At the Lambert family farm in Lewis, 4-H is a way of life.
The serenade of a few hundred sheep serves as a reminder that its business as usual.
But it is a pig named Lady GaGa that brought home the bacon at this years National Western Stock Show in Denver.
The Lambert kids, Chance and younger sister Madison, have competed at the annual January event before, but this year provided a huge thrill. Chance and Lady GaGa won first-place in the Championship Lightweight Crossbred division.
The first-place was the result of a lot of hard work and dedication. And plenty of lessons that come with 4-H.
Although the Lamberts run a family farm, the agricultural climate in the U.S. is changing. Programs like 4-H and a high school agriculture education program help maintain the industrys roots.
I started in 4-H about nine years ago, Chance said. Its been hard, but Ive gotten stuff done.
Chance, who is a freshman at Montezuma-Cortez High School, said the 4-H program is teaching him a great deal, not only about rasing animals but about how to treat other people.
4-H has taught me to be respectful. It teaches me good ways, he said.
Chances mom, Susanne, said she and her husband, Trenso got all of the animals for the kids to become involved in agriculture.
We had a friend that talked us into 4-H, and we thought it was such a great program that we continued, she said.
Trenso Lambert is a partner with High Country Transportation, a company centered on trucking agricultural commodities. As parents, Susanne and Trenso stay involved with the kids and 4-H. Trenso is also on the advisory board for the agriculture program at the high school.
Life lessons
Susanne says the 4-H program helps the kids with some of the facts of life.
I like that it teaches the kids responsibility. They learn a lot of lifes lessons on the farm. There is life and death and everything in between. I think it prepares them for the real world, she said.
And speaking of life lessons, there are about 100 of lifes littler lessons stumbling around all over the Lambert farm.
Its lambing season at the Lamberts, and Chance is in charge of overseeing the night shift.
We have one almost every night, he said about the arrival of new lambs. He stays in a bunk room sandwiched between the pigs and the sheep, so he is ready to help deliver new newborns. A flat screen TV keeps him company. A bunk-bed, couch and a pellet gun keep him comfortable.
I stay out here and check on the sheep. Ive got everything I need: TV, a fridge, snacks, he said.
Chance says its a rush every time an animal gives birth.
Its just exciting. Every time you see a little nose or feet popping out that adrenaline kicks in, he said.
Madison, a sixth-grader at Cortez Middle School helps tend to the bottle babies, but her favorite thing is showing her pigs.
I like them because they have personalities, she said.
Madisons pig, Porcupine, took sixth-place in the heavyweight market division at the stock show. She named the plump pig Porcupine because of his insatiable appetite. Every time you put something in front of him, he would just eat it. He was so fat he could barely walk, she said.
Porcupine tips the scales and 277 pounds.
Industry changes
Trenso graduated from M-CHS and was part of the agriculture education program, where he studied under Kevin McComb. Chance has McComb as a teacher in the same program today.
McComb, also a graduate of M-CHS, says hes been teaching agriculture for 31 years and has seen a lot of changes in that time. He says these days more students are getting away from agriculture production and leaning more toward other aspects like horticulture, grounds keeping and landscape management.
Theyre getting into different fields of agriculture, not the cows and plows of production, McComb said.
Unlike 4-H, which is part of the local extension office, at the high school level students with an interest in agriculture are involved with the Future Farmers of America program (FFA). Its a three-step module that emphasizes leadership skills and teaching the tools that help agriculture-minded students develop pathways into careers.
We have a classroom portion, a shop portion and a supervised agricultural experience portion (SAE), so the students get hands-on projects where they apply what they learn in school, take it home and put it to use. They really take ownership of it, McComb said.
He said the program is similar to other vocational programs in schools, but has been around for quite a while.
We try to teach kids to think, to analyze situations. Wed like to get people to understand what our program is about. It teaches skills that they can put to work, he said.
McComb said that they are having trouble filling the agriculture production program recently.
Its been interesting to see those kids learn that they might not be able to go back to the family farm, he said.
Not a dying industry
Amanda Ramos also teaches agriculture at M-CHS and says there are more opportunities to look for than small farming.
Were constantly fighting this uphill battle that were teaching kids for a dying industry, but in reality were not. One in five jobs today are agriculture related. The latest statistic shows 17 percent of the workforce in America works in some facet of agriculture, Ramos said.
She added that while unemployment is an issue in the U.S. there are job openings in agriculture for people with the right training.
New movements sprouted by the United States Department of Agriculture are even underway to encourage new farmers. START2FARM is a beginning farmer and rancher development program that provides grants to people interested in farming with less than 10 years experience. According to the USDA the average age for farmers is rising and finding young agricultural producers is crucial for food production in the future.
On the Lamberts farm Chance and Madison bottle feed new additions to the stock. Susanne says that she is happy the kids stay busy being productive with the animals, but knows they may find other interests. Her oldest son is away at college studying subjects outside of agriculture.
I think its good for them, but if they dont want it, thats ok, she said.
Chance says he just has fun and jokes that he likes the stink of all the sheep.
I just love it. I dont know how I could live anywhere else but the country, he said.
The Lamberts are already preparing for upcoming county and state fairs, and next years National Western Stock Show.
Reach Brandon at brandonm@cortezjournal.com