Putting on a Show

Macon County 4H Lamb Club prepares for new season

  • Press photos/Jake Browning - Above, Matthew Sadlowski and Carley Specht talk about how their lambs are doing in the 4H Lamb Club’s first practice.
    Press photos/Jake Browning - Above, Matthew Sadlowski and Carley Specht talk about how their lambs are doing in the 4H Lamb Club’s first practice.

    Macon County 4H members returned to the fairgrounds last Tuesday night to start preparing for the 2021 lamb showing season.

    Kids of various ages started off slowly at the practice, walking their lambs in circles to get them used to the feeling of a show and doing some early grooming to make sure the animals are in good shape. Joe Deal said the 4Hers will have an opportunity to take the lambs to up to five different fairs starting this August. Last year, COVID-19 meant that club members didn’t get to come together as a group to practice and get ready for the shows, so this year, they’ll take advantage of all the prep time that they can get.

    “Given all the work they do feeding, watering, grooming, practicing, we want to give them all the opportunities to show that we can,” Deal said.

    Raising a lamb can be a very intensive process. Like any animal, it takes a lot of maintenance to care for properly and even more training to get it to behave in a public exhibit. 4H parents say that participating in the lamb club is a good character-building opportunity for their kids because it can be a major project that’s up to them to make successful. It also teaches them a lesson about the work it takes to generate the resources they depend on.

    “It introduces them to the reality of where commodities come from,” said 4H parent Shannon Sayer. “They learn a lot from the hard work.”

    Of course, it’s also fun. The club members get to hang out with their friends and make new ones because of the shared experience. Many of them have already made fast friends with their lambs.

    “He’ll give me kisses and sometimes he’ll walk up and rest his head on my shoulder,” Carley Speck said of her lamb Elvis.

    So many 4H Club activities were lost to coronavirus restrictions in 2020. While local youth got to show animals at an unconventional state fair that they practiced for largely on their own, there was nothing like the real lamb program to support them for much of the past year and a half. Agricultural officials are excited that the kids who may make up the future of the industry in Macon County are finally able to get back into the swing of things.

    “We are beyond thrilled that we get to have them out here again,” Deal said. “We’ve got a lot of enthusiasm this year.”

    For more information on activities for youth run through the 4H Club and the Macon County Cooperative Extension, call the Macon County Cooperative Extension at 828-349-2046 or go online to www.macon.ces.ncsu.edu/events.