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Late winter brought busy times to West Feliciana Parish 4-H’ers. January marked the start of our Livestock Show Season. The livestock program provides 4-H’ers opportunities to learn leadership, citizenship, and life skills through hands-on experiences. We held our Parish Livestock Show and Mini Farm on January 16th-18th. On January 16th, 667 youth visited the Mini Farm to learn about livestock and other agricultural booths. Our Parish Livestock Show had 53 exhibitors. They competed in Premier Exhibitor Tests, Showmanship, and their respective breed and/or meat classes for their animal. After the Parish Livestock Show, our exhibitors competed at the Southcentral District Show and did very well! West Feliciana 4-H had the top Premier Exhibitors in several species. West Feliciana Parish 4-H’ers wrapped up their livestock season with the with the State Livestock Show.
After livestock season, the 4-H Shooting Sports season began. West Feliciana 4-H’ers competed in Shotgun and Archery competitions. Our 4-H’ers performed well and received lots of practice for future shoots. Our shooting sports participants competed at Regionals in March with several qualifying for State in Archery in both 3D and Modified FITA events. At Regionals, they brought home several top ten and first place wins as well!! This year, we had two youth qualify for State in Shotgun! Also, the Rabbit Exhibitors put in a lot of effort and dedication to achieve a strong showing at the State Rabbit Show.
Our Sewing Project Club has been working hard at constructing their project items to display at this year’s 4-H Style Show. During our 4-H club meetings, fourth and fifth graders learned about pollinators with lessons about hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. In our other 4-H club meetings, our youth are advancing with STEM lessons where they made homemade lava lamps. To continue offering our 4-H’ers a well-rounded experience, our Rabbit Project Club, Horse Project Club and Mission Nutrition Cooking Project Club have been meeting as well. Our members are learning new skills through these project clubs.
Our 4-H’ers are getting excited for our summer events. They are looking forward to 4-H Camp Grant Walker, 4-H University, Horse Shows, Marsh Maneuvers, LOST Camp and many other fun events in our parish, region, and state!January and February are busy times of the year for agents and volunteers. In January, the Feliciana Master Gardeners participated in the 4-H Mini Farm by hosting a seed germination booth. The new Master Gardener class is busy planning their Spring Home and Garden Stroll scheduled for May 10th.
The Spring Horticulture Seminars were held in Clinton and 54 people attended the two-night event. Topics included: azaleas, growing citrus north of Baton Rouge, covering crops in home gardens, and house plants.
The Feliciana Forestry Association (FFA) held their annual meeting in St. Francisville with 160 attendees. Dennis Aucoin was named the FFA Forest Landowner of the Year and the guests heard from speaker Michael Crowell from Crowell Forest Resources, LLC.
The 4-H Horticulture Club has a small, raised bed garden behind the West Feliciana LSU AgCenter office and is planning to spruce up the flower bed at the Council on Aging next month.
Our ANR- Livestock/Forage Agent wrapped up five Private Pesticide Applicator training courses for East Feliciana, West Feliciana, and surrounding parishes from December to March 2025. The Louisiana Department of Ag and Forestry requires all private applicators to recertify every three years and must receive training for pesticide drift, worker protection, pesticide storage, and record keeping. Approximately 110 participants were recertified.
May 27 Louisiana Master Farmer Phase 1 Training, Tangipahoa Parish Extension Office, Amite, 9am-3pm. For more information, contact Donna Gentry at dsgentry@agcenter.lsu.edu
The Nutrition & Community Health Agent continued working with the 137 Pre-K children and 141 kindergarteners at Bains Lower Elementary. In January, the Pre-K children learned about physical activity while the kindergarteners learned how to make half their grains whole. The kindergarteners enjoyed participating in the Great Grain Obstacle. During February, the Pre-K children learned about keeping a healthy heart while the kindergarteners learned about powering up with protein. The protein lesson was reinforced with a protein relay where the children placed food cards in either plant protein or animal protein buckets. The Nutrition & Community Health Agent taught both grades about the dairy food group in March. Both grades took part in a colors scavenger hunt where they found items in the garden that corresponded to certain colors and drew them During this quarter, the children continued caring for their 10 raised beds. They planted lettuce and radish seeds and cucumber transplants.
In January, the NCH Agent hosted a booth on the importance of fruits and vegetables for the 4-H Mini Farm reaching over 660 youth and 96 adults.
The NCH Agent also conducted monthly project club meetings for the 4-H Mission Nutrition Cooking Club. In January 11 4-H’ers learned how to use the Go, Slow, Whoa method to categorize foods and drinks that contain healthy and less healthy sources of fats in the Find the Fats session. The youth made Fruit Chewy Cookies during this session. During the February project club meeting, 11 4-H’ers took part in Watch Out for Added Sugars. They evaluated the amount of added sugars in foods and drinks popular among teens. The 4-H’ers learned about empty calories and physical activity before participating in a team smoothie challenge and presentation. Nine 4-H’ers at the March Project Club participated in the Snack Attack session. They used the nutrition facts label to find foods nutrient-dense and low in added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium. The 4-H’ers identified physical activities for all stages of life and safe practices to prevent foodborne illness. The 4-H’ers made their own nutrient-dense snack- a fresh salad with fun toppings. This was a great way for them to experiment with different food combinations.
In February, the NCH Agent conducted a heart health program for 19 clients at the West Feliciana Council on Aging.
In February and March, the NCH Agent conducted a Break Up with Salt series to help adults at risk or with hypertension learn how to manage their condition through goal setting, diet, label reading, portion control and cooking. Special thanks to RKM Primary Care for sponsoring the nutrition series.
Also, during this time, the NCH provided nutrition resources and factsheets for the West Feliciana Food Pantry food boxes.In March, the West Feliciana LSU AgCenter staff hosted a Joint Advisory Leadership Council Meeting to help determine parish needs and issues, implement programs to address those needs, and evaluate the programming efforts.
