4-H Exhibits

4-H is a youth program for ages 5 to 18 years olds. It started more than 100 years ago in Ohio. 4-H is part of the United States Department of Agriculture, and coordinated through Land Grant Universities around the country. In North Dakota, 4-H is a joint program between the North Dakota State University Extension Service and the individual counties.

4-H started as a program to help teach farm boys how to be better farmers, and to teach the girls about taking care of the home. Over the years it has developed to include a wide range of program areas. You can probably find a project to cover almost any area of interest. 4-H has become known for teaching general life skills such as leadership and public speaking, as well as the specific topic areas ranging from baking to welding to rocketry. 5 to 8 year olds are Clover Buds and get to try several different programs as participants. 8 to 18 year olds pick out programs they are interested in learning about and get a chance to experience hands-on learning. There are also a lot of competition opportunities.

Exhibiting projects at the Fair is part of the 4-H experience. Youth make something as as part of the hands-on learning for the project, or make a display to explain what they learned. The projects are interview judged. This means that the youth bring their project to a judge, and the judge interviews the youth to find out what they learned in the project area this year. Each project is judged on its own and given a blue, red, or white ribbon. A large part of the ribbon is based on the effort and skills learned by the youth, rather than just judging which project looks best. Blue ribbon projects are then judged against each other in specific project areas, with the best given Grand Champion, Reserve Champion, or Honorable Mention ribbons. Blue ribbon projects can be sent to the North Dakota State Fair in Minot.

Static exhibits for 4-H youth are entered and judged on Tuesday of Fair week. They will be available for viewing in the 4-H Building when the Fair opens on Wednesday. The building opens when the Fair opens each day. It closes at 10 pm each day. Stop in and check out the work done by 4-H youth as you walk through the Fairgrounds. 4-H also has a stand selling pie and ice cream over the weekend, so it becomes a great place to take a break if you want to sit and relax between rides on the Midway.

Everyone loves to check out the animals when they go to the Fair. Unfortunately, Grand Forks County isn't known for having a lot of farm animals. But our 4-H youth do raise some animals as 4-H projects, and they bring the best of them to the Fair. The animals are located in the Barn, which is the large metal building at the west end of the Fairgrounds. The barns open each day when the Fair opens and close each day at 10 pm to give the animals a chance to get their beauty sleep.

We won't find out exactly which animals are coming to the Fair until they bring them in for entry on Wednesday afternoon. We normally have 20 4-H horses in stalls in the barn. They hold a 4-H horse show on Friday afternoon of the Fair in the horse arena on the west side of the Barn. We normally see several several cows, a few goats and sheep, occasionally a few hogs, and plenty of rabbits and poultry. The animals are all judged on Saturday along with showmanship contests. A 4-H dog show is also held at the Fair. Check our daily schedule to find out which 4-H events are scheduled each day.

One important thing to remember when checking out the animals in the barn, DON'T TOUCH THE ANIMALS. This is not a petting zoo. The animals may not be used to strangers. Look, but don't touch. And it's a good idea to wash your hands at the hand washing stations as you leave the barns, especially if you are not normally exposed to farm animals. We want to make sure that everyone has a great experience at the Fair, including our guests, our 4-H youth, and their families.