Aaron Fisher, Youth Livestock and Equine Specialist

We have been working to reschedule Beef and Sheep Expos and now have dates for both. Please understand that this is all assuming that we will be able to return to hosting face-to-face events in August. It is possible that these dates will be postponed again if anything changes with this policy.

Sheep Expo will be held August 7-8 at Hyder-Burks Pavilion at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. The schedule is still being worked out, but do plan check-in to be early afternoon on Friday, with Registered Ewe Showmanship and Show on Friday evening. We would then start Saturday morning with Market-Type Showmanship, then have Commercial Ewe and Market Lamb Shows. The skillathon will be open on both days. We will extend the tagging/ownership deadline to June 8. This provides the same ownership period as we originally planned for 2020.

Beef Expo will be held August 28-29 at Tennessee Livestock Center at MTSU in Murfreesboro. The schedule is still being worked out, but do plan check-in to be early afternoon on Friday, with Showman- ship and potentially the Steer Show on Friday evening. The heifer shows would then be on Saturday.

The skillathon will be open on both days. We will extend the tagging/ownership deadline to June 15. This provides the same ownership period as we originally planned for 2020.

The State Goat Show is still planned for August 15 at the Wilson County Fairgrounds. Currently, there are no changes to the goat show other than what was already in the current handbook (ie. addition of registered doe show). The tagging/ownership deadline is June 1.

Please consider the deadline to enter these animals in the online database to be one week past the tagging deadline. Tags are available through the typical SharePoint site.

There will be some recommendations from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture regarding hosting livestock shows in the near future. It is possible that we will need to make some changes to how we operate these events as we work to incorporate those recommendations. Finalized schedules and any changes to these events will be available soon.

As for other youth animal science events, below are a few dates of interest as they are currently scheduled. Just like the shows, the dates could be altered depending on any changes to the face-to-face meeting policy.

• State 4-H Dairy Judging Contest – August 20 – Wilson County Fairgrounds
• State 4-H Livestock and Meat Judging – August 22 – Brehm Animal Science Building
• State 4-H Horse Judging Contest – Sept 15 – Miller Coliseum (in conjunction with FFA)

I appreciate everyone’s patience as we worked through this process. I will keep you updated as anything changes. Please let me know if you have any questions.