Livestock Wala'au

S2 Ep 03 Hawaii County 4H Program

June 06, 2022 Season 2 Episode 3
Livestock Wala'au
S2 Ep 03 Hawaii County 4H Program
Show Notes Transcript

Aloha and thank you for tuning in to season 2! 

If you every wondered about how to get involved with 4H or just want to learn more about 4H programs in Hawaii, then this is the episode for you!In this episode we will be talking with  Becky Settlage, who is the county extension agent for 4H programs in East Hawaii. Come learn about the program, how you can help support 4H members or become one yourself!

Episode  Resources:

  • 2022 Hawaii County 4-H Livestock Show & Sale
    • June 17-18, 2022 Anderson Arena 47-5124 Hawaii Belt Rd. (Between Waimea & Honoka’a) 
    • Schedule of Events: 
      • Friday, June 17th 
        • 3:30 PM Cloverbud Exhibit 
        • 4:00 PM Poultry Show 
        • 4:30 PM Goat Show 
      • Saturday, June 18th 
        • 8:00 AM Welcome 
        • 8:30 AM Hog Show & Showmanship 
        • 9:30 AM Lamb Show & Showmanship 
        • 10:30 AM Steer Show & Showmanship followed by Heifer Show 
        • 11:30 AM Large Animal Round Robin
        •  12:30 PM Buyer’s Lunch 
        • 2:00 PM Auction
  • East Hawaii 4H Program 
  • East Hawaii 4-H & Hawaii County 4-H Livestock Facebook
  • East Hawaii 4-H Instagram

Mahalo for listening & hope you will participate in providing feedback about our podcast!

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Additional Resources:


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Shannon Sand:

Aloha Today's episode is brought to you by the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and the livestock extension group.

Melelani Oshiro:

Aloha welcome, everyone to the livestock wala'au, a podcast aims to provide educational support information, guidance and outreach to our livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your hosts Mele Oshiro and Shannon sand. And today we'll be talking about the Hawaii four H programs with our county extension agent Becky settlers. Thank you, Becky, for joining us today.

Shannon Sand:

Yes, everyone. So Becky is the county extension agent for forage programs in East Hawaii. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Becky to share a little bit about her background and how she came into this position and job. So Becky, take it away.

Becky Settlage:

Well, thanks for having me today. And and as it's been mentioned, I'm the county extension agent here on the Big Island. And I oversee the four H youth development program on the east side, as well as I handled the forest livestock program I like and I've been working now with the University of Hawaii CTAHR program for over 15 years.

Shannon Sand:

Nice. Wow. Yeah. Got a little time in with us. Yeah.

Melelani Oshiro:

Just a little bit. There. Yeah. Yeah. So you cover you mentioned forage programs across the youth as well as the livestock you want to talk a little bit about, I guess, the livestock side of things, right, because that's a big program. And that's a statewide responsibility in your job. Is that correct?

Unknown:

There is a little bit of statewide responsibility that goes along with it for for all of the forage livestock agents, but for the most part, my job responsibilities here on the Big Island. Okay.

Melelani Oshiro:

And I know that that's a big program, because your livestock youth folks, you know, I remember it when it was over Milani, and whatnot. So you want to talk a little bit about the livestock program? And I guess you know, what it's all about for the kids, you know, and you have an annual typically there's an annual show, but we'll talk about that a little bit as well. But you want to share more about the livestock programs?

Unknown:

Yeah, sure. So the forest livestock program is probably one of our biggest programs that that we do here on the Big Island. And even statewide, I think it's probably one of our largest interests from the four H members to do as a project. And over here on the Big Island, we do cattle projects, sheep projects, how to projects, goat projects, and then small animals, which typically are poultry. But we also do rabbit projects. And, and we typically will see some of our younger kids are Clover buds, which don't get an opportunity to actually do some of the same things as older kids as far as like selling their animals, but they can still learn about lap size animals. So typically, you'll see those kids they do the chickens and or poultry and the rabbits project. So

Shannon Sand:

Clover buds, they're the I want to I care it's been so that tells you my age. It's been so long since I've been informed by seeing Clover buds, Are they under eight category? Like five to eight or somewhere in that? I forgot the age range? Sorry, correct? Yeah.

Unknown:

No, they're from age, five years old, to eight years old. The December 31 of the current year. So yeah, so and it's a great opportunity for them to just learn and, and have fun. Without all of the things that the older kids have to do, like record books.

Shannon Sand:

I was gonna say, I don't think they are the pressures nearly a little more difficult to keep records when you're five. Yeah.

Unknown:

Yeah. Hey, you know what? They're learning some of those life skills.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, for sure. For sure. They still have to be learned to be responsible, right with their animals and stuff. So what's the age range? And for the older kids, they're nine and up. Is that correct? Enough? Yeah. And it goes all the way through high school for those those guys right. So correct me and I've heard some, some kids have been in in the forage program from when the Recover buds right and just gone through everything like Shannon's raising her hand. Yeah, it was Yeah,

Unknown:

well, technically, they can do it, at least here in Hawaii. They can do four H programs or projects until they're 19. But most of the kids by you know, they graduate and they're like 17 years old, and a lot of them you know, go off to college and stuff. So we don't see very many, if at all, any, you know, They once in a blue moon, somebody wants to do it, but the time commitment to attend club meetings and do all the other things that are involved, I think it gets a little hard to balance at all, if you're in college, so, or after you get out of high school, so so we don't we don't really see that, but there is an option if there were us that wanted to continue on.

Melelani Oshiro:

So that I guess that was one question I was going to ask you like what, you know, for the parent side? Parent? What? What kind of commitment are you looking at? Um, you know, I mean, the kids have, obviously, are going to have the responsibility to, you know, that's the point of it is for them to learn how to do it on their own. But the parents do have to be involved as well. So what kind of involvement do you expect? Or Should parents anticipate if they want to have their children involved in the program?

Unknown:

Well, yeah, you know, for the most part, again, we we want the kids to do the work themselves. But it's a family affair. I mean, it's, you know, we want the families to know what their kids are doing and be involved in it, we just don't want it to become the parents, you know, Project animal. Sometimes, sometimes that's a little hard, you know, because, again, you know, we think about maybe those days, when we grew up in four h, and how much fun we had, you know, maybe we did really well, and always had a grand champion, and, you know, and, you know, we want to relive those moments, which is all great. But, but again, we have to always remember that this is the child's project. And, and, and so hopefully, they are the ones that are doing all the work, but, you know, I think you have to consider the child's age as well, you know, first year nine year old, you know, trying to do any of the project areas are going to need some help, you know, especially like, if it's, even if it's like a lamb, you know, sometimes those lambs outweigh the, the member. So it does take a little bit more work on the part of the parents to, you know, help those kids out until their animals are gentle enough to, to be able to be handled by the child. And then, you know, as I get older, you know, there's more responsibility on them, because, of course, they're old enough now to care for the animal handle the animal, you know, that kind of thing. And, and so, by that time, you know, the amount of work that the rest of the family or, you know, the parents are doing should be pretty minimal. And, and I think for the most part, you know, we see that, you know, there, there's great support from the family. But, you know, the parents are making sure that their kids are doing the work so that we don't have too much problems, like you would see on the mainland and stuff. So that's, that's not too bad. That's good.

Melelani Oshiro:

So what is the if, if folks want to have their kids involved in the livestock side of things, when should they start to prepare? And like, you know, they know, there's certain times of the year that you have to get their animals by and all that kinds of stuff. So what what's that time period? I guess, like when kids want to join up to become members?

Unknown:

Yeah, so um, so what I, this was, personally me, what I would suggest is, if you have kids that want to be involved, doing a four h livestock project, our four h year starts off October 1. So I would definitely be trying to get them into a club as early or as close to October 1 as possible. You know, as far as the actual start dates for each project, it varies for each animal species. Our cattle projects start January 1, and then our swine project start in early March, as well as the swine and goats, I believe they start early April. And, and small animal projects kind of are more into April and May. And so yeah, there's a lot of time frame between October and those dates. But you have to consider to that, that, you know, there's so much opportunities throughout the year that we want our four H members to be able to participate in, and we don't want them to miss out on all of those opportunities. So again, get them in rolled as early as possible. Typically, our cutoff date for returning members is the middle of November to be enrolled. New members. You know, will you know if there's a member or a new member, potential member coming on board, that maybe he's not really sure if they're going to do a project or not. You know, they have that liberty to wait a little bit longer. But, um, but for myself, I like to put To cut off date, by the first Friday of February, we do hold a mandatory quality assurance program, workshop that the kids have to even do online or, hopefully in the future, we'll be able to do them more in person, but they need to complete those projects, or that training. And so in order for them to be able to, you know, we want them to do those trainings prior to getting their animals. And so if they wait too long, you know, a lot of times the kids will be like, Oh, well, I already have my animal. Well, you know, it makes it really hard to kind of go back and, and correct maybe some things that they probably should have been doing with their animals related to quality assurance. So, so again, the earlier to get them into better. And, and, and of course, you know, again, we just want all of the kids to, to experience as much a forage as they possibly can and not have it just be that they're raising that animal.

Melelani Oshiro:

Right. Right. to the show. Yeah. Yeah. Since you mentioned mentioned the show, when you add you guys have an annual show every year. I mean, of course, you know, we've had some some, what do you call cancellations and certain things and postponements and certain things, and, you know, we've had to change some programs across CTAHR Like anything else, but um, can we anticipate a livestock show this year for four? H?

Unknown:

Yeah, no. And again, that's a good question. We've had to deal with COVID the last two years and, and so that's kind of put a little bit of a challenge in our in our programs. But we've been very fortunate to have the support of our county Livestock Association, you know, helping these kids to get their animal projects completed for the year. And we've had wonderful support to from, you know, buyers that have helped these kids financially and in buying those animals. And, and so it's been great. Right now, currently, you know, the Livestock Association is still working on the details for this year's Livestock Show and sale. But right now, I guess what I can tell you is, is we are moving forward, as if we're going to be having our show and sale. You know, just kind of take note that anything can change. And you know, this COVID situation, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that we just keep moving forward. But we're looking to do our livestock show and sale on Friday and Saturday of June 17 and 18th. Okay, and it'll be held up in Waimea. Okay, last few years, we've held it at the rocking chair arena. And we'll probably be there again this year. And we'll have a good selection of some, you know, market and breeding cattle market and breeding cheap market hogs, breeding goats, and then we'll hopefully maybe even have a small number of poultry. So, you know, we'll know more as time goes on, you know, right now the kids are just getting their animals. And, you know, we have screening to go through and that sort of thing. And so we'll get a better idea of what's going to end up at the show come June. So but we hope the community will come out and, you know, support our four H members because again, they've worked so hard putting these projects together. And, and so we'd love to love to be able to see them after two years of

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, yeah, it would be nice to be able to get there and see the kids in person. And yeah, they always they're always, like really proud of their animals. And they want to show and, you know, we see them hanging out over there. So I give them good credit for all that work they put in so it'd be nice.

Unknown:

We did it. We were able last year to have you know, yeah, a small show, which was great. But it was by invitation only last year, again, because of COVID. So So again this year, you know, our hope is to be able to keep it open to whoever's interested in coming out and, and supporting the kids.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, I feel like that's a great opportunity for those that are kind of thinking to, to get their kids involved, you know, go and see the show, if it's there. And, you know, talk to some of the other members that are there in the the kids you know, and just kind of find out what it's all about and see if your kids really interesting because it's an investment, you know, on both sides to the parents and child. So I took my kid there when he was only what I think three at that time. And, you know, he was hanging all over everything. But you know, we'll see as he gets older, right and gets to have to do more responsive.

Shannon Sand:

And, you know, like your interest change to you know, as you grow. So yeah, those things could be a

Melelani Oshiro:

good opportunity. So do I have another question? So do all members have of the for each club have to be part of the livestock or there's other options? Non livestock options, right for the forage members?

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. So thanks for bringing that up. And so, we are a lot more than just our forage livestock programs. You know, again, earlier I mentioned that, yeah, it is one of our more popular project areas that kids like to get into. But yes, we are so much more than that. You know, as far as our, our animal projects, you know, again, a lot of our focus is on the beef, the hogs and the sheep and goats, and you know, and then some of the small animals like poultry and rabbits, but, you know, other popular animal projects that we have involve horse, we do have a dog group, we, hopefully this fall, we'll have a llama group. And so again, you know, it's, it's more than just our livestock show that we do. And then, of course, for age centers around a lot of other program areas, involving civic engagement. So you're talking leadership, community service, healthy living, so looking at, you know, our mind and body, so you know, social and emotional well being plus fitness, health, nutrition, and safety. And, and then, of course, then there's the science and agriculture programs. So that includes things like engineering and technology, environmental science, and of course, plant science. So, so most of our, our non animal, four H clubs, you know, again, the last couple years, they've taken COVID breaks, but we're hoping to, again, rebuild on some of the those programs. And now that our restrictions are kind of slowly starting to lift. And so so my hope is that this fall, that we're going to be able to have some of our previous programs back, as well as you know, get some new ones started. And so so we're looking to try to get our shooting sports program going again, offering some sewing and cooking projects. And then, and then, of course, we'll always probably have programs like our annual Hawaii County giant national contest, which, you know, we've had now for 10 years, and it's, it's been a very popular program as well. And, you know, I do want to make a quick note to that, you know, again, our programs can't run as wonderful as they have been, without the four h volunteers here. Yeah. So again, I mean, they give so much of their time. And, and so if you know, of anybody that's interested in becoming a volunteer, or if they're, you know, if they themselves are wanting to become a volunteer, you know, please get a hold of us and, and, let's get the process started and having you become a volunteer and, and so you're able to share those talents that you have, and, and if they do it now, there'll be ready come October 1, we can just get them off and running with their clubs and, and it will be so wonderful and so great. And, and I should mention, too, that, you know, we always think about the four H clubs, but four h is also in the schools. So we do a lot of school enrichment programs and after school programs. And in the past, I've also collaborated with other youth groups in the community. So like our county parks and rec facilities, you know, in the area I've worked with, and as well, YMCA, we've done programs with the combine a kid programs, and after school, all star programs, so So we're out there, you know, trying to, you know, because we're all in it for the same reason for the kids. And so, you know, these collaborations that we do from time to time, you know, helps everyone, you know, as a whole. And so, so again, there's a lot of ways to get involved with our forage program. Nice.

Shannon Sand:

That's so exciting to like, hear how like, just the different programs are out there for the kids, I always feel like the breadth and depth of four h has just evolved so much over the past like couple decades, it's just so much more than it was you know, so. Okay, so if someone wants to get their kids involved, where can they find out some like dish additional information about getting involved? Or like, do they contact you? Are there other points of contact to find out about the different clubs and things like that? Or how if someone wants to get their kids involved? How do they go about that?

Unknown:

Yeah, so for the most part, anyone that that is interested in joining for, he usually will typically give me a call here at my office right now through I believe it's about the middle of May. They're all that we have the Tractor Supply companies for each paper Clover campaign happening right now. And so we do have a display so if any nobody is around. During that time, stop on by and, and take a look at our display. And we do have a few signup sheets there on the table on the display table so people can leave their contact information. And at the end of the paper cover campaign, I'll pick that up, and we'll start making some contacts with people and start looking at how we can, you know, get these interested families involved with with four h. So that's, that's another good way. We do have our Facebook page that I try to keep pretty current and and as things come about, I do list them on there. And I do have an Instagram page as well. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah. So they can they can find us on Instagram at East Hawaii, four h and then our Facebook. They can search East Why four h and Hawaii County four h livestock. And that's all one. That's the whole title for for that Facebook page is kind of long. But if you start typing in Eastway, four h it'll pop right up anyway. So

Shannon Sand:

okay, good. Good in the show notes in the description box. So sure.

Unknown:

Okay, great. Great. Thank you. Yeah, no

Shannon Sand:

problem.

Melelani Oshiro:

Well, thank you so much, Becky, for sharing all that. Is there anything else you want to add about the forage programs? I think one thing I I'd like you to highlight is your giant vegetable contest. And that you guys do because that was pretty amazing. I mean, and it was great, because you guys are still able to do some of that when we were kind of locked down from doing anything during COVID. So you have to share a little bit more about that, because that was a really cool thing, I think.

Unknown:

Yeah, sure. Yeah. So about 10 years ago, we got this all started with just growing giant pumpkins and, and seeing the popularity of it and, and seeing how much fun people had. You know, it was really hard for us to not continue it from that point on. And so yeah, 10 years later, we're still doing this program. But now, not only are we just growing giant pumpkins, but we're doing giant tomatoes, giant watermelons, you name it, we're dry, you know, we're growing lots of different types of giant fruits and vegetables. And so it's just now getting started. Our first set of plants will be going out to those that signed up, probably at the end of May. And and then, you know, the plants will be going out at different times from about the end of May through about early July, roughly. And yeah, so there'll be growing up through the summer. And then our hope is that come September, we'll have entries that people can bring in and we're wham hopefully we get some some new state records. And maybe if we're lucky enough, put Hawaii on the map for growing something really, really big.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Unknown:

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And, you know, it's not an easy contest to do. Put that out there. But those that have done it and maybe weren't successful at getting something to this scale, had so much fun, that they come back and do it again. And so we tell everybody, you know, make sure you have some realistic goals, even though these seeds genetically have the potential to grow, really monster size fruits and vegetables. You know, again, you need to be able to know what it is that you're doing to really get the full potential from it. But but for the most part, you can get some pretty decent size fruits and vegetables. And again, you have to start with a you know, your very first personal best, and then, you know, work up from there. So yeah, so it's a lot of fun. And so I hope to be able to continue this program for many, many more years.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Nice. That sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah. Well, thank you so much again for joining us today, Becky, we hope our listeners found some of this information very informative. And I will check out some of the opportunities for either becoming a forage member or just attending the livestock show and supporting our members that way. Also, if you have not already done so, Shannon, are still seeking your feedback on our feedback. Festo, please let us know your thoughts about this podcast or any of the other ones that you have listened to. If you would like to hear other topics guests are, like I said, what you want to hear more of?

Shannon Sand:

Yeah, and make sure to join our Facebook page, the livestock extension group. If you haven't already, be sure to visit the U H. CTAHR. Extension website and our YouTube channel listed in the show notes.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah. For additional information about this topic. We'll also link four H clubs in the show notes of the podcast and the Description Box. several YouTube page. Thanks again for listening to the livestock Folau before we go show some love for your favorite podcasts. That's us by the way, leaving us a review on Apple podcasts and stay tuned for next month's episode.

Shannon Sand:

Thanks again to our sponsors the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, the livestock extension group and CTAHR, Ohio