Sibley County 4-H Newsletter

Hello! My name is Alivia Strack and I am the Sibley County 4-H Summer Coordinator. I am from Arlington, MN. I graduated college from Southwest Minnesota State University with a degree in elementary education. Next fall, I will be teaching 2nd grade at RTR Elementary in Tyler, MN. I enjoy spending time outdoors, going for walks, being at the lake, sports, and reading. I am excited to provide 4-H opportunities for youth and to help at the Sibley County Fair.

Fair Entry - There was a packet mailed last week with instructions for Fair Entry. Fair Entry is the program that 4-H uses to create entries of the projects you are bringing to the fair. All entries need to be completed by Sunday, June 30 at 11:59 p.m. This is a strict deadline. If you miss this deadline, you will not be eligible for State Fair, the Ribbon Auction, and can’t receive any better than a blue. If you have any questions about this process, please contact the Sibley County Extension Office at 507-237-4100. If you need details or rules about project areas, County Fair Premium Book is once again available online this year. If you would like a hard copy you can stop by the Extension Office and pick one up. We will not be mailing them out.

Ribbon Auction - Included in the packet were details of the Ribbon Auction this year. REMEMBER: We made significant changes to the Auction in 2022. Please read over these documents carefully. The deadline to turn in your Potential Bidder form with signatures is June 30. If you do not have the form turned in by this deadline, you will not be able to participate in the ribbon auction. Before the county fair, you are going to want to take a picture of you and your project. If you have multiple options that you may be interested in selling at the ribbon auction, I would suggest taking a picture with each option. During the county fair, you will turn in the Auction Sign Up form stating which ribbon you would like to sell with a picture of that project you took before the fair. (This picture could be a hard copy or emailed to Connie or Joleen.) The deadline to turn this form in is Friday at 10 p.m. or for swine members Saturday at 11 a.m. Please reach out to the extension office if you have any questions.

Food Stand Sign Up - Once again we will still be using online sign up for Food Stand Shifts. ALL 4-HERS WILL BE REQUIRED TO WORK AT LEAST ONE SHIFT, CLOVERBUDS ARE OPTIONAL (but feel free to sign up for more). There will be an incentive for people who sign up for two shifts and one of them include a Friday or Saturday Night Shift. We will also need LOTS OF ADULTS to sign up. This will be on a first come first serve basis, so in order to get your preferred time and job sign up early. Look for more information (via email) in the upcoming weeks on how to sign up. Please contact our office with any questions or if you do not have access to a computer and we can get you signed up for a shift.

Again This Year - You will have TWO opportunities to help clean up the 4-H Food Stand. We will be meeting at the 4-H Food Stand on Monday, July 22 AND Tuesday, July 23 from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Come one day or both days. Each club is to have at least two representatives at Food Stand Clean Up. We will need lots of help. Many hands make the workload light. Remember, if you come to help clean up this does not replace or count towards your Food Stand Shift. You will still need to work in the Food Stand. The Ambassadors will be cleaning the 4-H Exhibit Building on Wednesday, July 24 from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. Please bring old rags, buckets, brooms, and lots of energy. The Stalling Meeting will still take place on Friday, July 26 starting at 6:00 p.m. with sheep, followed by goats, swine, dairy and beef.

Non-Livestock Judging - Mark your calendars for TUESDAY, July 30, 2024! This will be the entry day for NON-LIVESTOCK projects. We will have conference judging from 2:00 – 6:00 p.m. on TUESDAY before the fairs opens. After judging is over on Tuesday, we will be closing the building and placing the final placings on the projects and will reopen the building Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. At that time you will be able to see the final placings of all the exhibits. Livestock will not be allowed to come into the fair until Wednesday, July 31.

All County Fair 4-H livestock exhibitors in beef, dairy, sheep, swine, poultry, rabbits, meat and dairy goat and lama must have completed a Livestock Quality Assurance and Ethics Workshop. Certification for in person training is good for three Fair seasons. The level of training required is determined by the member’s grade at the time of training. Or the online training is good for one Fair season. There are several options to get certified:

• McLeod County is offering a LQA & E Training on Friday, July 12 or Meeker County is offering a LQA&E Training on Thursday, June 27. Please go to 4HOnline to register.

• Complete the online training and send your completion certificate to jdose@umn.edu so the training can be recorded and documented.

Last year It was decided to combine Demonstration Day, Food Show, Clothing and Quilting Judging Day along with Performing Arts and SHARE THE FUN on Monday, July 15. We will be starting in the morning with Demonstration Day and Food Show and Clothing Day will be starting around Noon. All activities for the day will take place at The Warehouse, 106 N Carver St, Winthrop (next to Tanker's Bay). If you are interested in participating in any of these events, please contact the extension office with the title to your demonstration or performance or your Food Show recipe by noon on Friday July 12. Clothing members will receive a letter in the mail in a few weeks with more details.

Share the Fun Rules: Only one club act per club is allowed. Club acts should set a goal of being 6 minutes long, which is a State Rule. At the county level, any club that goes over 7 minutes will not be allowed to receive 1st or 2nd place or advance to the MN State Fair. Club acts over 7 minutes will be allowed to place 3rd and will still be eligible for Best Costume/Most Creative Set, Most Humorous Skit or Talent Award and Club with Largest Percentage of Participants.

PERFORMING ARTS PROJECT

If you are performing an individual act and would like to use it as a 4-H project, sign up for Performing Arts in Fair Entry. When calling in, please specify if your individual act is part of the Performing Arts project. There will be a judge to judge these separately. What is the Performing Arts project? Look at the paragraph below for further clarification.

Exhibit Requirements: Exhibit can be either a performance or an exhibit that shows a member’s involvement or interest in the performing arts. To be eligible for State Fair, the member must be able to discuss the process of selecting, planning, performing and reflection on their project work. If the exhibit is an actual performance, the performance cannot last longer than 10 minutes.

Exhibit Suggestions: Poster or display about your involvement or interest in the performing arts. A puppet and script made and created by member. Create and perform a short story, show, music selection, etc., and include a write-up about it. A journal or scrapbook (with written statements) of current performing arts experiences. An educational display of some aspect of music, drama, or performing.

Please call the Extension Office if you need further information.

All grooming of livestock at the fair, including clipping, trimming and manipulation of the hair/wool (such as blocking on sheep, pulling up hair on beef and working up top lines on dairy) must be clearly done by the exhibitor, members of the immediate family or a livestock resource chosen by the 4-H family. Immediate family members are defined as being parents, step parents, legal guardians, grandparents, brothers or sisters. A livestock resource is defined as someone who is working with the 4-Her/4-H family to help them learn management and fitting and grooming skills in their project area. A livestock resource identified person would be allowed to work with the 4-Her and their family during the fitting and grooming process to guide and teach these skills. The 4-Her exhibiting the animal should be present and involved in the fitting process at the county fair. The livestock resource person can be used by 4-Hers that are not yet State Fair age eligible and also by first and second year project members.

June 5, 2024 - Shooing Sports Training @ 6:30 p.m. at Gaylord Game Protective League

June 6, 2024 - Llama/Alpaca Shearing Event @ 4:30 p.m. at Cohrs Farm

June 22, 2024 - Poultry Workshop 101 @ 10:00 a.m. at Elbert Farm

June 30, 2024 - Fair Entry Closes and Auction Bidder Forms due @ 11:59 p.m.
July 10, 2024 - Farms Safety Experience @ 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. , location TBD
July 15, 2024 - Food Show & Demonstration Day @ 9:00 a.m. at The Warehouse

July 15, 2024 - Clothing, Quilting and Fashion Revue Judging @ 12:30 p.m. at The Warehouse

July 15, 2024 - Public Fashion Revue, Performing Arts and Share the Fun @ 7:00 p.m. at The Warehouse

July 20, 2024 - Dog Show @ 8:30 a.m. at the Sibley County Fairgrounds

July 22 & 23, 2024 - Food Stand Clean-Up @ 6:00 p.m. at the Sibley County Fairgrounds

July 24, 2024 - Ambassador 4-H Exhibit Building Clean-Up @ 6:00 p.m.

July 26, 2024 - Stalling Meeting @ 6:00 p.m. at the Sibley County Fairgrounds

July 30, 2024 - General Project Judging Day @ 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. at the Sibley County Fairgrounds

July 31 - Aug. 4, 2024 - Sibley County Fair

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