This July, at the county fair, lambs will line up in the show
ring. Perfectly groomed and properly positioned by their handlers,
they’ll sell at auction for over $1,000 each.
But while the glitz and glamour of judging and showing is still
months away, the dirty work starts now.
In Healdsburg, sisters Sydney and Savanna Craighead wake up
every morning before school and head over to their grandmother’s
house. “Their grandma never has to pick up the newspaper,” mother
and 4H Sheep Leader Danie Craighead said, “Because we bring it to
her every morning.”
Three crossbred lambs are the reason Sydney and Savanna head to
their grandmother’s house twice a day: before school for feeding
and after school for feeding, exercising, and handling. The
Craighead girls will spend about 3 hours per day taking care of
their lambs, and they’re not the only ones doing so. The Craigheads
are joined by six other students in the Warm Springs sheep project;
Sebastopol’s Gold Ridge Chapter Sheep Project, one of the largest
in the county, has 25 members. All across Sonoma County, 4H members
in different chapters are buying market lambs in preparation for
fair season.
Market lambs are usually born in December or January and are
purchased by 4H members in March after they’re weaned from the
ewes. The 4Her then raises the lamb for three or four
months—feeding, cleaning, handling, and practicing
showmanship—until the lamb is sold at auction. Once the lamb is
sold, the handler won’t take care of another lamb until the
following March.
But for some 4H members, tending sheep has become a year-round
occupation. Rather than just raise market lambs, these students
have become breeders in their own right; they own ewes and rams and
sometimes even sell market lambs to fellow 4H members. Warm Springs
member Jessica Bailey, Green Valley members Victoria and William
Hamilton, and Gold Ridge member Heather Tucker (along with her
sister, former 4H member and current leader, Tiffany Tucker) have
all taken the plunge into sheep breeding.
“Having the lambs from birth is my favorite part,” Jessica
Bailey said. “It’s more responsibility to own ewes, because you
have to feed them year-round, not just for the four months of the
market lambs. You have to shear them more often. But the lambs are
usually easier to work with because you have them for longer.”
William Hamilton likes the year-round dirty work. “My favorite
part is mucking out the stalls,” he said. “As a boy, I love
digging.”
While not every boy enjoys a good stall mucking, many 4H members
love the daily chores—particularly feeding and spending time with
the animal—as much as the showing. Chapter leaders point to the
values instilled in 4H members from this daily responsibility, and
the strength inspired by the challenges of raising and showing
livestock.
Sometimes those challenges are emotional, such as a fear of
being in front of a crowd or the stress of taking care of a lamb
who suddenly takes ill; at other times, the challenge is physical,
as when a tiny 4Her tries to control a large and uncooperative
animal.
Sydney Craighead noted the challenge of public presentation.
“What’s hard in the show ring is that the judge is looking at you,
and you’re getting all nervous.”
Young 4H member Missy Pendleton recounted a physical challenge.
“At the jackpot show I was showing a really big lamb. I was setting
him because I got last, but I lost control. It took a while to be
able to laugh about it,” she admitted.
Missy has a supportive community behind her: 4H members come
together and cheer for one another, win or lose. Gold Ridge member
Cassie Redding noted that at shows, “It’s always fun competitive,
not cutthroat. You shake hands with people and you say good job,
even if you’re in last place.”
Leader Michelle Pendleton also noted the friendly spirit at 4H.
“It’s a joy working with all the kids in our club, they are polite
and respectful and the best part of it is that they all work
together. You have the older members working with the younger kids
and helping them learn. The younger kids are more responsive to the
older teens working and helping them, far more responsive then if a
parent was helping them.”
Showing sheep in particular emphasizes grace under pressure,
because sheep are notoriously sensitive, flighty animals. Gold
Ridge member Samantha Hagel said, “Sheep can tell when you’re all
tensed up. When I’m waiting to go to the ring, I’m all tensed up.
But once I go into the ring I relax, and the sheep relaxes too, and
it’s great. I love showing.”
For some members, the most difficult thing about being in 4H is
leaving—which is why so many members go on to become leaders. Most
4H parents were 4Hers themselves back in the day, and even young 4H
graduates without children are pitching in to support the
program.
Tiffany Tucker is 21 years old; she was a member of 4H from ages
9 to 18. When she graduated from high school, she became a project
leader. “4H has given so much to me that I wanted to give back to
it,” she said. “It kept me busy and it kept me out of trouble. I
was never in the house playing video games because I had too much
to do. I made a lot of friends and connections, and learned a lot
of leadership skills and values.”
Sheep might have the reputation of being followers, but that
doesn’t seem to be what they teach the members of the 4H sheep
projects. Just ask Tiffany Tucker, who not only volunteers her time
to help 4Hers but has also started her own fledgling business,
Tucker Club Lambs, with her sister Heather. Or as Diana Stornetta,
Green Valley 4H Sheep Leader put it, “I think the breeding and
market sheep project is one of the best projects for developing
responsibility, an awareness for animal husbandry and development
of leadership and community service.”
