4-H Agriculture Programs Are Growing in the Suburbs

This is most notable in our 4-H programs.  Although over the years many production farms have been sold for development, a lot of acreage has been divided into small residential parcels of only a few acres.  These residents are one reason our 4-H program has more than doubled in size over the past decade.  These homeowners that have several acres all have one thing in common; they want to do something with their land when they come home from work.  Many times they want to have horses, cows, sheep or goats to graze the open pasture.  There is also the mindset desire to have fresh eggs, or put some meat in the freezer so they can be sure of the quality and freshness.  If they have kids, then 4-H is where they end up. 

The other two main ingredients for the program growth are our fantastic volunteer leaders and marketing.  The leaders are, of course, the most important piece as there are no clubs without them.  The leaders provide fun, extremely educational, and hands-on meetings that the kids cannot wait to come to every month.  They tell their friends and the 4-Hers themselves become the best marketers for our programs.  In addition, we advertize our 4-H clubs and programs extensively with news releases, flyers, and brochures throughout the county.  This helps those who moved from urban environments to learn about 4-H or other programs offered to help their small farms.  The outcome of this is that Bucks County currently has the largest 4-H program in the state, serving about 7500 residents through traditional 4-H clubs, short courses, and in-school programming, in particular our chick hatching embryology project.

When I work with youth that have a love of animals, most of them think that to have a career in agriculture you have to either be a farmer or a vet.  We instruct them through our programming about the various career opportunities as animal geneticist, nutritionists, physiologists, toxicologists, chemists, etc.  Bucks County 4-H has inspired many youth to pursue careers or study agriculture in college.  Our club leaders have been great at demonstrating this. For example our rabbit and cavy program has grown into 5 clubs.  The rabbit and cavy club leaders were members of 4-H and went on to earn degrees in the animal sciences.  Currently they are employed with research companies.  Clubs like these allow kids to raise animals in more suburban settings and still get in touch with agriculture with the education from our awesome leaders. 

Ten years ago, Bucks County did not have a 4-H beef club, or a poultry club, and the pig club had 6 members.  This year we have over 20 beef members, 30 poultry and 45 kids showing pigs. In addition our fair will have 85 dairy cattle, 45 goats, 120 sheep and over 150 rabbits and cavies.  We also have about 60 horses and ponies going to our round-up.

So, come on out and visit our fair at the Middletown Grange Fairgrounds, in Wrightstown, August 17 – 21st. Join about 55,000 people in seeing over 600 animals at our suburban, oh I mean country fair! 

For information on how to become a part of 4-H in Bucks County, call Bob Brown at Penn State Extension, 215-345-3283.