4-H Youth Development

Information for State Animal Health

We are looking for your support.  We have special awards for the 2025 Howard County Fair in need of sponsorship.  Since we had no awards last year we may have a number of awards that become available.  Please check availability often.

If you have any problems please contact Rick Hodiak

By virtue of entering, exhibitors hereby acknowledge having read the rules of the Howard County Fair and the department(s) they are entering. Furthermore, exhibitors agree to follow said rules and understand that failure to do so may results in penalties up to and including being banned from the fairgrounds. Exhibitors accept that all decisions made as a result of not following the rules by the Howard County Fair Board or their designee are final.

General Rules of the Howard County Fair - PLEASE READ

4-H General Rules - PLEASE READ

Schedule of Events

Click to enter:

• 4-H & FFA Indoor Building
• 4-H (Dog, Horse, Poultry and Rabbit)
• 4-H (Beef Breeding, Dairy, Breeding Goat, Breeding Sheep, Breeding Swine)
• Open Class
• 4-H Market Goat, Market, Market Sheep, Market Steer and Market Swine do not need to be entered into the fair

Maryland State Fair pages are published and the online entry system is open until July 15th.

4-H Fair Book Pages

Route 144 Showdown on Saturday, June 28, 2025

Howard County 4-H is pleased to announce we are hosting the Route 144 Showdown on Saturday, June 28th at the Howard County Fairgrounds. This show is open to all Howard County 4-Hers with breeding sheep, market lambs, breeding meat goats and market goats. Please find a letter, entry form and other pertinent information attached.

There will be a $15.00 entry fee per child entered. Registration is due to the Howard County Extension Office by June 2nd. We will not have the ability to take late entries. We will be collecting entries the day of the tagging and weighing so you are welcome to bring them then. As you will not have the 4-H tag numbers, please make sure you complete everything else and we will take care of the tag numbers
to assign to your entries.

• Letter and Instructions
• Schedule
• Print out the Liability - Informed Consent Agreement
• Entry Form

2025 Maryland 4-H/FFA On-line Animal Husbandry and Quality Assurance (AH&QA) Program is Open

All 4-H members enrolled in alpacas, beef, dairy, goats, horse and pony, llamas, poultry, sheep, swine and rabbits are required to have completed the on-line training prior to July 1st to be eligible to exhibit their project animals in 2025 Maryland County 4-H and State 4-H Shows. Counties may set earlier deadlines to accommodate their local program.

• Download Instructions

• AHQA website

The 2025 program must be completed using Firefox, Chrome, Edge, or Safari web browsers. The program is not supported by Internet Explorer.  The narrated program contains two levels, a Junior-aged Level and an Intermediate/Senior-aged Level. The program automatically directs members to the correct level based on their birthdate. 4-Hers are required to complete the on-line training program when they reach each 4-H age division (juniors (8-10), intermediates (11-13), seniors (14-18) – all as of January 1 of the current year) OR when an Intermediate or Senior 4-H member chooses to show a new species since last completing the program within their age division - they must return to the program and complete it for the new species area (The Junior program does not have species-specific sections like the Intermediate/Senior program does). Passcodes issued to members between 2015-2024 should still be viable for returning members. 

Market Exhibition Classes Clarification

Exhibition classes have been conducted as part of each of the 4-H/FFA market shows at the Howard County Fair. This year there is a slight adjustment and we wanted to make everyone aware as many 4-Hers will be purchasing their market lamb, market goat, and market hog projects in the near future.

Market animals under the sale weight or above the sale weight will be moved to exhibition only classes. 

Livestock sale weights are as follows:

• Hogs must weigh between 235-300 lbs
• Sheep must weigh between 100-150 lbs
• Goats must weigh between 55-125 lbs
• Beef steers must weigh between 1100-1500 lbs
• Dairy steers must between 1100-1600 lbs