When paying for 4-H events check need to be made payable to:

University of Maryland
Ascend One Building
8930 Stanford Blvd, Suite 25
Columbia, MD 21045
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UPCOMING EVENTS, INFORMATION AND DEADLINES

Livestock Weight Checks

Howard County 4-H will be hosting 3 livestock weight checks in July 6:00 - 8:00 PM. This is a great opportunity to get an accurate weight of your animals and calculate your rate of gain for them. Please be mindful that volunteers are helping with this so if you plan to attend, please arrive by 7:45 PM so they can get your animals weighed and everything cleaned up in a timely manner.

  • July 7th - Monday
  • July 16th - Wednesday
  • July 24th - Thursday

If the heat index is 95 degrees or higher at 4:00 p.m. on the day of the weight check, it will be cancelled.

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.

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
2026 Essay Question:  When faced with the potential of limited funding, how would you advocate to your community the value of funding the 4-H youth development program?
2025 Special Awards:  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.

Maryland 4-H Annual Report

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2025

JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJuly/AugSeptOctNov-Dec

Enrollment Information

As the youth development program of the Cooperative Extension System of land-grant universities, 4-H is the nation’s largest youth development organization, empowering six million young people throughout the United States. Cooperative Extension of 1862 and 1890  land-grant universities provide the leadership to engage young people in 4-H in all 3,007 counties of the United States.

4-H'ers belong to 4-H Clubs that meet in local communities.  University of Maryland Extension Volunteers help youth learn life skills to become caring, competent and responsible individuals through club work, community service, and 4-H project curriculum.  4-H members work with their club leaders to develop their educational plans for each year.  These plans might include community service projects, speakers, field trips, or learning activities.

4-H'ers participate in county-wide programs organized by volunteers and University of Maryland Extension faculty.  These programs include activities such as fashion shows, camps, public speaking contests, workshops, and more.  With so many community clubs and specialty clubs in Howard County, there is always something to do in Howard County 4-H.

Please click on the Club Information link to find specific information about joining a club and the 4-H clubs in Howard County.

To join the Howard County 4-H program, you will need to complete the online enrollment process.  Please keep in mind that we ask potential members to attend at least one 4-H meeting prior to enrolling in the online system.  

Current re-enrollment for the 2025 is currently open and the link to register is https://v2.4honline.com/#/user/sign-in. 

Volunteers

Please check back for the updated process.

Officer Training

The Central Maryland 4-H Cluster is pleased to announce the release of a virtual Officer Training resource that was created to help our 4-H club officers.  

The direct link to the resource is: https://go.umd.edu/MDofficertraining

Since this is a google presentation, anyone viewing will need to select the present mode. 

Once that has been done, click through the different images and words to take you to the next

slide. (Be sure to click around and have fun!).  If you wish to go back at any time, click the purple
“BACK” button at the bottom left of your screen.

For more information, please see the informational flyer.

2025 Howard County 4-H Member Policy

2025 Howard County Club Policies and Guidelines

For more information about the Howard County 4-H Program please contact one of the following:

Sheryl Bennett

4-H Youth Development Educator

410-313-1912

sherylb@umd.edu

Chris Rein

4-H Program Coordinator

410-313-1915

crein@umd.edu