 I'm Ann Manlove. I am on a retired extension agent and I directed the 4-H program for 33 years. And we are standing here at the Fairgrounds, the county fair exposition and fairgrounds. And the reason we're here is for the Harvest Fair. And while it's a community public event where people have a chance to do micro brews and a variety of other things, the main reason 4-H and FFA kids are here is to look at calves who might potentially be a project for their next year's fair project. I wonder what the difference between 4-H and FFA is. Well, there are two different organizations that come together because of their common interest in animals and agriculture. So FFA is through the school systems and it is an extracurricular activity. Some schools have it, some don't. So Phoenix, Eagle Point, Crater, Rogue River, they have agricultural programs. And the FFA, Future Farmers of America, is the program where they learn leadership skills. They have floor cultural contests and a variety of other things. 4-H is through Oregon State University. And it is a youth program that's designed to develop values, skills and knowledge in the youth population in the county. And it's outside of the school system. But we come together at County Fair and we often do leadership kind of programs together. And we do project related activities together. But mainly fair is when we come together. But we work together well because, again, of our common interest in agriculture. People often wonder what the value of 4-H is, especially given our modern times. And 4-H has been around for a hundred years, over a hundred years. Through, again, the Land Grant University, Oregon State University in the state of Oregon. But the values that kids learn in the program are a value today. In that we want to raise kids who have good values in terms of a work ethic. We want them to be responsible. We want our kids to be accountable. We want our kids to have leadership skills and to have good decision making skills. We want them to have a whole variety of things. And while they learn some things in the school system between, let's say, 8 and 3. And maybe they're involved in sports activities or other extracurricular. But 4-H is most of the time in the out of school hours. And so it's during those times, let's say, between 2 and 10 or on the weekends where kids have a chance to choose what their activities will be. And so 4-H is one of those where they develop in a club led by a volunteer leader in the traditional program. They set goals, which is a tremendous thing. And they take those incremental steps to reach those goals, which is a wonderful life skill as you get to be an adult. They learn through contests how to make decisions. So we have things called judging contests where they evaluate, let's say, 4-sheep. And while in 4-H they might evaluate 4-sheep, the challenge of evaluating 4 things can transfer to automobiles when they get out or to apartments or homes. How do you look at those alternatives and make the best choice for what you need? When they have animals, they learn that responsibility of feeding their animals morning and night and knowing that they're caring for another living entity. And it's dependent on them. And so to know that they've got to go out there and get the job done, even if they don't feel like it, maybe today they're tired and they were up late last night. But you know what? The lamb still needs to be fed or the turkey still needs water. So we want them to learn that that someday when they get to be in the workforce and they have a job, I don't care if you're tired because you had a party the night before. You have a job to do and you need to show up for work and you need to be there on time. So that accountability is really important. Our kids learn life and death because if you're in an animal project, we love our animals. The kids sleep with their animals sometimes. They pet them, they wash them, they love them. But at the end of the project, if it's not a breeding stock that they'll breed back and for potential offspring down the road, that animal's going to die. And it is heart-wrenching and the Kleenex has come out when you walk them onto the truck. But in the end you know that that was their life purpose. And you provided the best possible life for them and now that life is over. And I was talking one time and somebody questioned how cruel that was for kids to sell some of their best friends, so to speak. And I said, my father-in-law had cancer and I knew that he was going to die. And it didn't mean that I kept my kids away from him knowing that they were going to be disappointed and hurt when he passed away. And so that learning about life and death is a really important part of our kids and what they're going to face as they continue to grow and reach adulthood and live throughout their lives. And there's many other things. We want our kids to learn leadership skills. So in their clubs they have leadership positions and there are activities at the county level and state and national level for them to build on those skills that they're going to need to be servants in our communities as they graduate from high school and move into adult life. So there's many things we want our kids to learn and I'm truly proud of the kinds of things that our kids develop as they're in the program. And people say, put your money where your mouth is when my kids were raised in the 4-H program. And I look at the scholarships that they have gained because of being involved, the kind of honors. People were there to write letters of recommendation because they'd seen them beyond their schoolwork. The things that they are pursuing in terms of degrees came from their 4-H experience and their ability to explore a whole variety of things that maybe they weren't able to explore in their middle school and high school years. So it's truly a tremendous program that as a parent I see the value and as a former employee I see the value. You're kind of a 4-H-er for life. So you come into the program maybe as a fourth grader maybe you were a clover bud and came in as a kindergarten through a third grader. But one of the things I love about 4-H is it is a multi-generational kind of program so that you've got kids in fourth grade and you've got kids that are in 11th and 12th grade who are their mentors and they're the leaders in the 4-H club that are training those kids and so they have these incredible role models. And if you're an older kid and you're in the 10th through 12th grade or even younger than that having the, being idled by these younger members being able to look up to them and then the leaders are the ones that are the adult mentors of the kids and many of those people are here for 50 years in terms they left the 4-H program as kids and they come back to us and say come on back we need you because they understand the jargon they understand the things that you need to do to either take your cookies to fare or get your wool ensemble through to the fashion review so you're working with adults across the lifespan and when you come to fare you see older kids that are coming back that are maybe in college and they're supporting those younger kids that are still in the 4-H clubs and then the parents that are here and it's truly wonderful to see that age span working together and recognizing the value of the kind of program that we have. So while 4-H is basically a public entity in that the dollars that support the program came through our service district that we passed and so we are supported by that but you're also supported by the Oregon State University and the dollars that flow from the state coffers into the extension service at the state level the Oregon State University piece of that and also through the USDA that's why it's called the Cooperative Extension Service because it really is a cooperative effort between the federal, the state and county and hopefully then the program that's created in each county across the United States is there that meets the specific needs of the people within that county so even though it is a public entity you know the salaries are paid for by public dollars it's a lot private and that when kids let's say take an animal to fare it is private entity, corporations, businesses, organizations that support the kids in that effort and while they may buy one person's pig it really is supporting the program in its entirety so people organizations provide scholarships for kids going to 4-H camp or to summer conference at OSU or we do an interstate exchange program that can support those kinds of things or leadership programs so beyond the public dollar the private dollar is a truly important aspect of the whole 4-H program here in Jackson County and across the United States so we have a number of incredible supporters across our community and it would be hard pressed to identify different ones because when you figure there's well over five to six hundred animals that are sold at our auctions and every one of those is purchased by a person in our community who recognizes the value of the program and wants to support those kids but when you think of Sherman Wanda and Steve and the people at Sherm Thunderbird and Food for Less I mean their length of service and the amount that they have done for us over the years is almost unprecedented but there are so many other individuals that I think about a lot of our kids buy their animal feed from rainies out in Sam's Valley or the Grange Co-op or Coastal all of those are into supporting youth in agriculture but many others like Quality Fence and Central Point there are so many that recognize so they were in the program when they were young and they see the value so that they give back and it may be a $50 scholarship to some 4-H kid going to camp or it may be a group of people went together and bought Peyton Daniels' Steer together at the fair and I think it was a $25,000 purchase but just a tremendous outpouring of community support for our kids you can look at kids that have come to the 4-H program and they're carrying on their agricultural heritage so to speak and I think I have two nephews they grew up in the 4-H program their grandfather was a rancher their dad was a rancher and my nephew Creighton today has cattle and he's a producer of beef and I think there are many examples of those across our community where maybe they won't have them for a few years maybe they didn't stay on the farm but they go away to college or they attempt some vocation but then they come back and they come back to those agricultural roots and say okay well I can have a horse again or I can raise a couple of goats so as I look at the 4-H program here in Jackson County most people look at it and say it is about agriculture it is about cows, it's about pigs it's about selling your animals at the fair but again my life message of 33 years in the extension service is to say oh it is more than cows and cooking one of the biggest project growth areas is shooting sports so the whole archery and small boar our kids have done very well in that area where the discipline is not taught through raising an animal the discipline is taught through coming to your club meeting once a week or multiple times a month and shooting at a target so shooting sports is really big another one that is big that is non-traditional that we've been spreading the word about is whole Lego robotics the technology, the STEM science technology, engineering and math and so that is another way that kids can learn through the 4-H program and even some of those traditional areas like cooking where they can do food preservation or they do the foods contest and they have to prepare a meal in front of a judge and they have to know the nutritional value, they have to tell the judge what it cost they have to set the table and explain why they've done it that way they have to present it appropriately to the judge, there's a table setting contest and while you may say is there a high value to that well maybe I know this one gal that when they left for college and they got jobs oddly enough they had nothing to do with foods but what they ended up doing as a residence hall advisor they would invite staff in and they would prepare meals for them and they would set the table and they were so impressed with the skills that these gals had what has nothing to do with really their job but it was their 4-H experiences that helped them make that experience more so 4-H the main goal of 4-H is developing kids we want to build great kids and we believe that one of the ways you do that is get them in small groups with adult volunteers so it really doesn't matter what subject matter you're learning it doesn't matter whether you're learning to knit or you're learning to raise a rabbit it's all about that experience it's about setting a goal and working towards that goal it's about the passion for something that you want to learn about that doesn't have to happen in a formal setting it happens because you've got a group of people together that share a common interest so you then can say well what would I like to learn about well maybe it's goldfish we had a koi club here and they showed their koi over in the pageant pavilion so kids can have animals in the city because you can have a koi pond or you can have a goldfish or you can have a snake because there are reptiles so you can do the animal thing you can have a dog just before it prior to county fair they do it right at the fairground but before all the other animals have come in and defecated and kind of made it a little more difficult for dogs to be focused on their training so the dogs come in and show some counties have cat shows so they can do animals they can choose one of the myriad of other projects from rocketry to child development to showing to those can all be done in a suburban or an urban environment and the main thing that you have to have in any community whether it's an urban area suburban or country is an adult that's willing to volunteer your time and that's hard in this day and age when people are stretched with jobs that extend beyond a normal working hour but it is today those organizations work whether you're a Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or any of those kind of things or often church groups it's those volunteers that help make that enrichment and that learning possible so it doesn't matter where you're at it just matters that you have a group of great kids together and you're willing to guide them down a path of learning a discovery so in my 33 years with the extension service here in Jackson County and I guess nobody wants it to remain static so that's a good thing but there were changes in the job in that I think 33 years ago there was a lot of faith placed on the person in charge to say go out and do good things and now man you better be able to document those good things even if you can see it and know it and know those kids are better because of it you better have some statistic or document or survey that tells somebody that they are better because of the efforts that you've put in so that was a really big change is the requirement of verification of learning and I think the strictness of our whole accountability and government and doctrine is it's just all much more regulated you take kids to camp and take them out to the woods and you have a great time and now man you better you have to have two different people plus the bus driver on the bus and you know you got a ratio of adults to youth that you better serve and oh now 18 year olds can't be in the cabins with younger kids because of all of those kinds of issues so I just think there's a lot more regulation and I realize that usually there's something that's happened that every rule is a result of but so many times I think we're wringing the life out of programs because of the need to satisfy everybody's worry about something potentially happening risk management I don't remember that term so much in my early years but I'll tell you what in the latter part of my years you were well acquainted with the risk management plan so I think those are changes and I think kids have changed over those years as well I think there's a lot of competition for a child's time anymore and for a leader's time more often than not the kids that are in 4-H are really involved kids most of the time they have their parental support behind them to be able to accomplish things and I think as more families have split or the changes family structures have changed becomes a little bit more difficult for kids to participate because is the sewing machine at dads or is the sewing machine at moms does moms support this activity so those have created challenges I think in the program and I think in the early days of 4-H it was common to see a person that would have 20 rabbits and now I think most kids have two rabbits or three rabbits so the scope of projects have probably shrunk I mean there's a few kids that would have a large number but for the most part the scale of project is smaller and I think you know there's still in our world a very strong emphasis on sports and that goes head-to-head with a lot of 4-H programs because their activities are on weekends and after school and so it becomes hard for kids to choose and they shouldn't have to choose but that's part of life is making those choices and and then you asked one of the questions was how has agriculture changed over those 33 years and I think when I first came there was you know more people were in traditional agriculture you had your cows you know you had the the fruit industry here in the valley and I think certainly there is more more people are exploring other agricultural avenues small farms those kinds of things and I would say most 4-H kids though that are still doing more traditional agricultural kinds of projects I think most farmers of the past generation they grew and ate local because you ate what was in your garden and the things that you've raised and so then you know that pendulum swung and you know we're able to get fresh fruit from chili in the middle of winter and you know we come to that and we really appreciate those kinds of things but you know I try to eat what I grow because I believe that it's fresher and it costs less and we don't have the packaging but I'm also pretty grateful to be able to walk into the store and buy the things that come from a global market so while I support and grow local I recognize that it's nice to have the icing on the cake of having some other things from other places how technology has changed you know in the old days you'd sit there and hand write your records well now you can put them on the computer you know those are minor minor changes but but agriculturally I would say you know in the 4-H program yes it's changed but they're still truly interested in raising an animal and the basics that come maybe they're more knowledgeable about their food because we're more transparent about what's in their feed what kinds of things you're giving your animals because you want them to be a very healthy product you want your consumers to want to purchase your animals and I think our kids are more aware of that than maybe we were 30 years ago maybe reading their feed labels more closely and I think they're more aware too of what it costs to raise an animal and certainly it is more expensive to raise an animal for let's say a fair experience than it is to just raise one that you buy and you know maybe it doesn't get all those special things that your fair animals get heritage to me in relation to agriculture is those tremendous roots that we have understanding the land the forefathers that came before us the kinds of challenges that they had as they were striving to raise an animal to produce a crop to get it to market to make enough money to continue the operation in the coming year to feed their families and I think those forefathers those are heritage in agriculture we learned a great deal from them and we continue to move forward with greater almost every farmer agriculturalist that I know understands stewardship at a gut level because stewardship the land is yours and that land needs to sustain you for many years to come and so it's like you know not soiling your litter box you take care of your land so as a child growing up on the farm I mean we planted trees we took care of the wildlife you know we were very aware of the land and not spoiling our land and so I believe that stewardship is that which takes care of that incredible resource that we have recognizing that you are just the keeper of that land for the next generation and the next generation to come and that somebody is going to have that land after it and it's my responsibility not to soil it for those people that will take it over when I pass on sustainability is being able to make sure that there is a world or resources for generations to come and that what I need to do to be sustainable is to utilize the resources of this world and use them wisely and to provide those resources that I'm not saying this well but again taking care of the next generation by using the resources that we have today wisely so I think one of the biggest challenges of agriculture and keeping lands in agricultural use the economics are such that land that is agricultural isn't as valuable is that which is used for houses or urban development and truly farming is maybe not a huge money maker you know one time we sold a bunch of first calf heifers to somebody and we said okay did we get rich and he said don't you know it you're in it for the lifestyle and truly I said it's a good thing you told me that because I feel better now we are in it for the lifestyle and while you know I want to live on a farm I want to live in the country I identify with that lifestyle every person in my family all my generation have been agriculturalists I guess I see that I want those agricultural lands to be there I want them to be beautiful I want to look over green pastures and lakes but I also realize that sometimes it's not a money maker and it's hard the whole zoning piece forcing somebody that has this land to use it for this purpose sometimes restricts our freedom and yet ultimately we need to have agricultural lands because we have a growing population and we need to feed them and I do believe the balance will shift someday where the value of food and the land for growing food maybe will be worth more than building a subdivision but at this point I think agriculture you know you've heard the phrase that agriculture is the tie that binds because we are all tied to agriculture but we're not always aware of our tie to that I mean if you go to the grocery store most of the time you buy your gallon of milk and you know you go pick up the supplies that you need you get your head a lettuce and you eat it and there's probably not a lot of thought goes into how did this piece of salad or this lettuce get on my plate and where did the milk come from and that's probably good because you're lost in a whole variety of other thoughts but I think the 4-H program and the extension service really has done a good job at least for those participants to help them understand the base values of agriculture and you know how important it is to have a good water and you know soil that can produce because we recognize where our food comes from and if we don't have it we don't eat and if we don't eat and I think the 4-H program has done a great job of working with the kids and helping bring that point home