Kailey Borland, 11, isn’t much bigger than the lamb she was showing at the San Benito County Fair on opening day as a member of the Bitterwater 4-H Club. She attends Jefferson Elementary near Paicines, and she’s been in 4-H for three years. She is already a veteran, having shown five animals.
“I was really interested in animals and I like hanging out with them,” she said of why she joined 4-H. “I thought 4-H would be a good experience.”
She said she enjoys both the experience of caring for animals and showing them. Besides the lamb, she was showing a goat, and had previously shown three pigs. Her plan is to continue with 4-H through high school and then go to college to study veterinary medicine, following in the footsteps of her mother, a veterinary technician.
In her immediate future, she wants to work with larger animals to score more points in the showings. Her dad, Tim Borland, owner of the Bar SZ Ranch, said she has done well in the three years she’s been involved with 4-H.
“She already has $4,000 in her college fund,” he said. “4-H teaches the kids not only about caring for animals, but about responsibility and leadership. The kids hold offices within the clubs and run things. She’s already learning about public speaking. 4-H teaches them about caring and being responsible and it gives them a way to earn money. Over the years, some kids have made enough money to buy a home.”
Kailey, along with hundreds of other 4-H members, brought their animals to show and then auction. Each child guided his or her animal into the ring to be judged and the numbers would dwindle down to a few that received ribbons. Over the weekend, the animals were auctioned off.
Recognizing the event is more of a fundraiser and in support of 4-H, rather than a normal animal auction, bids-per-pound were higher, and were often matched by what’s called ‘set-asides,’ or additional money per pound from families, friends or interested supporters. The total amount went to the 4-H member, normally to be banked by the parents. The dollars add up over the years. One 4-H member, who is about to graduate high school, has amassed $30,000.
Jesse Ledezma, a fifth grader at Del Rey Elementary in King City, brought his pig, Bella, to the fair. He’s been in 4-H two years. Bella was his second pig. He said his two aunts have shown pigs and they gave him tips on how to do it himself.
“My favorite part of 4-H is raising the animals. I like it when we first get it. I sit down in the pen and connect with my pig,” he said as he pet Bella. “Half of the money I get goes for college and some will be for my pig next year. I buy my pigs at Powerhouse Farms in Los Banos. They have really good pigs.”
He said he plans to continue into FFA in high school. Besides raising animals, he said he enjoys serving as a member of the board.
“I’m the monitor,” he said. “I get there before the meeting starts. I have to clean everything and set everything up. After the meeting, I clean up again and put everything away. It teaches you about leadership and how to be responsible for yourself.”
At 10, he already knows where he’s headed after high school.
“I have two colleges I want to go to,” he said. “Cal Poly University and Fresno State to study animal agricultural science.”
Christina Bless, 16, is in the 11th grade, home schooled, and in 4-H the past eight years. She said 4-H allows her to do a lot of things that kids don’t normally get to do.
“We get to show the animals, which you can’t do outside 4-H or FFA and we get paychecks that go into our college funds,” she said. “We do a lot of community service, like the yearly cleanup of the rose garden at Dunne Park. 4-H teaches you to be a good public speaker. Every year we have presentation day where you can speak on a number of topics. You get judged and you can move on up to state, and after a while, you get really good at public speaking.”
Bless is vice president of the Pacheco 4-H. She said leadership training is learned by running the meetings.
“All the club meetings are run by the members,” she said. “And we also have projects, such as the animals or arts and crafts. There are junior and teen leaders who help the adult leaders with those.”
She, too, is already keenly focused on a career beyond college.
“After I graduate college, where I’m going to major in kinesiology (scientific study of human movement), I’m going to run a therapeutic horseback riding center for physically disabled kids.”
Not to short-change her scouting for an appropriate college, she is considering five: Texas Christian University, Baylor University in Texas and Texas A&M, along with Kansas State University and the University of Tulsa. She and her mom are planning a road trip in November to visit all five campuses.
Family heritage
Showing animals at the fair is a family tradition for many in San Benito County.
Rodney Bianchi, 47, has been the livestock superintendent at the fair for 15 years. He grew up in San Benito County. His grandfather and father showed animals at the fair before him. He joined 4-H and started showing when he was 9. In high school, he moved up to the FFA. After graduating, he started his own hay and trucking business in Hollister, and began volunteering at the fair.
“I enjoy working with kids and now my kids are the third generation showing at the fair,” he said.
At the fair, he is in charge of the volunteers that organize the different species shown there, including sheep, goats, beef cattle and swine.
“There are close to 300 kids showing this year with about 450 animals,” he said. “They have to be enrolled in either 4-H or FFA, as well as taking an ag class at school. You can’t just get an animal and show up at the fair. With the steer project, they have to own it a minimum of 120 days, and the small animals, like pigs, sheep and goats, they have to own a minimum of 60 days.”
In addition to showing and selling for the market, members can also take part in the breeding show and bring horses, chickens and rabbits.
“Those are year-long projects. They show them at the fair and then take them back home, rather than sell them,” he said.
The 4-H program is open to clubs in San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. Bianchi said most of the kids come from the cities and towns, rather than ranches and farms.
“My wife teaches ag at the high school and she’s found that most of these kids don’t even have pets at home,” he said. “With the facilities they have at the high school, as well as the 4-H facility, they can purchase an animal and keep it right there on the school farm. Some of these kids are as far away from agriculture as you can get, but they’re given the opportunity to raise an animal and go through that whole process. They’ve got to buy it. They’ve got to feed and care for it. No matter where they come from, if they have an interest in doing it, it’s there for them.”
Bianchi said the kids are attracted to 4-H not only out of love for animals, but also the camaraderie with others, being at the fair, and the chance to earn money of their own. He said some of the local banks will even offer livestock loans to the kids.
“They can go to the bank, get the loan and purchase the animal, and they have to pay the loan back,” he said. “But 4-H and FFA aren’t just about the animals. It’s all about building strong character and skills. There’s crafts, cooking and a multitude of things they can do. It’s about leadership.
“There are a lot of kids in the programs who aren’t into animals. They may be into it for the leadership part of it. FFA is one of the largest youth organizations in the world. When they go to the state convention, there are 50,000 students there. And 4-H is the same. They offer so many opportunities.”
He said 4-H and FFA keep kids out of trouble and involved with family and community. The programs teach the kids about business. They are required to keep annual records of caring for animals, their meetings and activities. The records are then turned in for grades.
“There are a lot of connections that I made as a kid through showing animals who are still friends, customers and people that I do business with today,” he said. “Whatever a kid can dream of, it’s out there in those programs.”
He said graduating from high school doesn’t necessarily mean involvement has to end.
“There are booster programs and the teachers are always looking for volunteers,” he said. “There a lot of opportunities. Pretty much everybody who is on my livestock committee showed at one time. When they were younger, that’s what they did. It’s a chance to give back to the youth what we got.”
He said the community is supportive at the auction.
“I’m one of the auctioneers and I tell the kids, ‘You get the people there and let me worry about getting the money,’” he said. “We get doctors and dentists who come because when the kids went to them for appointments, they’d tell them they had a pig or lamb to auction. They come out there and have a great time. They see how hard these kids work and see how professional these kids are acting.
“People come and buy year after year. There are buyers here who bought when I was a kid. There’s a huge community outpouring of support from our vegetable growers, our ranchers, accountants, lawyers, construction, just everybody. It blows my mind every year when we do the auction and I see how many people come out to support the youth in San Benito County.”
But it’s not all business when it comes down to the auction.
“You’ll see a lot of tears,” he said. “Especially from kids who spent a lot of time with those animals, in the barn every night, washing them, feeding them, taking care of them. It’s a big commitment, but it’s the name of the game.”
