Montezuma County extension staff report $353,000 in 4-H livestock sales, recruit Master Gardeners

Miss Lockhart, the county extension presenter, told the Board of County Commissioners at the workshop that the extension office has circulated a quarterly program report and is recruiting for the Master Gardener program. "Now is the time to apply to be a part of that program," Miss Lockhart said, noting the training is offered online and that three people have already applied for next year’s cycle.

Miss Lockhart summarized recent and upcoming programming, including partnership classes on food preservation with Tierney and Nicole Clark of La Plata County. "Tierney can offer those classes. So she has is offering a hot water bath canning and then also a pressure canning class," Miss Lockhart said.

The extension also reviewed fair results. "I got some stats from Tierney for the livestock sale. It was total of $353,000. There was a 111 kiddos who sold through that. We had 33 beef, 28 swine, 18 sheep, 21 goats, 3 rabbits, and 8 fowl," Miss Lockhart reported. She said the figure was about $20,000 higher than the previous year.

Staff praised 4-H leaders for youth success at the state fair. Tierney reported that Montezuma County sent 48 projects to the state fair and that county youth earned multiple grand or reserve grand placements in Family & Consumer Sciences categories. "Montezuma County kids really did great at state fair," Tierney said.

Other extension news included community animal response training in case of wildfire, a newly hired administrative assistant, Nora West, who is familiar with the 4-H program, and an open posting for a program assistant that closes this week. Miss Lockhart said staff are coordinating small-scale trainings at the Cortez Livestock Sale Barn and with the animal shelter to prepare volunteers and responders.

The updates were informational; no formal action to adopt new policy or allocate funds was recorded during the workshop.