This past Monday was our Annual Achievement Banquet. This year was a little bit more exciting than those of the past. About half way through the banquet there were tornado sirens going off in Goshen. While we thought Kelly would bolt out of the room at any minute, Keith informed us that there was nothing to be alarmed about so we continued on with our program.

We had another full house for the banquet and many tasty dishes to enjoy! Tim & Dale Leer and Floyd Beechy did a wonderful job grilling the meat for the banquet as always. We want to thank Dana J's catering for preparing the Lamb Chops that we enjoyed as well! Also to everyone who brought a dish to share.

We started our awards portion of the program with presenting our Grand Champion, Reserve Grand Champion, Grand Champion Pen of Two and Reserve Grand Champion Pen of Two. We want to thank Millmark Enterprises, Darin & Michelle Miller and Tim Graber for their help with the Awards that these exhibitors received.

We then moved on to our class winners, breed champions and reserve breed champions. We also awarded our breeding showman and showmanship winners from our lamb show during the fair. Other awards given out on Monday night were for the Carcass Show, Shepherd's Quiz & Judging Contest, Costume Contest, Obstacle Course, Achievement Point System, Beginner and Junior Achievements, Skill-a-thon winners, 10 Year members, Career Achievement Awards and Outstanding Members.

On of our most prestigious awards is the Outstanding Member Award. This award goes to a 8-10 year member of the club who has exhibited excellence throughout their lamb club career. The recipients of this award for this year were perfect examples of this. They helped wherever they were needed and were always willing to jump in and get their hands dirty. Congratulations to Quentin Beechy and Zach Holdeman for being named the 2013 Outstanding Members.

    Participating in Round Robin was by far one of the most exciting experiences of my 4-H career. I, honestly, never dreamed I would find myself in the contest, let alone win senior showmanship in a livestock club, so it was a true honor to represent lamb club in this year’s competition.

In short, the winner of Round Robin is considered the “Master Showman” of livestock in 4-H. Dairy, Dairy Feeder, Saddle, Swine, Beef, Lamb, and Goat 4-H clubs are all represented by both showman and their respective species in the contest. Throughout my 10 years of 4-H, I have spent 10 years in Lamb and Dairy and 9 years in Swine, which was a major asset when it came to learning other species. Preparing for the contest was as much fun as participating in the contest itself, Thursday night. To prepare, I visited each representative barn or club and utilized the friendships I’ve made throughout my career. Having friends in clubs like Goat, Beef, and Saddle club really opened up doors to learning about each species. It’s truly amazing how much I learned about different species of livestock between Tuesday night, after I won Lamb Club senior showmanship, and the night of Round Robin. You really get a feel for what the other clubs are like and how much hard work and dedication goes into each and every animal exhibited at the fair.

No matter what club you are in, I strongly suggest that you get yourself as involved as possible, especially with showmanship. Not only is your animal important, but the way you show it is pivotal as well. A good showman can move a decent animal into the ranks of the top of the class, and who doesn’t love placing higher? Find an older member or showmanship winner and ask them for help. Never be afraid to ask questions. It’s amazing what you can learn by getting help from others, and that is one of the greatest things I’ve learned from participating in Round Robin.

Written By: Ryan Kelly - 2013 Lamb Club Champion Senior Showman and                                 Round Robin Representative

    A link came across my news feed today on facebook. It is titled "All that is right with 4-H." As I read the first scenario I knew that this was something that needed to be shared with our club! Please click on the link (the title) and read the article.

    Throughout the last week at the fair, I have witnessed this same thing happening all over the lamb barn! Between our pen of two show and breeding shows, show day is always a day where you can witness 4-hers helping other 4-Hers. Younger or older, new members or experienced sheep showman, it can be said that we have the best group of kids that always work together to get the job done!

    I am very proud to be a part of the Elkhart County Lamb Club. We have many leaders who were once members of the club and came back to mentor the future generations. Please share with us your stories of members who have helped you throughout your 4-H career!

Welcome to the Fun Fair, the everything in one fair! Welcome to the Elkhart County 4-H Fair. We have had a great first half of our fair week!

Friday was a busy day bringing most of the lambs into the barn. The members of the club as well as open show exhibitors moved into the barn. Setting up their home away from home for the week. We have everything from couches to refrigerators as well as our standard tack boxes! This year we had more lambs than our barn could hold! Currently, there are lambs in our barn as well as in the back half of our Sheep/Swine Arena!

Saturday was a fun filled day with our Elkhart County Open Show, sponsored by the Sheep Breeders. They did a terrific job putting on the show that day!

Sunday was a more relaxed fun day at the fair. Our members put on a few demonstrations for the guests who visited our barn. We had two demonstrations on shearing on Sunday where we demonstrated how ewes are shorn in a commercial sheep herd as well as how our show lambs and shorn for show.

Monday was a slow day in the barn. Members worked their shifts in the Lamb Booth while leaders worked on the show program and preparation for the big show day.

Tuesday is the biggest day of the year for our club! All of our members are exhibiting their projects for the year. We host market, breeding and showmanship competitions. Our market show is one of our biggest shows. We are also very proud of our showmanship competition! Over half of the members in our club participate every year! This year we had 78 members participate in our showmanship competition!  That is 68% of our club members!

Congratulations to our winners of our Market & Breeding Shows today!
Grand Champion Single Market Lamb: Austin Bernicky, Claypool, IN
Reserve Grand Champion Single Market Lamb: Zach Holdeman, Nappanee, IN
Grand Champion Pen of Two: Austin Bernicky, Claypool, IN
Reserve Grand Champion Pen of Two: Zach Holdeman, Nappanee, IN
Supreme Ewe: Marissa Lorenz, New Paris, IN
Supreme Ram: Brandi Henderson, Goshen, IN

Showmanship Winners:
Senior: Ryan Kelly
Junior: Austin Bernicky
Beginner: Morgan Sanchez
Greenhand: Brooke Sanchez
Alumni: 39 and under: Andrea Holdeman
Alumni: 40 and over: Tim Brubaker

        My story of 4H began long before I was born. My family has been involved in 4H in our country for over 50 years, so deciding to join a club was something that was already decided for me you might say. Luckily for my family though, I loved everything about 4H. In fact, there has not been a year since my birth where I have not been at the fair for almost the entire week. I remember doing posters for exploring 4H, but when I really became interested was when my cousins let me show one of their Angus Heifers in the beef open show. I don't think I had ever been more excited. I remember showing the cow, and looking at the ribbons and thinking, "I really want that light purple one!" That would have been the reserve champion ribbon, and of course I didn't know what that meant at the time but that happened to be my favorite color, and my lucky day because that is the ribbon I ended up earning. From there, I joined beef and swine club my first year in 4H along with doing a foods project. Then, my 6th year I joined lamb club. I have had my share of successes in all of my clubs, but that doesn't even come close to touching all I have learned, the friends I have made, and memories I have of spending time with my family in the barn. Those three things are what I will take away from 4H the most and what have shaped me into who I am today.    

        My main involvement in  4H has been in beef, swine, and lamb club. One of my most favorite parts of being in those clubs has been being an officer. I love leading others and having the chance to impact younger members while encouraging them with their project. This part of communication has also been evident through livestock judging. My team has judged as a 4H team and through this I have been able to make the best friendships and develop skills that will lead me into a career. Next year, I will be attending Purdue University to major in animal science with agribusiness. Keeping a foot in the animal industry is important to me while at the same time communicating with the public. I hope to use my degree to sell animal pharmaceuticals. I am so excited about the next phase of my life that is coming up quickly, but I know none of it would have been possible without the foundation of my 4H background.   

One piece of advice I would give to younger members in particular is to get involved with something they are passionate about, whatever that may be. Don't ever be afraid to give something you love your all, because when you put hard work into what you love, success will come out of that. I wish everyone the very best as I leave lamb club and I hope that someday you can look back on your 4H experience and have wonderful memories, friends, and experiences that shape your life.

Guest post written by Lamb Club President, Marissa Lorenz

Just a reminder to those of you who weren't able to complete enough skill-a-thons throughout the year. The make-up essay and financial skill-a-thon are due to me, Karrin by July 1! If you have any questions please call me at 574-312-0191. The essays can be emailed to elkhartcountylambclub@gmail.com.

If you don't have your skill-a-thons or essays turned in to me by July 1, you will not receive your passes at the July meeting! They will be available for you to pick up at the work night on July 11. Also, remember that the skill-a-thons are not done just to receive your passes. If you have not completed 4 projects in the club then you have not completed your year in 4-H in Lamb Club. So regardless of whether you get your passes in lamb club or not you HAVE to complete 4 projects!

Fair is coming soon! I hope everyone is well underway in working with your lambs and prepping them for fair! See you Monday July 8 for our meeting! Also, check the website regularly for updates this month!

Our June lamb club meeting was this past Monday. During the meeting we had one of our awesome project leaders lead us in a Showmanship Skill-a-thon. She did a great job with her presentation! We learned proper showmanship techniques as well as many other useful tips about show day prep and etiquette.

We also picked pens for this years fair. Our club has continued to grow over the past few years and are now up to approximately 114 members! This is awesome but makes it a little tight in the barn. Fortunately we are able to utilize the east end of the Sheep/Swine arena for more pens. So, if you get to the fair and can't find the 4-Her you are looking for in the sheep barn you better be sure to check the back of the Sheep/Swine Arena!

Thank you to those who helped with our meeting Monday night! We greatly appreca

On May 11, 2013 we hosted our second bi-annual Show Lamb Camp with instructor Tracy Dendinger. This camp is a showmanship boot camp for any age of sheep showman. We spent the day working with lambs, most of which had not been worked with yet.  This proved to be a challenging task. We learned, by experience, the best way to herd sheep. We also learned techniques for picking out flaws in your sheep and showing them to their best potential. We had many young members learning the ropes of showing for the first time and some for their second and third times.

While most of the attendees were from Elkhart County, we had a few out of county participants. We hope that in the future we will be able to reach out to more members of the show lamb community. This camp is an awesome learning activity for any age of showman.

At the end of the day, everyone had fun. The kids were wore out, as were the lambs. We want to thank all of the volunteers and helpers from the day!

Today an idea popped into my head to start a blog for the Elkhart County 4-H Lamb Club. This is a blossoming idea so it may be slow going at first. My intent with this blog is for our club and the community to learn more about our club, its members, and the learning that takes place through 4-H.

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact us at elkhartcountylambclub@gmail.com. Our first post will be coming soon! Get ready!