Kids who show animals will have more than just resolutions to fill out this new year.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture announced in a letter on Nov. 30 that it would soon require all kids participating in junior livestock competitions at California fairs to first complete the Youth for the Quality Care of Animals program, a nationally available curriculum that teaches kids best animal care and food safety practices. The mandate is effective Jan. 1.
Although the letter noted that local fairs were also allowed to develop their own quality assurance programs, the Santa Maria Fairpark chose to use the state curriculum, which officials say has already been implemented.
“For the most part it’s a good thing,” said Clemente Ayon, an agriculture teacher at Santa Maria High School.
Ayon, who is also a faculty advisor for the school’s Future Farmers of America program, said the curriculum includes a lot of important information, including the proper way to provide various species of animals with medical attention, ways to keep them hydrated, and best transportation practices.
It’s knowledge kids will need if they plan to show animals, and Ayon said the course only takes about an hour to complete. Still, Ayon said, “every year might be a little bit much.”
A certification in the program, which can be completed online for $12 or with an instructor for $3, must be obtained each year a kid age 8 to 21 wants to compete in the Santa Maria Fairpark’s junior livestock shows.
Before this change was announced, the Fairpark required exhibitors to complete a similar quality assurance program every five years. That was often enough, Ayon said.
He was also skeptical of the fee. While $12 a year may not seem like much, Ayon said it’s already expensive for kids to raise and show animals. It can cost more than $800 to raise pigs, between $500 and $1,000 for sheep, and up to $3,000 for cattle, money that he said goes toward competition entry fees, feed, medical care, and space to house the animals.
Kids do eventually sell the animals, but Ayon said the return usually amounts to only about 40 to 50 percent of what it cost to raise them.
And with roughly 1,000 students in Santa Maria High School’s ag department alone, about 250 of which show animals on a yearly basis, Ayon said $12 per exhibitor a year across the whole state adds up.
“Where is that money going?” he asked.
Jay Carlson, fairs management consultant with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said the profits from both the online and instructor-led courses go entirely toward credit card fees, technical and user support, online system hosting and maintenance, and some money stays with the Youth for the Quality Care of Animals program to support ongoing curriculum development.
“The Fairs and Exposition Branch does not receive any funds relating to the [Youth for the Quality Care of Animals] online or instructor-led trainings,” Carlson wrote in an email to the Sun. “[Youth for the Quality Care of Animals] is a nonprofit organization.”
Dutch Van Patten, a teacher at Ernest Righetti High School, said kids in Santa Barbara County make plenty of money showing animals.
Van Patten founded the school’s Warrior Goats Club, a program that helps special needs students learn how to show goats competitively, and he said junior livestock exhibitors in this county make far more on average than most kids. That, he said, is largely because of huge bids from the Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, a Santa Barbara-based philanthropic organization that helps fund various local projects.
Kids make so much in this area, Van Patten said, that he sees many enter competitions just to make some money. Those are the students who need this yearly course in animal and food safety, Van Patten said, and the kids who likely won’t want to put in the effort to take it, and thus won’t be allowed to show.
That, he said, will leave more room for the many students who really do care about the learning experience that comes with raising an animal. Those students, he said, don’t seem to have a problem with the state’s new requirement.
“I like it,” Van Patten said. “I don’t think it’s too much.”
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash writes School Scene each week. Information can be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 20-27, 2018.
