Members of 4-H clubs in the Estevan area are working with their steers, getting ready for the Estevan Rotary 4-H Regional Show and Sale, which is slated to happen July 6-8 at the Estevan Exhibition Grounds.
Brandice Petterson, who is a spokesperson for the sale, said they are going to follow all the health measures and guidelines, but they also want to make the sale go as close to normal as possible, and after a one-year break, the clubs are looking forward to it happening.
"We are hoping that we can get it to be as close to what it normally is, but there are still some rules that we do have to follow with COVID guidelines. So we'll try to do as much social distancing as we possibly can. And there will be masks if social distancing can't be dealt with … But we're going to try and have it be as much as what the kids are used to as possible," Petterson said.
The show and sale will span three days as usual. The first two days the clubs focus on their achievement days, and the steer sale will take place on the final day of the event.
"Benson and I believe Steelman will do their achievement day the first day. The next day will be Browning and Outram-Madigan doing their achievement day, I believe. And then on the third day will be the regional show with all of the clubs, and then later afternoon-evening will be the sale, which will be in person," Petterson said.
On the achievement day, the kids will fill out a written card and judge some animals, and then they'll show. The kids will also get to present oral reasonings for the regional show. The five clubs that will partake in the Estevan sale on the last day are Outram-Madigan, Benson, Browning, Crossroads and Steelman.
The show and sale is something that the kids work towards all year, and the clubs were happy to hear that they will be able to hold their year-end event this time. Now that they have a green light, they are putting the final touches on the program.
"We're working towards our achievement day, we made some changes to how we run our achievement day, because of the restrictions. But we're just happy that we're able to get together and do the achievement day together and do the show and sale together and in-person and get back to kids' excitement. The show and sale is what a lot of the kids work towards. It's fun and exciting for them to get to take their steer to town and show it and when they don't get to do it, the fun part of the whole process is gone," Petterson said.
Most 4-H members started working with their steers in the fall when cattle were brought back home. This year due to the pandemic, the families turned into the kids' main supporters in their projects.
"When it comes to steers, there's not a lot of the inner club working on steers together just because of the COVID rules. So most of it was handled within the family," Petterson said.
She went on to explain that when it comes to raising steers, every club is different. Some clubs do different activities which involve steers, such as a demo day where members get to work on their steers and have someone there to guide them or help and give some suggestions. However, not all clubs were able to run such days this year.
"With the COVID restrictions, some of that's been really hard, because you're only allowed 10 people. Depending on where you're located, it can be hard to try and plan an activity when there are two or three kids from one family. And some of them are really small, so then you have to also include parents. So some of that kind of activities were not able to be held this year," Petterson explained.
In general, a lot of activities this year had to be carried out in an online format or through smaller team meetings rather than club meetings.
Due to the pandemic, last year the big sale was cancelled, and each individual club was responsible for dealing with how they wanted to do their steer sale.
