Twelve recent high school graduates each received $1,000 scholarships from the Antelope County 4-H Boosters on the last day of the fair.
The scholarships were presented to 4-H members Andrew Steskal, Travis Rudloff, Matthew Suckstorf, Isaiah Greenhalgh, Marie Meis, Kendra Carr, Taralyn Baum, Rachel Higgins, Brooklynn Chipps, Dalton Smutny, Liam Odell and Grace Henn. More than 20 4-Hers walked the runway during the Antelope County Fair's Fashion Revue at the fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon.
Kids modeled their sewing projects, which ranged from dresses to overalls and even pillows and pillowcases. Check out our photo gallery below: She is always ready to lend a helping hand.
That’s one of the many reasons Rhonda Meyer of Neligh was selected as the 2018 recipient of the Jolene Mosel Helping Hand Award during the Antelope County Fair on Sunday. After her name was called, Meyer entered the show arena, crying and hugging each member of the Mosel family. “I was very surprised and honored,” she said. “Jolene was a good friend of mine and we are believers in the 4-H program. There are are so many people that do so many things in order to make the program the success that it is. I am very honored and would like to thank the Mosel family.” The award was created in honor of Jolene Mosel, one of Antelope County's most devoted friends of 4-H who died after a lengthy battle with cancer in 2016. Past recipients were Anne Meis (2016) and Karin Kinney (2017). Tessa Hain, 4-H Youth Development Coordinator, said the award is presented annually to “someone who really goes above and beyond, who really focuses on the kids, who puts those kids first, mentoring them, supporting them, helping them figure out a 4-H project or maybe even encouraging them to join 4-H.” “If you knew Jolene, she was very sweet, very, very helpful lady, and she always had a smile on her face, always wanted to help the kids no matter what they were doing,” Hain said. She said Mosel was instrumental in recruiting kids to join 4-H and helping them through their projects, very much like Rhonda Meyer today. Hain said Meyer is “a go-getter” and has helped out the 4-H program tremendously. “Ever since I met her, she is out there encouraging kids, not only to join 4-H, but to show poultry...and if you haven’t been that way, the poultry barn is overfilled,” she said. As she smiled at Meyer wearing her T-shirt saying, “Have no fear the chicken lady is here,” Hain said there were about 140 birds in the poultry show, “and, honestly, this is all Rhonda.” She said Meyer teaches the 4-Hers showmanship and how to wash their birds as well. In addition to being the poultry superintendent, Meyer is also the cat superintendent, the foods superintendent and president of the 4-H council. “We really appreciate all that Rhonda does, she’s really deserving of the 2018 Jolene Mosel Award,” Hain said. On hand for the presentation were Jolene Mosel’s parents, Leroy and Gail Wortman; her husband. Randy, and three of her four children, Miranda, Chandra and Ethan and their families. Competing against the top showmen from the Antelope County Fair, Logan Mueller was selected as the winner of the Large Animal Round Robin Showmanship show Sunday.
Mueller had to demonstrate excellent showmanship skills with a pig, dairy and beef cows, a goat, a sheep and a horse. Mueller bested fellow Senior Showmanship winners, Trevin Hanson, Taylor Bolling, Codey Snider, Andrew Steskal and Carter Beckman to take the top prize. There was a lot of smoke and a lot of noise, but a great time was had by all at Saturday's demolition derby at the Antelope County Fair in Neligh.
Check out the gallery below to see the drivers in action. He took a chance on the lottery and came out a winner.
The goat lottery that is. The number of goats at the 2018 Antelope County Fair more than doubled last year’s total, thanks, in part, to a lottery project. But what was the biggest reason for the increase? “Definitely Travis Rudloff,” said Tessa Hain, 4-H youth development coordinator. When Rudloff noticed a dwindling number of goats at the fair the past few years, he decided to take action. He suggested a goat lottery and a new companion goat class for 2018. For the lottery, Rudloff contacted a producer in Albion to supply the goats. Six kids attended the lottery, drew a number and were given the animal that corresponded to the number on the ear tag. The 4-Hers paid the producer for the goats, and they were ready for their first goat show. “The lottery added more market goats to the class and gave people an outlet to get those market goats,” Rudloff said. Hain said Rudloff, 18, worked for about two years to get the project going. “Travis is a great kid,” she said. “He worked really hard and finally got it off the ground this year. He saw the sheep and they had the lottery project. He goes, ‘You know what? I think we could probably do something similar for our goats so we can increase our goat numbers.’” Last year, he worked to recruit kids, and while some showed interest, there weren’t enough to get it started. But this year, Rudloff pushed for more and got enough kids interested, Hain said. Samuel and Isaac Hemenway of Neligh, two of the 4-Hers who participated in the project, showed goats solely due to the lottery, according to their mom, Anne Hemenway. “We heard about the goat lottery because they advertised it through the extension office,” she said. “So I asked the kids, ‘Do you guys want to get a lottery goat?’ And they were like, ‘No,’ and I thought, ‘Well, Travis is doing it and he was really encouraging it.’ It was a lot more work than we thought, but Travis was such a big help.” In addition to the lottery, Rudloff requested a companion goat class be added this year. “The companion class was started because we saw so many goats coming up through Clover Kids, so people had goats, but we didn’t have a class to put them in,” he said. “So by creating a new class, they had an avenue to enter them into.” And they did. An impressive 12 companion goats entered the brand new class. “Companion goats can be any goat, any breed, any sex,” Rudloff said. “It is based more on presentation and their record book.” He also helped kids throughout the process by conducting workshops, teaching 4-Hers how to care for the goats and getting them ready for the show. “With the goat workshops he did, a lot of those kids had never shown a goat before, so he helped to prepare them,” Hain said. “He taught them what to expect for showing goats, what you should feed them, what kind of housing facilities you should have for your goat. So he started the project from the very beginning, what you should do before you even get your goat, all the way to the very end, to help them trim their goat. And, in between, he had two workshops on how to actually show the goats in the ring.” Hemenway said Rudloff not only held workshops, but he was “a super supporter” of the 4-H kids. “He encouraged the boys so much,” she said. “He was like, ‘I think you are going to do great.’ Even when they were nervous or the goats wouldn’t walk, he was like, ‘I know, sometimes mine don’t.’ He told them, ‘Even if it isn’t as easy as you thought, you are going to do great.’ He’s a super nice kid.” Hain said Rudloff served as a role model to the younger kids as well. “There were 16 junior showmen and I would say three-fourths of those Travis mentored in some way, shape or form,” she said. “One of the lottery kids got a reserve champion in the rate of gain, and when he got the medal, he was astonished that he was awarded this and he ran straight back to the pens. I was like, ‘Oh, he’s going to go show his dad.’ But he went back to show Travis. It was so sweet.” Rudloff said he enjoys working with the kids and was pleased with how his recommendations boosted the number of goats. There were less than 20 goats last year and about 42 this year. “The goal was to get around 50, and we got pretty close to that,” he said. “I was happy with the turnout for the goat show. There were a lot of kids there and a lot of them were in the project that came to the workshops. They seemed to be happy about how they did, so I was happy for them.” A recent Clearwater High School graduate, he has shown goats for four years, winning champion for senior showmanship, market goat, breeding goat, dairy goat and rate of gain. Rudloff is currently a summer intern at the Antelope County Extension Office and serves on the local 4-H Council. The son of Paul and Pam Rudloff, he has one year of 4-H eligibility left and said, “As long as the numbers are still there, we will do the goat lottery again next year.” So far, the odds are looking good. Heithoff Inc. was awarded the prestigious Nebraska Pioneer Award at Saturday's Antelope County Fair.
Barney Heithoff started Heithoff Inc. in 1918. Members of the Heithoff family were awarded with an engraved plaque and gatepost marker as permanent recognition of the milestone by Antelope County Farm Bureau President Steve Pellatz at Saturday's fair. The award recognize Nebraska farm families who have consecutively held ownership of land in the same family for at least 100 years (Pioneer) or 150 years (Heritage), respectively. Since its inception in 1956, nearly 10,000 farm families statewide have received the Nebraska Pioneer Farm Award. The Nebraska Heritage Farm Award, established in 2014, has been awarded to nearly 75 families. Through thick and thin, the Strahms have continued their family farm for 100 years.
Arnold Strahm originally established the family farm in 1918 and today the farm is run by Clifford and Carol Strahm. Clifford and Carol Strahm were awarded with an engraved plaque and gatepost marker as permanent recognition of the milestone by Antelope County Farm Bureau President Steve Pellatz at Saturday's fair. The award recognize Nebraska farm families who have consecutively held ownership of land in the same family for at least 100 years (Pioneer) or 150 years (Heritage), respectively. Since its inception in 1956, nearly 10,000 farm families statewide have received the Nebraska Pioneer Farm Award. The Nebraska Heritage Farm Award, established in 2014, has been awarded to nearly 75 families. Clee and Monique Wolske, along with Randy Kossman, were presented with the prestigious Nebraska Pioneer Award Saturday at the Antelope County Fair.
John Lind established the family farm in 1911 and Wolske and Kossman continued the family business for more than 100 years. Wolskes and Kossman were awarded with an engraved plaque and gatepost marker as permanent recognition of the milestone by Antelope County Farm Bureau President Steve Pellatz at Saturday's fair. The award recognize Nebraska farm families who have consecutively held ownership of land in the same family for at least 100 years (Pioneer) or 150 years (Heritage), respectively. Since its inception in 1956, nearly 10,000 farm families statewide have received the Nebraska Pioneer Farm Award. The Nebraska Heritage Farm Award, established in 2014, has been awarded to nearly 75 families. Generous donors gave Antelope County 4-Hers something to smile about at the Premium Auction on Saturday. More than $43,000 was donated back to the kids who have spent a lot of time, effort and money to raise their animals.
Small animals, such as chickens and rabbits, were also allowed to participate in the auction, but they were auctioned off with a single bid that will be split evenly between the nearly two dozen 4-Hers that brought small animals. The small animal exhibitors raised a collective $1,550. The regular premium auction featured market steers, market heifers, second year bucket calves, market barrows, market gilts, market lambs, lottery lambs, market goats and lottery goats. The top bid of the auction was $2,100 for Logan Mueller's champion market steer. In this premium auction, the exhibitor retained ownership of the animal and each livestock exhibitor was allowed to sell one market animal. |
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