4-H’ers ready for the Carbon fair

With the same anticipation and excitement that a baseball player has for an upcoming championship game, so do 4-H members look forward to the Carbon County Fair.

Thirty-one members of the Carbon County 4-H Livestock Club met recently at Big Creek Grange to go over final preparations for this year’s exposition, which opens tonight.

All have high hopes of more than colorful ribbons. They are hoping to sell their groomed farm animals to premium buyers at the fair.

Raising 4-H animals is a lot different from raising a typical pet.

Ashley Mosier, an 18-year-old college student, is showing a market steer that weighs about 10 times as much as her. Yet she walks the animal around like someone walking a pet puppy.

Caleb Mesaros, a fourth-grader at Lehighton Area Elementary School, is raising hens and roosters to show at the fair. He’s concerned because one hen has become aggressive to the others.

“I had to separate the one hen,” he said. “It picked the feathers” on the other hens.

Despite the meanness of the hen, Caleb said, “I’m showing him anyway. But I don’t want to keep him with the other hens before the fair.”

The highlight of the fair for 4-H members is on Saturday when the annual livestock auction is held. Leading up to the auction, there will be judging to determine which animals are the champions and could potentially bring the youngsters the best financial reward.

Mesaros, 9, is the son of Eric and Erica Mesaros.

This is his first year showing livestock.

He said he’s raising his 16 hens and a rooster “at my nana’s house.”

He said he became involved in 4-H through encouragement by his aunt, Madison Schweizer, who is also a 4-H member.

He said Schweizer shows dairy beef, but also has some hens and roosters.

Mosier is the daughter of Scott and Joyce Mosier of Palmerton. She is a graduate of Palmerton Area High School and is a freshman at Penn State University.

This is her sixth and final year in 4-H, because she has reached the age limit.

She has one market steer and two dairy beef. She used to show swine, too, but doesn’t have any entered this year.

Mosier has won ribbons in the past in every category that she had livestock entered.

Last year both dairy beef she showed were in the grand champion drive.

Her sister, Natalie, had the reserve champion dairy cow last year.

Mosier said she got involved in 4-H through other members. “Definitely the members that were already in it talked me into joining,” she said.

She is currently the vice president of the Carbon County 4-H Livestock Club.

The president is Ryanne Hoffman. Last year, Mosier accompanied Hoffman to the Pennsylvania State Farm Show in Harrisburg, where Hoffmann showed a steer.

Asked what she likes about 4-H, she said, “Being around the people that come to the fair and explaining about agriculture. A lot of them don’t understand about animals.”

Mosier said she lives on a farm and has about 30 cows, “which we breed and butcher on our own.”

Asked if she forms an attachment to her 4-H animals, she said, “You definitely do, but you’re giving them a lot better life that they’d have in a field lot.”

Erin McGinley, 19, of Lehighton, has been a 4-H member for 10 years.

In the past she had entries in sewing, gardening, baking and rifles.

This is her first year in the 4-H Livestock Club, and she will be showing hens and ducks, which she keeps at a Mahoning Township farm.

“I just love animals,” she said, noting she decided to raising some for 4-H after taking care of a friend’s chickens while the friend was on vacation.

“Then I wanted some of my own,” she said.

She has a total of 12 hens and four ducks. She plans to show eight of the hens and two ducks.

A nursing student at Lehigh Carbon Community College, she makes sure she visits her animals daily.

In still exhibits, McGinley has a long list of accomplishments, including ribbons in numerous categories and best in show in the open class art work for acrylic paints.

She also has competed at the Pennsylvania State Farm Show with her artwork.

Regarding 4-H, she said, “I like to see my friends and see (the rewards) for all the hard work they did throughout the year.”