what to expect with judging, etc. For those of you who do not know, this is taking place of the white handbooks families have got in the past. Please, check it out at the link below!

This handbook can be found online at the following link:

https://belmont.osu.edu/program-areas/4-h-youth-development/4-h-handbooks-guides

 

LQA Training

We have another Livestock Quality Assurance Training coming up next week!

When: Jun 23, 2020 10:00 AM

Where: ZOOM!

Reminder, any 4-H & FFA members taking a market or lactating dairy animal, must attend one training session yearly, unless they have tested out!

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUlcuCvqD8iGtQFS9NPWhwCSpyxyz1Yf07i

After registering, members will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

 

Return to Office

Starting this week, 4-H Program Assistant, Crystal Antill will returned to working in the Extension office on THURSDAYS ONLY. Please, be advised that we are NOT open to walk-ins. If you need to pick up or drop off something, this must be made by appointment with me on Thursdays only. We are offering curbside pick up and drop off of forms, project books, etc. This does not include livestock tags at this time either.

       *Click for larger preview of press release

Due to COVID-19 and all the craziness, we are planning on having a small awards presentation before our next 4-H Council meeting. We will be recognizing various year end award winners for last year’s Blue Ribbon Officers, Achievement Award winners and scholarship winners. This will take place on Tuesday, July 28th at the Wise Building at 5:30 PM. Cake and punch will be provided.

 

Thank you all for your continued efforts to make the best better! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

ON BEHALF OF OSU STATE 4-H OFFICE & BELMONT COUNTY 4-H PROFESSIONALS

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To our 4-H Families:

It has been a quite a couple of weeks with changes coming quickly. Thank you for your patience with your county 4-H staff, the state 4-H office and OSU Extension. I know you have many questions:

  • When can we have club meetings?
  • Will there be summer camp?
  • Should we invest in projects?
  • What about fair?

 

The answer is at this point, we just don’t know. It is all changing rapidly. But what we do know for sure is that we’re committed to doing our part to help prevent the spread of the corona virus. We also know that when we choose to act together, we can have incredible positive impacts.

The actions we’ve taken so far are in alignment with necessary precautions recommended by the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Ohio Department of Health. These are in place to help keep us all from getting, or unintentionally spreading, this virus. This includes the temporary closing to the public of our county Extension office. We’ll continue to be available via email and phone.

Phone: 740-695-1455

Email: Keyser.1@osu.edu  or Antill.19@osu.edu

To help clarify, ALL 4-H events, programs, and activities scheduled between now and April 20 be held virtually, postponed, or cancelled.

 

4-H Project Book Distribution

We are also suspending 4-H project book distribution, effective as of 3/18/2020 through 3/31/2020. This means there will be no project book distribution at the local or state level until after March 31. We will continue to monitor the coronavirus situation and will re-evaluate project book distribution as we get closer to March 31 and share more information with you at that time.

 

Enrollment & Deadlines

Due to Belmont County still having paper copy enrollments, forms shall be mailed via USPS and will be retrieved and processed when OSU Extension staff are able to return from their temporary, mandatory teleworking arrangements or when OSU Extension staff are able to retrieve postal mail. Deadlines will be adjusted accordingly. Volunteers and families also have the option to scan documents or send pictures of documents to antill.19@osu.edu for processing. Hard copies can then be mailed to the Extension Office or dropped off once OSU Extension staff return from teleworking. Again, deadlines will be adjusted due to circumstances.

OSU Extension Belmont County

101 North Market Street, Suite A

St. Clairsville, OH 43950

 

For our livestock project members and families, Ohio 4-H and the Ohio Department of Agriculture discussed some changes for this year that will help mitigate the effects the corona virus is having on holding in-person programming. For livestock quality assurance (QA) for the 2020 year only:

  • QA must still be completed before the opening day of exhibition, however the 45-day prior to the opening of the exhibition requirement will not be enforced.
  • Youth livestock exhibitors (8-18) may take the online YQCA certification.

 

In the coming days, we’ll post updates on our social media pages (Facebook and Instagram), 4-H Blog and OSU Extension website. We’ll also include links to resources that you and your children can use. And we’ll do what we can to keep you updated as we learn new information.

Please continue to take care of yourselves and know that we do not expect everything to continue as it normally would have. This is a huge period of adjustment for all of us. We appreciate your continued patience – we’ll get through this together. Don’t fret over deadlines for enrollments or how you are going to get that Livestock Quality Assurance training complete or getting your volunteer 1.50 training done. We are going to all work together make sure we get everything accomplished with some adjustments and accommodations!

 

Thank you,

Belmont County 4-H Professionals and State 4-H Office