Bladen’s 4-H members do have some options when showing their animals

ELIZABETHTOWN – For years, local school-age children who belonged to a 4-H organization have been able to show their livestock on public display at county fairs.

It remains a tradition in some areas. Essentially a throwback slice of Norman Rockwell Americana.

Not so in Bladen County.

County Manager Greg Martin said Monday that it had been a long time, if even then, since a Bladen County Fair had been held. He seemed to think that there has never been a county fair held in Bladen.

Back in the day, a local bill in the state’s General Assembly prohibited the county from holding carnivals and fairs and such, according to Martin, who preferred not to delve into the reason why.

So what do the Bladen County 4-H youth do who are proud of the animals they have worked with for various agricultural-based projects?

Bladen County “excels” at working with 4-H youth, he said. Although there is no local event staged for them, young people are able to compete in other counties and are eligible to go on to the state level.

But Toni Newby, who is an extension agent and 4-H Youth Development agent in Bladen, said most of them are not interested in competing in Raleigh on the state level.

“We don’t particularly have kids show and different things like that. Sometimes they don’t want their birds to stay at the state fair,” she said of those who participate in the county 4-H chicken project. “They have to leave their birds there for X amount of time, and some don’t feel comfortable with it. Some kids don’t want their birds there. It’s their birds, and we can’t tell them ‘Like you have to make them stay.’ “

That’s because, as Newby said, their chickens tend to become like pets to them.

Currently, the Bladen County 4-H program has 77 youth members. Following a decline due to COVID-19, she said, they are working to increase membership.

“From my perspective, it being kind of our younger ages now, kids are gravitating – they still like agriculture,” she noted. “Our number one source (in Bladen) is agriculture. So we’re educating youth on agriculture.

“We’ve kind of adjusted a little bit,” added Newby. “Like I said, introducing them to our livestock team and our poultry chicken team. So if they express that interest — ‘Hey, I have an interest in showing my birds’ — we walk them through that process.”

Those youth are able to show their animals at a county fair in the surrounding area since it’s not available in Bladen. “But we have to sign them up under our 4-H program,” Newby said.

For the 4-H members who are working with chickens, a chicken show is held each April at the N.C. Future Farmers of America Camp in White Lake.

“That’s a part of our chicken project,” she said. “Kids get some chickens made by the chickens, essentially. We pick breeds from our committee. Children raise those birds. So they’re documenting ‘how do they raise those chickens? Make sure the coop is clean.’ Stuff like that.’ And then in April we have our show. They look at the breeds. ‘Is the breed pretty? Do they take care of it?’ It’s feathers, it’s upkeep, even its posture if the youth look after them. You can tell if they practice with the bird every day because the bird is just sitting there looking at you like, ‘I’m confident. My owner has me whereas ‘I’m kind of scared.’ ”

In the latter case, the frightened look indicates that the owner has not been working properly with the animal.

The 4-H program also has a livestock judging team so those kids study different classes of animals — classes of animals pertain to like cattle,” Newby said. “So they look at like four cows and say which cow is the best-looking cow. So they also do it with, I think, goats, pigs. They also do a poultry judging, which is my unbiased favorite, specifically with poultry. And they grade the eggs.”