MY international exchange through YFCU and 4H is based in Montana, USA. The first week of my exchange was spent in Bozeman at the 4H Congress, which was based at the Montana State University. The 4H Congress is for young people aged over 14 and their leaders. 4H members come from all over the Montana State for the Congress which lasts 4 days.
On the first day of the Congress I got to meet the other international exchangees from Switzerland, Austria, Germany and England. The opening ceremony of 4H took place in the evening, where 4H members introduced the theme: 'Find Your Element' and the guest speakers. The main guest speaker was a man called Ben who had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). The main aim of his talk was to encourage the young people to over come any problems they have by finding something they are really good at. He did amazing chalk drawings on a black canvas in 15 minutes.
4H's 2008 theme: 'Find Your Element', aims to encourage their members to learn new things and try their best.
The next few days of congress is when the young people take part in contests, competitions, workshops and community service. 4H seems to be quite similar to young farmers in Northern Ireland, in the sense that the members all have fun, take part in activities and similar competitions. The major differences in the two organisations is the age-range, 4H members start from the age of 9 and they have to do projects for their county 4H fairs. At congress all the 4H members had to take part in stock judging which included beef, sheep, pigs and goats, or else horse judging or fashion contests. The afternoon sessions consisted of workshops on Europe, which was taken by us the international exchangees. Afterwards everyone had to take part in community service so either dog-walking, making Christmas decorations, crafts and lots of other things.
In the evening all the international exchangees went camping in the Gallatin Mountain Range of the Rockies, just outside Bozeman. This gave us all a chance to really get to know each other and the previous Montana exchangees who went to Europe. Camping was really good fun, we went hiking up the mountains and canoeing on the reservoir. The best part of the camping trip for me was eating smurs at the campfire (marshmallows melted with chocolate and biscuits). After camping we went back to Bozeman for the final dance of the 4H congress. We all learnt to do some country dancing which was great fun. Congress ended on the Friday morning with everyone departing for their next host.
On arrival at my first and only host I could see that agriculture in Montana is so different from home, it is on such a large scale compared to us. My hosts are the Lusk family from Reed Point, which is an hour outside Billings, Montana's largest city. Jon Lusk has a herd of around 180 red and black angus cows, calves, heifers and steers which he fattens for beef. Jon farms around 8,000 acres around a 60 mile radius of the farm. Jon also grows wheat, clover and barley every other year. He farms 1300 acres of cereals, 200 acres for hay and the rest is for grazing for the cattle.
Most of the farmers in Montana grow alfalfa grass which has a purple flower when its ripe, this is very high in protein. In Montana because of the hot and dry summers farmers have to irrigate the land especially the land for the second cut of hay. Farmers over here make hay instead of silage as they keep their cattle out all year round, apart from at calving time. Throughout the winter the cattle get a large amount of hay and a small amount of their grazing is from the land.
When I arrived Jon had just finished haying and the next job on his list was irrigating the land. Jon uses a pivot irrigation system to water the land. He gets the water from the Yellowstone River beside his ground through a pump. I found it very interesting learning about the pivot irrigation system and helping to get the pumps set up and then seeing it in working progress. Jon has two pivots in his 200 acre field for hay, it takes one pivot 15.3 hours to rotate and the other pivot 15.5 hours to rotate. It takes the pivot over 30 hours to get back to its original starting point. The pivots run for 5 days non-stop and then two days off. It's quite amazing to see the pivots in place all over Montana.
I must say a big thank-you to the Ulster Farmers Union, Fuel Services and the Northern Bank for making my exchange possible.