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4-H Beef Project

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Program Contact

Amy Alder, 4-H Program Manager
Phone Number509-962-7565 Email Address • amy.alder@wsu.edu

In the 4-H beef project, you can select from a breeding animal or a market animal.  Breeding animals allow you to start your own herd while market animals produce meat products for people.

Please note there are age restrictions on this project area:

Youth must be 8 by October 1st of the current 4-H year to be eligible for enrollment in large animal projects, including Beef, Dairy, Goat, Horse, Sheep, and Swine

Objectives

Youth will:

  • Learn basic principles of animal science through the owning, raising, and care of one or more animals
  • Select cattle based on breed characteristics and feed, winter, house, and care for for the market steer, as well as potentially breeding the animal
  • Fit, show, and market the steer for auction
  • Evaluate a carcass
  • Manage a herd, if more than one animal is raised
State 4-H Beef Project Resources
Five beef cattle in a field with others look at the viewer at left of title "Beef"

Helpful Resources

Should I take a Market Beef as a 4-H project? – Ohio 4-H (PDF)

Should I take a Feeder Calf as a 4-H project? – Ohio 4-H (PDF)

4-H Beef Showmanship – North Dakota State University Extension 4-H (YouTube video)

Breeds of Cattle – Oklahoma State University

Beef Judging – Iowa State University Extension and Outreach

Veterinary Science Curriculum Collection

Livestock Curriculum Collection

4-H Activities – Beef Cattle Nutrition Course

We depend on cows for a huge amount of the food we eat, including beef and milk. They may seem so commonplace that you don’t even wonder about them anymore, but they actually are fascinating animals – and you probably don’t know some very basic things about them. Like, what do cows eat? How do they digest food? How many stomachs do they have? And what, exactly, are they chewing when they are ‘chewing their cud?’

In this series of at-home activities, kids will get an up-close look at how cows work (they grow fungi in their stomachs?!), and what it takes for farmers to take care of them. By the end of each activity, kids will have newfound knowledge as well as a fun craft to take their bovine knowledge to the next level.
Requires a free Clover account to access lesson plans.

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