2014 4-H Livestock Rule Changes/Updates
4-H Livestock Homepage: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4h/projects/livestock
 Refer to 4-H 202 document: Iowa 4-H Livestock Show Requirements
 Animal Care documents/posters
 Other staff resources including Adobe Connect Recording, Power Point and other important resources
4hOnline Improvements & Changes
 A focus group comprised of youth and adults indicated that the identification and entry process was simple and
straight-forward, but did share some great ideas on improving the help sheets for staff and families in a more
reader-friendly layout
 To help decrease county staff errors and with rapid annual CYC staff turnover, we’re including the youth
program specialist field staff in our training efforts to support counties and remind them of the 4hOnline
identification and entry process
 To decrease communication, identification and entry errors between county staff and families, we will strongly
discourage the practice of counties entering the identification and fair entry data for the exhibitor but rather the
family complete that at home or at a computer in the county office
4hOnline Software Improvements:
 (1) Addition of a “Print” button to print out all fields of a particular animal
1
Print
 (2) Seeing all animals ID’ed on-screen and ability
to export a report into Excel for each animal
type
2
 (3) Example report for Beef, Breeding animal type with all fields exported
3
Continued Efforts (from 2013):
 Broadcast emails sent directly to families
o Weekly from Jan. 15 – Feb. 1 for market beef deadline
o Weekly from May 1 – May 15 for all other animal ID deadlines
o June 1 - Announcing the opening of the State Fair online entry form
o Weekly from June 15 – July 1 for State Fair entry deadline
 4-H Livestock Websites
o Stress deadline dates throughout spring and summer (both text and graphics)
o Facebook reminders of all deadlines, links to help sheets and entry forms
4hOnline Animal Type Changes:
 Bucket/Bottle ANIMAL – replaces Bucket/Bottle Calf - Select (calf, lamb, goat) when identifying
 Market Beef – added a birthdate field (heifers only)
 Dog – ability to upload rabies certificate
Horse
 Increase entry limit from 5 classes to 6 classes per exhibitor
 State Fair Classes Deleted
o Reining
 State Fair NEW Classes
o Miniature Horse Halter
o Walk/Trot
o 2/3 year old Western Pleasure
 ID Reminders
o ID a maximum of 5 horses total per 4-H’er
o Of those 5, max. of 2 can be leased
o NO leasing of halter horses
o Leased horses must have a completed lease form in 4hOnline
o Each horse can only be ID’ed by ONE 4-H’er, unless:
 There are more 4-H’ers in a family than horses – for example, 4-H’er A and B could both ID horse X
o 4-H’ers can ID horses in 4-H and FFA as long as they are DIFFERENT horses – for example, horse A and B
in 4-H, horse C and D in FFA
o State Fair exhibitors will still have to choose to show in either the 4-H horse show OR the FFA horse
show, not both; but, they could show FFA at county and then 4-H at state fair (with different horses)
Meat Goats
 Again in 2014: All meat goats (wethers AND does) MUST have a 4-H tag in place and wethers must have retinal
images
Sheep
 No-shearing Rule:
o “All market lambs, performance lambs and commercial ewes must be slick shorn upon arrival to the
Fairgrounds. Animals which are not slick shorn will not be allowed to stall or enter the check-in line.
Suggested fleece length for purebred breeding sheep is ¼ inch with ¾ inch maximum, with the exception
being for wool breeds which have no maximum length.”
o As noted, “slick shorn” does not apply to purebred “fitted” ewes
 Again in 2014: ALL State Fair sheep must have a 4-H tag and retinal images
o Market lambs, commercial ewes, purebred breeding ewes
o Entered as “Sheep, weighed-in” in 4hOnline by county staff
o Be SURE the “Retinal Images” box is checked in 4hOnline
o If there are no retinal images for sheep, it will not show at the state fair
 Performance Lamb Show changes
o Stay tuned for fall/winter announcements as they finalize
Swine
 Again for 2014: County Fair Swine Show Application & Reporting
1. Fair Application Form – at least 30 days prior to show
2. Fair Show Report – within 5 days after fair show
o Forms on 4-H Swine page
o ALL swine need a tag for show reporting purposes