July

1 - QAEC Certification for Beef, Swine, Sheep, Goats, Dairy, and Poultry due

1 - SF Livestock Entries and payments due in to State 4-H Office

1 - Dog Obedience Class, 6 pm, Harrisburg Park

4 - Independence Day, Extension office closed

8 - Dog Obedience Class, 6 pm, Harrisburg Park

11 - Call the Extension office if you will not be completing a project to avoid NO-SHOWS

12 - Livestock Clean-up, 8:30 am, Fairgrounds

15 - Last Dog Obedience Class, 6 pm, Harrisburg Park

17 - Home & Family Show, 9 am, Lions Club

17 - Dog and Cat Shows, 6:30 pm, Fairgrounds

18 - General Show Set-up, 8:30 am, Little Chapel Gym

18 - Horse & Pony Show, 4 pm, Horse Arena, Fairgrounds (check in at 3 pm)

19 - General Show, 9 am, Little Chapel Gymnasium

21 - Small Pets, Crops, Poultry Shows, 8:30 am, Stafford Bldg.

21 - Lamb Weigh-out, 5 pm, Stafford Building

21 - Meat Goat Weigh-out, 5:15 pm, Stafford Building

21 - Swine Weigh-out, 6 pm, Stafford Building

22 - Dairy Goat Show, 8:30 am, Stafford Building

22 - Meat Goat Show, 10:30 am, Stafford Building

22 - Tractor Driving Contest, 1 pm, Fairgrounds

22 - Rabbit Show, 2 pm, Stafford Building

22 - Beef Weigh-out, 6 pm, Stafford Building

23 - Bicycle Show, 5 pm, Extension office parking lot

24 - Swine Show, 8:30 am, Stafford Building

24 - Sheep Show, 10:30 am, Stafford Building

24 - Family Picnic, Noon, Fairgrounds

24 - Beef Show, 1 pm, Stafford Building

25 - Livestock Auction, 1 pm, Stafford Building

26 - Livestock Clean-up, 8:30 am, Fairgrounds

28 - 4-H Federation Meeting 6 pm, Extension office

28 - 4-H Expansion & Review Meeting, 7 pm, Extension office

28 - Notify the Extension office if you will be taking your State Fair Project to Springfield

August

1 - State Fair Dog Entries due in to State 4-H Office

8 - 17 - 2008 Illinois State Fair, Springfield

12 - Saline County Day for all State Fair exhibitors in Public Presentations, Food Demonstrations, Fashion Revue, and Club/Group Exhibits, Springfield

12 - Saline County Day for Conference Judging for all static exhibits, Springfield

16 - All State Fair exhibitors in Bicycle Rodeo, Springfield

September

5 - 4-H Records, County Medal Applications, Achievement Trophy Applications, Club Progress & Standards forms, and all end-of-year club forms due in to the Extension office

8 - 4-H Federation Meeting and Officer Elections , 6 pm, Extension office

22 - Management Committee Meeting, 7 pm, Extension office

27-28 - Past to Present Festival, 9 am - 5 pm each day, Fairgrounds. 4-H members will park cars and take gate admissions

4-H Records will be due September 5, 2008.

Saline County 4-H Horse Exhibitors are reminded to bring proof of negative Coggins testing to the 4-H Horse & Pony Show on July 18 at 4:00 pm.

Reminder - Helmets are required for all mounted exhibitors in or out of the show ring. If you need to borrow a helmet from the Extension office, please call soon.

A big thank you to all who donated items and/or came out on Friday, June 6 to work at our Rummage Sale/Bake Sale. It was a huge success!

A Special Thank You to Cassi, Alex, and Linda Watkins and Jessica and Karen Vinyard for spending extra time pricing items prior to the rummage sale.

The Federation will hold a business meeting on Monday, July 28 at 6 pm at the Extension office. All officers and delegates are invited to attend.

We will be distributing Federation Officer Petitions for the2008-2009 4-H year. The petitions will be due back at the September 8th meeting, when we will hold officer elections.

With the budget restrictions facing Extension, the following changes have been made in the State Fair schedule.

All Saline County State Fair projects will be judged on our County Day, Tuesday, August 12. This includes all static projects, all Public Presentations, Fashion Revue, Food Demonstrations, and Club/Group Exhibits. The only exception will be Bicycle Rodeo entries, which will be judged on Saturday, August 16.

Participants must take their own projects to the State Fair this year. There will not be a need for the State Fair report form, because all projects will be conferenced-judged.

"Judges will not be expected to complete judging sheets on each project - if a youth wants a judging sheet to write down what the judge says, they may request a copy to do so."

After each class is finished and Superiors chosen, the projects will be released. "Security will not be provided once judging for a particular area has been completed." The 4-H member should remove his/her project to a safe location before spending time at the fair.

Members may still exhibit one action project (Bicycle, Public Presentations, Demonstration, Fashion Revue) and one static, conferenced-judged project (all others).

4-H members must be at least 10 year old (as of Sept. 1, 2007) to be eligible to exhibit at the Illinois State Fair.

Contact the Extension office to register no later than Monday, July 28 if you plan to take your project to the State Fair. You will need to pick up a State Fair Exhibit Tag to attach to your project and remove any county ribbons and exhibit tags.

If you want to order State Fair parking passes and/or gate admission passes, please contact the Extension office by July 7. The pre-order price is $4 for parking and $1 for gate admission. If you get your passes at the State Fair, the price is $7 for parking and $3 for gate admission.

Swine

4-H members planning to show Swine at the Illinois State Fair recently participated in the Pork Quality Assurance training.

Thank you to Samantha Parish for conducting this class.

Swine exhibitors at the County 4-H Show are reminded that their animals have to be blood-tested and that these test results sometimes take 10 days or more to get back. Get your testing done early!

All livestock exhibitors need to bring their animal health papers to the Weigh-outs and/or County livestock shows.

If you are planning to show livestock at the State Fair, you must complete the QAEC training on the web by July 1. The address is http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/qaec/ State Fair Livestock Entries for Beef, Sheep, Dairy, Goats, Rabbits, Swine, and Poultry are due July 1.

New This Year for Livestock Exhibitors…

There will be a Bred and Owned class for Beef, Sheep, Swine, Meat Goats and Dairy. These new classes will be sponsored by Anderson Crop Insurance. There is no fee to enter.

(These are not 4-H classes and no 4-H Champion ribbons or premiums will be awarded.)

To enter this class, the female must have been bred and the animal born and raised on your farm. 4-H members who wish to enter the Bred & Owned Show can sign up the day of their breed show. You may show one animal per species. The animal can be either a Breeding or a Market animal. The Bred & Owned class for each species will be shown at the conclusion of each breed show.

Pick your best Bred and Owned animal and we will see you in the show ring!

The Saline County 4-H General Show will be held on Saturday, July 19 beginning at 9am at the Little Chapel Church Gym on Highway 34 North of Harrisburg.

Please observe the following check-in schedule.

9:00 am

Lads & Lassies

Farmin' Friends

Pleasant Valley Go-Getters

9:30 am

Dungaree Dudes & Dolls

Saline Co. Beef Fitters

Snoopy's Gang

Wild Bunch

10:00 am

Blue Ribbon

Clover Explorers

Eagle Mountain Gang

Pioneers

4-H members from any club who are exhibiting more than 8 General Show projects are asked to arrive at 9 am to avoid excessive delays.

Members will receive an exhibit tag to attach to each project. State Fair, State Fair Alternate, and County Champion ribbons will be awarded and pictures taken after all judging is completed. Projects will be on display for 1 hour after judging is completed.

If your 4-H member has changed his/her mind about showing a project, please call the Extension office by July 11 to let us know. We want to avoid having so many NO-SHOWS and delays on show days.

If you cannot personally show your project, you must submit the reason in writing to the Extension office prior to the show for approval. If approved, another 4-H member may show your project. You must fill out a report form to send with your project.

County Medal Applications will be available at the Home & Family Show and the General Show. You can't win a County Medal if you don't apply!

County Medal Applications, Achievement Trophy Applications, Club Progress and Standards forms, etc. will be due on September 5 along with 4-H Records.

Any applications received after September 5 will not be considered.

End of the 4-H year packets will be mailed to Club leaders at the beginning of August.

4-H Records forms will be available at the Home & Family Show and at the General Show. Members may also pick up these forms at the Extension office any time.

We have many new 4-H members who are exhibiting for the very first time this year. In order to clear up any confusion of which projects to bring to which show, here is a list.

Home & Family Show Projects

• 4-H Cooking 101
• Breads & Cereals
• Exploring Food Heritage
• Food Preservation
• Fruits & Vegetables
• International Foods
• Microwave Magic
• Outdoor Meals
• Sports Nutrition
• Cake Decorating
• Candy Making
• Cookie Decorating
• Clothing Decisions
• Sewing & Textiles
• Fashion Revue
• Child Development
• Interior Design
• Theatre Arts
• Cloverbud Theatre Arts

General Show Projects

• Aerospace
• Animal Science
• Camping/Outdoor Adventures
• Citizenship
• Computers
• Consumer Ed
• Electricity
• Entomology
• Floriculture
• Forestry
• Geology
• Geospatial
• Horticulture
• Health
• Intercultural
• Natural Resources
• Photography
• Plants and Soils
• Robotics
• Service Learning
• Sportfishing
• Small Engines
• Tractor Display
• Visual Arts
• Wildlife
• Woodworking

All non-food County projects

All other projects - dog, cat, horse, small pets, crops, poultry, tractor driving, rabbit, bicycle, and livestock - have their own shows. Please refer to the calendar in the front of your Saline County Handbook or the calendar pages.

The Saline County 4-H Home & Family Show will be held on Thursday, July 17 beginning at 9am at the Harrisburg Lions Club.

The club schedule for that day will be:

8:45 am

Dungaree Dudes & Dolls

Lads & Lassies

Saline Co. Beef Fitters

9:00 am

Eagle Mountain Gang

Pleasant Valley Go-Getters

Snoopy's Gang

Clover Explorers

9:15 am

Blue Ribbon

Farmin' Friends

Pioneers

Wild Bunch

Members will receive an exhibit tag to attach to each project, and there will be signs out on the tables which indicate where to place your project.

Fashion Revue will begin after all judging is completed.

State Fair, State Fair Alternate, and County Champion ribbons will then be awarded and pictures taken.

The Display opportunity for General Show projects will be different this year.

After ribbons are awarded and pictures are taken, ALL General Show projects will remain on display for ONE HOUR for members, volunteers, and the public to view.

Members may then take their projects home. We will not have a project display in Floral Hall this year.