“When I first moved here, it seemed like everyone was showing with different styles that I hadn’t been around before,” says Paige Barnum, whose family moved to Grangeville from Jamestown, California, a few years ago. “I feel like a clinic would’ve been helpful.”
That was just what the 16-year-old FFA member and soon-to-be-senior chose to provide for area 4-H and FFA members for her senior project. “Idaho County had never had a livestock clinic, and there are lots of new people here and younger kids just starting 4-H,” she says.
She scheduled the event for the weekend before the county’s Spring Livestock Show and taught workshops on beef, pig, sheep and goat fitting and showing. She raised funds to provide lunch for attendees and tapped University of Idaho Extension Educator Meranda Small to present a livestock nutrition class the evening before.
As an early teen, Barnum had a passion for raising, showing and selling lambs. Photo provided by Paige Barnum.
A natural fit
Barnum is uniquely qualified to discuss such a wide swath of market species. “We’ve always had animals; it’s something I’ve always loved,” Barnum says. She grew up with everything from ducks to donkeys, and her parents had backgrounds in 4-H and FFA. It was natural that 9-year-old Barnum would get her first 4-H pig.
It wasn’t long before she added sheep to the mix, when close family friend and community pillar “Papa” Tom Frasier Sr. gave her a bottle lamb. She raised the little ewe and had her bred. When the lambs came, “I showed all three triplets at the fair,” she says.
She thoroughly enjoyed her sheep, and she had also found an entrepreneurial niche: “It was hard to find show lambs closer than five hours away in that area,” says Barnum. She gradually expanded her little operation to include a half-dozen breeding ewes, which she showed and whose lambs she sold to 4-Hers.
When she moved to Idaho, she left her ewes behind. “The change in location and weather would have been too hard for them,” she says.
Barnum has been showing steers since her family moved to Idaho and she joined FFA. Photo provided by Paige Barnum.
‘A fun and different project’
In Grangeville, Barnum enrolled in ag classes and joined FFA. Besides Career Development Events and chapter officer positions, she began taking market steers. As she approached her senior year, she says, “I knew I wanted my senior project to be outside and involved with animals.”
After landing on the idea of a fitting and showing clinic, she worked with Small to put together an event in cooperation with the 4-H program and University of Idaho Extension. This partnership gained Barnum legitimacy and promotion, but affixing those logos meant meeting Small’s high standard.
“This was a big undertaking with a lot asked of her, and I did not make it easy on her,” says Small. Educator and student met every week or so in the months preceding the clinic. Barnum even took part in a farm field trip for Grangeville kindergarten and first graders.
“It was an additional commitment she didn’t have to do for her senior project, but she did it in order to prepare,” says Small. “That she took on additional responsibility that she didn’t have to speaks a lot about her as an up-and-coming young adult.”
Barnum showed pigs throughout her 4-H career before moving to Idaho. Photo provided by Paige Barnum.
Barnum had to consider logistics as well as content. She used her own steer and goat for the clinic, but had to borrow a lamb from a friend. That just left the pig problem.
Since Idaho County holds its pig weigh-in in May, friends’ show pigs were still too small (and untrained) to appear at a clinic in early June. Instead, Barnum used an idea she’d seen elsewhere: After sharing information and tips about pig care and fitting, she invited participants into the ring. Each received a bamboo rod and a beach ball for a simulated pig class. Barnum, as “judge,” moved among the beach ball showmen giving pointers on stance, eye contact, “whip” technique and other aspects of showmanship.
“She provided very practical understanding with lots of one-on-one,” says Small of Barnum’s performance at the clinic. “She’s established herself as an additional resource for 4-Hers.”
As for Barnum, diving deeper into Idaho County’s livestock scene and encouraging new 4-Hers was just the outcome she was looking for. “It helps gain responsibility and leadership skills,” she says of involvement with market or breeding animal projects. “It’s one of the best environments I’ve ever been in.”
