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Making A Difference
Impact Summary Reports
- 2012 - Year in Review
- Beef Systems
- 4-H
- Learning Child
- Guardianship/Conservator Training Program
- IPM
- Crops - Youth Programming
- Agricultural Economics
- Cropping Systems Productivity
- Food, Nutrition & Health
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2012 Burt County Fair Book
Burt County 4-H Members
State Fair Bound
These proud 4-H members had their 4-H items selected to go to the State Fair. They will be bringing these exhibits and many others to the Extension Office this week so they can be transported to Grand Island on Wednesday, August 22.
2012 Static and Small Animal/Poultry Exhibit Results, PDF (189 kb)
2012 County Fair Awards for Static Exhibitors, PDF (26 kb)
2012 Swine Show Results, PDF (81 kb)
2012 Beef Show Results, PDF (82 kb)
2012 Meat Goat Show Results, PDF (63 kb)
2012 Horse Show Results, PDF (73 kb)
4-H Rocket Launch Results
The 4-H rocket launch was held July 26th just south of Decatur at Roger’s Sod Farm. Topping the results was Heidi Miller with William Weiland claiming Reserve Champion Results. Purple ribbons were also earned for excellent rocket launches and recoveries to Brent Miller, Michael Bracht and Jacob Unwin. A blue ribbon was given to Layne Miller who suffered a failed first launch attempt with his rocket.
Clothing, Fashion Show, Presentations and Life Challenge Contest
It was a very busy day last Friday, July 27 at the Tekamah Auditorium. 25 outfits were modeled in front of the judge. Many more clothing exhibits were judged in preparation for county fair exhibit. Sixteen 4-H members excitedly took part in the Life Challenge Contest which sent them out in pairs to the drug store and grocery store to test their knowledge concerning food, nutrition, fashion sense and more. Then the teams came back to the Tekamah Auditorium and worked on an oral reasons question which they presented to the judge. They will receive their awards on Friday evening, after the fashion show..
The 4-H Presentation Contest...
was also part of the busy day. This year we had six 4-H members participate which is outstanding since just a few years ago we had none! In the Junior Division Ashley Bohannon and Marin Jetensky both of Tekamah gave a team presentation on “The Perfect Blend” (making smoothies) and earned a purple ribbon and champion honors. In the Senior Division Nick Bohannon, or Tekamah took Champion honors with his presentation on “Our Wired Lives” which discussed the technology which has become part of all our lives. Lisa Burghardt, of Craig earned Reserve Champion honors with her presentation titled “Corn is Born” which discussed how genetics work in the seed corn industry.
Amelia Schlichting, of Lyons claimed a purple ribbon with her button craft presentation titled “Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?” Jodi Kosis , of Tekamah gave her first 4-H presentation titled “A.I.” She discussed (among other things) the electronic codes in many household items such as baby monitors that can sometimes go awry and make noises on their own. She received a red ribbon.
Tractor Driving Contest Results
Quilt of Valor 4-H Project/Exhibit to be Presented to Service Person
Greta Lindberg stepped up this year to make Burt County's Quilt of Valor. Greta's quilt will be on display at the upcoming 2012 NE State Fair in Grand Island. From there it will be presented to a United States military service man or woman to keep.
Great Enthusiasm and Real Skills Gained at 4-H Workshops
4-H workshops have and always will offer 4-H members and sometimes extended family members the opportunity to learn a new skill or expand their current knowledge into new areas.
This has been the case in the workshops held recently in Burt County and will be in all future ones.
Recently the Fun with Foods Workshop was held. The day started out with 4-H members learning about the food pyramid as well as the new “My Plate” nutrition information. They then applied this knowledge to plan a meal they could serve their guests that afternoon. They brainstormed ideas of how they could use ground beef, as that was the “shop at home first” idea they learned about using what was already in their freezer or cabinets. The group decided on making spaghetti and then looked through the grocery ads to plan their shopping trip.After eating lunch and buying the groceries needed, it was time to get to work. Part of the group worked on the main course, while the rest handled the lettuce and mandarin orange salad with homemade dressing, cheese bread and apple/Snickers salad for dessert. Between preparation activities, sessions were held on identifying specialized kitchen tools (one of the 4-H members thought a hand flour sifter could be used as a fan, creative but not accurate!) and on proper table setting skills. Then it was time for the real test…company was coming and we needed to get the table set and food ready to serve on time. Everything went very well and the 4-H members were proud of the meal they prepared and the appropriate appreciation they received from their guests. Of course cleaning up the kitchen was the last lesson of the day and everyone went home or on to other activities feeling pleased with the day’s events.
An entirely different set of skills were explored with the Barn Quilt Workshop. 4-H members first learned the background of quilt making. Small fabric pieces, left-over or cut out of recycled fabrics were used to create a quilt top. This was then stitched together with padding and another piece of fabric to not only keep family members warm in the winter, but showcase the skills of the quilt maker with their beautiful work of art. This artwork was then transformed by using paint as the artistic medium to create quilt designs on pieces of boards to be hung on barns. Depending on their age and/or skill level the 4-H members picked a quilt block pattern for their barn quilt. Using math skills they drew the pattern on their barn quilt board, which is actually aluminum core board as it is smoother and more durable than plywood. Next they learned a little about color and how their choices will look when combined on their barn quilt. Taping the painting lines is a tedious process, but having straight edges and points that meet will be worth the effort. They are finally ready to start painting. Most of the time several light coats of paint with short drying times in between provided excellent coverage. Then more drying time, taking off the painting tape and re-taping new design lines kept them busy all morning for two days. A few members ended up going home with additional work needed to complete their exhibit. It’s a very lively scene as 18 4-H members taped and painted their projects before moving to the drying areas all the while asking questions on the best way to complete their projects. Look for these beautiful barn quilts at the county fair this year.
SET Camp was SET-sational!
The Science Engineering and Technology (SET) Camp held June 26 on the Burt County Fairgrounds in Oakland was truly SET-sational! The twelve young 4-H members (ages ranging from 6-13) arrived eager to learn new things in a camp atmosphere. One grandmother told me her grandson woke up at 5:30 a.m. that morning all excited to go to camp and wanted to call Grandma at 6:30 to make sure she didn’t forget to get him! Two other campers planned to skip out of the camp to go to swimming lessons for an hour, but they decided they didn’t want to miss any of the activities, so they skipped the swimming lessons instead. Those kinds of testimonies really make you feel good!
The SET Camp started out with a session on GPS (Global Positioning System) which included a scavenger hunt using GPS units to find their morning snack.The group then worked on putting the finishing touches on their solar ovens. Justine Bucy, our summer intern did the major work on this project, but the final touches were left to the campers. Carroll Welte, UNL Extension Educator in Burt County helped place the ovens in the bright sunlight and warned everyone not to look at the ovens without sunglasses. The wind caused some stability problems with the solar ovens, so they ended up getting hot, but not hot enough to cook very effectively. We ended up with boiled, not sun-cooked hotdogs for lunch.
Wind Energy was another area of study and the campers worked in pairs or sometimes individually to design wind turbine blades that would work most effectively when tested in front of a fan. The energy they created was only matched by the excitement of seeing how well their blades worked, or if they made a minor adjustment, how that changed the energy output.No camp is complete without some games.
The group got to experience all sorts of potato races and then cooled down with a lesson on Newton’s First Law of Motion, “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” The Egg Drop Trick had campers placing a tin pie plate on a glass of water, topped by a cardboard toilet paper roll, with an egg placed sideways on the roll. (Larger eggs work better because they can be placed upright, but we made do!) When everything is arranged they hang on to the glass of water and sharply hit the pie plate sideways to send it flying. The cardboard roll goes with it, but the egg just drops safely (usually) into the water glass. The egg is the object at rest and it stays at rest as the pie plate and toilet paper roll flies out from underneath it. Gravity takes over and causes it to fall into the water glass. Try it yourself…it’s jaw dropping!
Robotics was another area of study for the SET Campers and they jumped right in and worked to design robots from LEGO robotics kit pieces. The group took time to practice some teamwork as they took part in a water balloon volleyball game outside. Each team held a bed sheet by the edges and then worked together to throw a water balloon from the sheet, over to the other team’s sheet. Lots of fun and laughter and very little mess…really!
The final activity of the day was creating a plant terrarium from a wide mouth canning jar. The campers put all the “ingredients” in the jar in the right order to create a growing exhibit they can exhibit at the county fair and enjoy for years to come.
Helping throughout the day to make the camp such a SET-sational success was: Justine Bucy, Kayla Johnson, Katie Loftis, and Nick Bohannon.
Burt County 4-H Forms and Newsletters
2011 State Fair Results are at 4h.unl.edu
4-H Links of Interest:
4-H Livestock Ownership Affadavits
Nebraska State Fair - 4H
Nebraska State Fair
Ak-Sar-Ben
Quality Assurance
PASE (Premier Animal Science Event)