Farm Fact Friday: Q & A with Blayne and Chance Colman

Kari – “Hello everyone and welcome back to another Farm Fact Friday we are getting very close to the Hancock County Fair and exhibitors with livestock projects are still busy getting ready for their show day and sale day and today we’re on location with two 4-hrs who are near and dear to the team at Hitchings Insurance. So we’re going to ask them questions about their project learn a little bit more about 4-h and what it involves for them and how you can watch them at the fair and when the sale is so let me flip the camera here and here we are we have Blayne and Chance Coleman with us today so we’re just going to do a little question and answer and they’re going to kind of take turns walking us through their 4-h journey. So tell us what did you guys take for your 4-h project.” Blayne – “So we took dairy feeders this year we can do it starts in third grade when you can take them and with these guys they get about up to 600 pounds we take them to the fair and I really enjoy hanging out with them.” Kari – “Good did you name your calves.” The boys – “Oh yes this one is scout and then mine right here is otis.” Kari – “And do you have any more that you’re taking.” Chance – “Uh yes so we have one over there and then we have two in there.” Kari – “Okay so what are their names.” The boys – “My name is tank and mine is Texas because it looks like the state of Texas on his head.” Kari – ” Nice so if you hear some extra mooing there it is on cue they’re in their pens but they’re the boys are just showing us two of them right now. So any other reasons behind behind their names besides what you mentioned Blayne.” Blayne – “Um so Otis off of the barnyard I like that movie ever since I was a little kid so that’s why I named him Otis.” Kari – “Nice” Chance – My name’s scout because when he was little he like when he put him on trailers he kept sniffing everywhere and that’s where I called him scout then my other one named pink he was a big baby when he’s little so I just call him.” Kari – ” Very good so going to the fair is definitely a highlight for you what do you have to do leading up to the fair to complete your projects.” Chance – ” You have to feed them, make sure they have water, spend time with them walk them and like make sure you just spend time with them to get them tamed.” Kari – “Good” Blayne – “And right before the fair we like to wash them, keep them clean, brush them, make sure that the pen is always clean, scoop out poop and then just in general just hang out with them, make them love you.” Kari – ” Yeah good are there other things like do you have a project book that you have to do or any like do you have to go get interviewed?” Blayne – “Yeah so we have a book that we had to fill out of like our records what we bought and mostly just what we’ve done throughout the year and then we go and have an interview with like a judge he asks us questions about him we have to like say the meat cuts and then just talk to him about what we like what, we didn’t like. Then we just go to the fair and show them.” Kari – “Good so it’s more than just feeding and watering them you also have to understand about the animal. Good so throughout the year you also have to go to 4-h meetings what club are you in and are there any requirements that you have being in the club?” Chance – “Just going to the meetings and participating. Does that answer the question?” Kari – “Yeah, so what type of things do you do at your meetings.” Chance – “Um like you sometimes we do activities like making ice cream or like having talk about your calves and what are you taking from there. Kari – “Yeah good, so you’re getting interaction with other kids learning about other projects probably. Blayne – “Yeah it’s really cool to see like some of my friends like they take hogs or lambs and stuff and it’s really cool to see them interact with their animals and like kind of hear about when they get them compared to when we get them what they feed them how much they weigh and stuff I really like it it’s pretty cool. Kari – “Yeah that’s good because a chicken feeds out a lot faster than a calf does right.” Blayne – “Yeah” Kari – “Yeah let’s learn more about your calves. What do you when you have to come out and do chores what does it involve” Blayne – “So like we come out morning and night we give them water, we feed them, we hang out with them. So our feed is just some corn and pellets and then we just give them fresh water every day and at night. We walk them around for about an hour and a half. It takes an hour and a half to do chores at night. So it’s really a lot of dedication that comes into this just responsibility too.” Chance – “Yes you have to it’s not you can’t come out here and just do chores and lead because they get sometimes like scared of you if you like make quick movements. So you have to be slow with them and be nice.” Kari – “Good good maybe are there some things that you have to do once in a while not maybe every day but once in a while.” Blayne – ” Yeah so we do clean out their poop like big big piles of them every day but they’re shaving so they’re just wood shavings cut up and when that gets dirty and stuff we clean that about every week every week we clean it out put new shavings in and then with their water we have to clean that out about every three days just with our big trough it gets dirty quick.” Kari – “Yeah good so daily tasks weekly tasks monthly tasks so lots going on the livestock sale at the fair provides you with money for your savings account but there’s also some things you have to spend money on with your calves right now what are some of those costs or expenses that you have to think about.” Chance – “You have to have buckets for them shavings for them you have to have like if you want them to get big or like if they’re sick you have to get medicines for them then you have to get like the certain kind of pellets that make them that if they eat them it makes them a little bit fatter and bigger.” Kari – “Well what’s on their head and what do you have in your hands?” Chance – ” A halter” Kari – “Anything special for show day.” Blayne – “So we also have show holders and we have these show sticks so it’s this thing about this tall and at the end it’s pointy so we actually we push him right in the feet and see how he kicks it kind of messes with them a little bit gets their feet to move so right now we normally want their feet square so about right how mine is is about right how you want it about feet or square and then so we use that we carry that in our hand during show and our show holders are a lot more fancy than this our show hunters are normally like black leather and then they don’t have like a clip like this one does it’s just built-in built-in chain other than that yeah that’s a bunch of stuff that we we have to use and get.” Kari – “Yep so it’s not just buy the calf feed it and get the money at the sale you also have to take into account the costs that go into it good to other kids that are thinking about joining 4-h what is your favorite thing about the organization.” Chance – ‘When they’re baby calves they you get to feed them milk and they like get they like hit it with their head.” Kari – “So you like seeing them go from baby to bigger animals, good.” Blayne – “Then my favorite part is I like to see their personality like this one right here he’s a little more calm he’s bigger a bigger boy. So he doesn’t like to be in the heat. but my other one, that’s mooing he’s really jumpy and I like seeing their personalities and I like going to the fair hang out with my friends show them and like just show up show how much hard work and stuff what hard work does.” Kari – “Yeah good good if someone wants to come watch the feeder calf show at the fair can you tell them when it is and where it is?” Blayne – ” So our our show is on September 2nd starts at 9am so it’ll be showmanship so showmanship is based on me how I act with my calf and how I do with them and then right after that is the weight classes so that focuses on the calf how big he is how muscular he is and then then at the end and then Thursday is our only day that we show.” Kari – “Good so it’s it’s a long day but that’s when you you put it all together right.” The boys – “Yeah” Kari – “Good and on Farm Fact Friday we’ve talked a little bit about supporting youth and those who are taking livestock projects through the sale can you tell people when the sale is?” Blayne – “So the sale is September 6 it starts at nine and we actually this year we sell first so this is commercial it’s where you can come out and support me as an exhibitor and give me money for for my hard work so that’s what that’s when that commercial sale is.” Kari – “Perfect on labor day right.” Blayne – “Yep very good well good luck to both of you that’s all the questions I have for today so good luck at the show and the sale.” The boys – Thank you.” Kari – “You’re welcome so as Blayne mentioned the sale at the fair is on labor day and as mentioned previously any business is welcome to support this. If you’re not familiar with the sale we do have a buyer’s group through the Findlay Hancock Chamber of Commerce so if you’re able to give $100, $200, $300 whatever that looks like someone will be there to represent you and make sure that your business name gets on the support of an animal. So if you have questions about that I’m happy to provide those details but that is available to anybody that maybe can’t make it to the sale or aren’t familiar with the sale. These kids work really really hard and as Blayne and Chance indicated it’s not just showing up once a day or whenever they feel like it it’s twice a day for long periods of time. They’re learning great skills and they are the future of what is coming to Hancock County. So with that I hope you guys enjoyed our feature for today have a great rest of your Friday a wonderful weekend we’ll check you back next week for another Farm Fact Friday take care