Brorson Farmhands Named the Club of the Year

The Brorson Farmhands 4-H club was named club of the year at the Richland County 4-H Achievement Day. The annual event was held on Sunday, November 18, 2018 at the Richland County Event Center and was hosted by the Richland Rockets 4-H Club. This event is a time for 4-H members, leaders and parents to celebrate all the accomplishments throughout the past 4-H year.

The Friend of 4-H award is given to a business, family or individual who has gone above and beyond to help the 4-H program. This year the award was given to an individual who has been involved in 4-H for over 23 years. Leslie McMillen has been involved in many areas of the 4-H program such as, serving as a club leader, a project leader and the food booth manager, and continues to teach members through the sewing project. The youth that she works with report that she is kind, patient, a good teacher and makes sewing fun. Leslie is a true asset to Richland County 4-H.

Achievement Day serves as a day of celebration. A day to highlight the accomplishments of those involved in the Richland County 4-H Program. There are many different awards that are presented to members and leaders for their dedication to 4-H throughout the year.

This year's Helping Hand Award was awarded to Ali Merritt. The Helping Hands Award is presented each year to a member that shows not only great leadership, but also a willingness to go out of their way to help others in the 4-H program. We would like to thank Duane and Sherry Mitchell for sponsoring this award.

We would also like to thank the Sidney Area Chamber of Commerce for sponsoring the awards for the Jr. Members. Receiving the trophies this year were: Top Jr. Beef Judge – Cooper McNally, Top Jr. Swine Judge –Grady Larson, Top Jr. Sheep Judge – Terry Reese, Top Goat Jr. Judge- Terry Reese, Top Reasons- Cooper McNally, Top Jr. Overall Judge – Grady Larson, Top Jr. Demonstrator – Cayla Hanson, Top Jr. Crown Demonstrator – Corbin Steinbeisser, Top Jr. Speech- Josiah Mullet, Jr. Fashion Revue – Addison Foss and Top Jr Quilt – Kendyl Wacha.

Shooting sports is by far the most attended activity in 4-H throughout the nation and ranks in the top 4 projects for the state of Montana. It is also a very popular project for youth in Richland County. The Shooting Sports Awards were sponsored by Double M Kennels. Winners of each category are as follows: Top Sr Air Rifle-Holly Bouchard, Top Intermediate Air Rifle- Colten Dahl, Top Jr Air Rifle- Wyatt McPherson, and Most Improved Air Rifle- Brandon Becker, Top Sr Archery-Holly Bouchard, Top Intermediate Archery-Corbin Mullin, Top Jr Archery-Wyatt McPherson and Most Improved Archery-Layne Herman. Top Sr Pistol-Holly Bouchard, Top Intermediate Pistol –Lily Waltner, Top Jr Pistol-Rhett Rossol and Most Improved Pistol- Eli Mullet. In the shotgun division the winners were: Top Sr. Shotgun – Holly Bouchard, Top Intermediate Shotgun- Colten Dahl, Top Jr Shotgun- Wyatt McPherson and Most Improved Shotgun- Shane Waltner.

The Horse committee presented awards to Jori Horsburgh and Ezra Hier in a tie for the All Around Rookie, Brock Scholthauer as the All Around Junior and Rakayle Hier as the All Around Senior. The Silver Spur award is given to a person that has dedicated their time and skills to help make the horse program here in Richland County a better program. This year the Silver Spur award was given to Colleen Topp for all she has done for the Richland County 4-H Horse program.

The family of Brad Carnduff also has started a memorial in his name. This year at Achievement Day the second award was given. This year a beautiful saddle was given to Rakayle Hier. The family plans to continue this memorial for years to come.

Linda Simonsen, the local poultry leader also gives an annual poultry award. This award is given to members who make efforts to improve their poultry projects and keep detailed and accurate records. This year that award was given to Amariah Hier and Cade Verschoot.

The market projects are very educational and positive projects for many 4-H members. The carcass competition is the final step for the market projects. The carcass champion awards go to the top beef, lamb, hog and goat carcass from the fair. This year the top beef carcass went to Tana Kostelecky, the top lamb carcass went to Becca Deming, the top swine carcass went to Tyler Lien and top goat carcass went to Makenna Sparks. Tana Kostelecky was also awarded a plaque from the Montana Stockgrowers Association for having the top carcass in the state in the ultra-sound division.

The overall species champions were also awarded on Sunday. These awards are based on average daily gain of the market animal, live placing at the market show during the fair and the carcass data. The Overall Species champions were: Market Beef- Tana Kostelecky, Hog- Cooper McNally, Sheep- Kynlee Vitt and Goat- Carly Buxbaum.

Every year the clubs have 4-H displays throughout the county to celebrate National 4-H Week. The Award for Best Window Display went to the Fair View 4-H Club.

The event also recognized members and leaders for their years of involvement in the program. The Richland County 4-H Scholarship winners, Layne Swigart, Jake Kunda, Dylan Reid and Kyle Topp were also formally recognized. Richland County 4-H give out annual project grants to help any member improve a project that they are enrolled in. This year grants were awarded to members to help them better their project. We also awarded 147 project awards to members who truly excelled in their project work.

Achievement Day was a big success in celebrating all the accomplishments and hard work of 4-H youth, parents and volunteers over the past year. Congratulations go out to all involved in the 4-H program.