Hello 4-H Members,
Although the Ohio State Fair has been cancelled, you may be planning to attend the 2020 Ohio Youth Livestock Expo in July/August. This new show (for beef, sheep, goats, and hogs) is following similar rules, guidelines, protocol of the Ohio State Fair – although it is being planned independently from the Ohio State Fair by other individuals in the livestock industry.
The deadline for entries is Friday, July 10th. (https://theoyle.com/) You must be enrolled in the 4-H or FFA project you plan to enter at the county level. They will be verifying entries with county level enrollments (just like the State Fair does). Additionally, we learn just over a week ago that Quality Assurance is required and I found out on Friday that their deadline for QA is July 13th at 5:00 p.m. I realize this puts those in Fairfield County in a tight window to complete QA by their deadline. I will do what I need to help you complete QA if you plan to exhibit in this event.
Your options:
1. Complete Quality Assurance online through YQCA. This is the only approved online option. It does cost $12 per member annually. If you plan to show in other livestock shows this year outside of Ohio – I actually recommend completing QA in this way as some of the national stock shows actually will require YQCA to meet their Quality Assurance Requirement. Visit http://yqca.org/ to complete QA if you choose this option. Fairfield County 4-H Members should select “sign in with 4-HOnline”. It will prompt you to select a state and then enter your 4-HOnline account information. After successfully logging in, you will be given a list of active family members. Select the family member and start the account creation process. Fairfield County FFA Members (who are not in 4-H) should select FFA & Independent Sign-In. When complete, you will get a certificate number. For a complete list of directions visit: Getting Your YQCA Online Certification Please email your certificate number to cooksey.25@osu.edu.
2. Talk to your club advisor. Some are trained to teach Quality Assurance. I know that they are still figuring out how their meetings will look now that in-person events can resume. If your advisor is planning to teach QA by July 13th, they are able to do this in-person with you.
3. If the above options do not work for you, email me IMMEDIATELY. I am trained for Fairfield County to conduct Quality Assurance via Zoom (club advisors are not). If anyone needs this option, be prepared to plan on this happening between now and July 13th. Date TBD (We are busy with summer judging prep, but we’ll make it happen if anyone needs it).
Please reach out to me if you have any questions (email cooksey.25@osu.edu or phone 740-277-4625).
Thanks!
Leslie Cooksey