4-H members wishing to participate in the LSU AgCenter 4-H Livestock program should be aware of the following possession and validation dates for 2010.
Possession Dates for the 2010 Show will be:
August 15 – Market Steers
November 7 -Breeding and Commercial Beef; Breeding and Commercial Dairy; Market, Breeding and Commercial Sheep; Market, Breeding and Commercial Goats.
December 5 -Market and Breeding Swine
2010 Validations for Steers, Commercial Heifers, Commercial Dairy, Market Goats, Commercial Does, Market Lambs, Commercial Ewes, and Market Hogs will be conducted on the Parish Level. Parishes will conduct these validations at central locations at which time hair samples will be obtained and a tag placed in the ear of each animal validated; this will be done in the presence of an LCES agent or FFA Advisor/Ag Teacher and prior to possession date. A fee will be assessed to each DNA sample collected. As of this time the fee is yet to be determined by LSU.
If your animal was validated for the Louisiana State Fair, these animals still need to be brought to the LSU Validation sites to be validated for the Parish, Southwest District, and LSU AgCenter Livestock Shows.
The 2010 classification process will be as follows: Exhibitors will designate classification on entry form at time of entry. District Show management will have the right to change classification on animals where it is obvious they have been entered in the incorrect classification; in these cases the show manager may move the animal into the correct class. Market Steers, Commercial Heifers, Market Lambs and Market Hogs will be officially classified at the state show by official classifiers designated by show management.
Steer Exhibitors
We will be validating steers for the 2010 Spring Livestock Shows at the following facilities and times:
Burton Coliseum Barn – Thursday, August 6, 2009, from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
West-Cal Arena – Thursday, August 13, 2009, from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
We will also validate Beef Breeding animals on these dates so if any exhibitor has their Beef Breeding animals they can be brought to the August validation sites. Keep in mind validation requirements for Beef Breeding animals require some type of I.D. on the animal such as a brand, tattoo or tag.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact James Meaux at the Calcasieu Extension Office at 337-475-8812.