My vet assistant

 Last weekend was the 4-H beef check-in day.  This is when all the young 4-H'ers bring in their new beef animals to be identified and enrolled in the 4-H beef project.  Each animal gets weighed and receives a visual ear tag along with an electronic identification tag (EID).  For animals going on to state fair or other shows, we also need to collect hair follicle samples to have for a DNA test.  The heifers also received a permanent ear tattoo that will help identify them as they enter the herd as breeding animals.

Since I am on the 4-H council, I usually help at the annual weigh in event.  Nate wanted to go along so they put him right to work.  His job was to assist the vet in collecting the DNA samples and matching the envelopes to their ear tags for verification purposes.  He did a great job of getting things organized and I'm pretty sure he learned a lot.  He was also allowed to apply ink to some of the tattoos and learned how to properly tag and tattoo an animal.

I'm proud of him for wanting to learn new things about our beef industry and I'm thankful for awesome volunteers that are so willing to work with our young 4-H'ers to teach them along the way.  Dr. Jamie was super patient and took the time to explain the "whys" of all she was doing. 

4-H is full of teachable moments and it takes a tremendous amount of volunteers to make the most of them.  You'll notice there are no ribbons or shows in this post.  4-H is about so much more than that.  I can only hope the youth, volunteers, and supporters continue to focus on that!!