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A conversation with Dr. Dean Jousan
Dr. Jousan talks to Cobie and John about the many opportunities that the 4-H Horse and Livestock Program has to offer the youth of Mississippi.
Transcript:
Announcer: This is 4H4U2, a podcast from the Mississippi State University Extension Service, promoting 4-H programs and positive youth development. Here now, your host Dr. John Long and Cobie Rutherford.
John Long: All right, and welcome back to another 4H4U2 podcast. I'm your host, John Long.
Cobie Rutherford: And I'm Cobie Rutherford.
John Long: And Cobie, we have a special guest with us today, Dr. Dean Jousan and Dean, give us your title.
Dean Jousan: So my title is Extension 4-H Livestock Specialist. I'm an Associate Professor in the Department Of Animal And Dairy Sciences.
John Long: That's a lot of credentials there, Dean.
Dean Jousan: It is a long title, yeah.
John Long: When did you start?
Dean Jousan: I started in September, 2006 so I'm approaching finishing out my 13th year.
John Long: Awesome. Yeah, you started in just a little bit before us because I remember me and you being new kids on the block, so to speak, I guess. So tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from and how you got to where you are today I guess.
Dean Jousan: So you could probably tell by the tone of my voice, I'm from the South, I'm from East Texas, a little small town called Jouaquin, a population 800.
John Long: Wow.
Dean Jousan: We're so large, we finally got a traffic light a couple of years ago. So now you got to watch out for traffic lights when you go home.
John Long: Did they have this big christening for the-
Dean Jousan: I wasn't there so I'm not sure.
John Long: Probably.
Dean Jousan: They probably did at Christmas time so we'd have more lights for the Christmas parade.
John Long: That's great. They decorated.
Dean Jousan: Exactly.
John Long: I'm sorry, go ahead.
Dean Jousan: No, no. So I grew up getting into 4-H and FFA as a young person and was involved with mainly show and breeding cattle all over the country. But we did a little bit of a poultry because that was big in our home county. Went to college at Texas A&M, got my undergraduate degree and went off to Virginia Tech for a master's degree and the University of Florida for a PhD. Literally graduated on a Saturday and interviewed here the next Monday for this opening, and I've been here ever since.
John Long: Wow, wow.
Cobie Rutherford: That's pretty exciting, a lot of traveling.
John Long: Yes, yes, now family?
Dean Jousan: Yeah, I'm married just over 10 years to a pharmacist and we've got two kids, Keegan, a seven year old girl, and Web, a four year old boy.
John Long: Awesome. And trivia, I was in Dean's wedding.
Cobie Rutherford: Oh, how about that.
John Long: Yes I was. I enjoyed that a lot. That was lot of fun. And I saw that come up on Facebook the other day and I thought, "Wow, 10 years just flies by." That's just insane, insane.
Cobie Rutherford: That sounds like that could be a whole another podcast with the wedding stories.
John Long: Well, no-
Cobie Rutherford: Probably won't get into that.
John Long: We're going to keep that under wraps.
Cobie Rutherford: Dean, I guess I known you since I started at Mississippi State. Maybe you were on the search committee that hired me. So you were one of the first people I met in the department.
Cobie Rutherford: But what intrigues me about you is that you are also a reproductive physiologist by trade. So kind of how did some cutting edge stuff with your PhD work in embryology. Is amazing how many talents this man has in terms of his education and then what his skillset is and his job. So how did those two kind of tie in together?
Dean Jousan: Yeah, so like I said, I was a 4-H'er growing up, I was interested in cattle. As I started competing in contests, educational contests, through 4-H, FFA and our state and national Simmental Association, I became interested in reproductive efficiency and the reproductive process of cattle development. So I was really interested in embryos and embryonic development. So that's what attracted me to Virginia Tech for a master's degree and the University of Florida for a PhD as I mentioned earlier.
Dean Jousan: And even though I was doing a lot of laptop research on embryos, I guess I still kind of had a heart for the producer, even though I was working more with dairy cattle at that time. I still wanted my research to be applicable to a producer because what was the point of doing research if you can't tie it back to benefiting someone's life and profession. So I try to do lots of things during both my graduate degrees to help producers and also even to help youth in some of the contests and things that I was able to help with.
Cobie Rutherford: Cool. So you wear many hats and John and I know that. But let's talk about all the things you do with 4-H youth lifestyle. So what are some of the contents and activities and programs you do on an annual basis?
John Long: This'll be part one.
Cobie Rutherford: Yes, this'll be a two-parter for sure.
John Long: Cobie and I both know how Dean is just constantly, constantly going. Go ahead Dean.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, sure. So I'll try to break it up. So livestock wise, I help to manage and oversee the Dixie National Junior Roundup. So that's the largest market show that we have in Mississippi that takes place in Jackson. So I oversee that entire show. And because my title is 4-H livestock specialist, I'll work with the [inaudible 00:05:28] champions committee that's really involved with raising a lot of funds to purchase champion animals and also really works to have developed a scholarship program over the years. Our other big livestock show, would be our Mississippi State Fair, which takes place for a couple of weeks in October. So I'm in charge of all the junior livestock shows that take place there.
Dean Jousan: I also work with our extension equine specialist, Dr. Clay Cavender. I'm heavily involved with our state 4-H horse championship. So those are the bigger animal type shows that I'm involved with in state.
Cobie Rutherford: That's quite a few. So Dixie Nationals, I understand, is the largest show east of the Mississippi.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, it's a large event. We typically have probably 24, 2,500 head of livestock that we currently exhibit over about a six day period and probably 1,500 plus youth involved. So it's a large ordeal.
John Long: Now, Dean, don't give me a canned answer to this, but of all those things you listed, what's your favorite today? We all have our favorites.
Dean Jousan: I guess probably what's been most rewarding to me and it probably took time, I guess, to realize it, the impact that you make through the sale of champions and through the awarding of scholarships. And when you see those kids on campus, since I've been here 13 years, your whole 4-H career starts as an eight year old and concludes as a 18 year old. So I've been here long enough to see kids that were beginning in 4-H, or not even 4-H age, develop all the way through their entire 4-H career.
Dean Jousan: So you've seen them change and and grow and gain knowledge and expertise. So really, that's been the most impactful probably.
John Long: Yeah, I think that is. That, I know has to be because you see the effect of the whole... through the whole process for sure.
Cobie Rutherford: So besides earning scholarships and premiums through the sale of champions, what kind of skills are these youth learning when it comes to you-
John Long: You stole my question. You stole my question.
Cobie Rutherford: It's almost like we've got this-
John Long: I know.
Cobie Rutherford: ... mind thing.
John Long: Not even talking and we know what we're saying.
Dean Jousan: That's scary.
John Long: Go ahead with his question Dean, or it could be our question.
Dean Jousan: There we go, we'll share it.
John Long: Yeah, share it, please.
Dean Jousan: So the livestock shows are fun and that's a teaching moment. We're not directly in front of the youth teaching but the youth are still learning a lot about their development of their animals. So everything I do is educational and everything that the the youth learn is beneficial to them. We do have tons of educational contests. And I care about those a lot because, to me, that's where the youth separate themselves from other 4-H'ers. And I guess I'm biased. I mean, I do livestock and horses as well. To me, that's sort of the cream of the crop of our 4-H youth because it takes a lot of responsibility to wake up. Here we are in the middle of July and we're having mid 90 temperatures and heat index 105, 110. It's hard to get up in the morning and go out in the afternoon and get your show heifer out of the barn and take her to the wash rack and rinse her off and cool her off and work with her hair and go to some of these jackpot shows that are happening all around.
Dean Jousan: It takes a lot of responsibility, a lot of dedication, a lot of discipline to get up and do that. And we try to educate our youth with quality assurance practices to make sure that they know what they're doing to their animals, with safe and humane and they're treating them to the best way they can. So there's just a lot that really goes into the whole 4-H livestock project.
John Long: I myself not owning livestock, my dad had some cows, but other than that, how does a young person own that early stage in 4-H? How do they get involved in the livestock program if their parents or whoever doesn't have the availability of an animal? How does that work? Or does it work?
Dean Jousan: Well, as far as showing an animal or just getting involved?
John Long: Yeah, getting involved, getting started, I guess, from the base level since we talked about that.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, so if a family isn't able to own the animal for whatever reason, but they're still interested. We've got a whole variety of contests. A couple of weeks ago, we just had our 4-H beef cookout contest in the North and the South. So you're still learning about choosing your selection of beef to cook and how to prepare it. And that's educational in and of itself. And then we've got lots of other contests. We've got judging contests. We're either going out and learning about animal selection and what makes a good market animal versus a good breeding animal. And how to compare animals within a class and how to defend your reasons and how to come up with your decision making process. We've got Quiz bowl competitions and visual presentation contests.
Dean Jousan: If you were interested in showing beef cattle, it would be easy to go to a project achievement day for a younger 4-H'er or to Club Congress for an older 4-H'er and talk about breeds of cattle or whatever topic was of interest to you. So that way you're doing some homework and you're learning more about maybe livestock options that are available to you before you actually invest the money and get the animals and proper housing and things of that nature.
John Long: And I guess that would dispel the myth that it's just not getting in the ring with an animal. There's just so much more than to do other than that.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, I would say everything that I do with livestock and horses, there's probably over 30 educational type contests that a youth could be involved in. And that could be from more of the arts and creative expression, type contests such as creating a dairy poster about the theme that year for Dairy Month in June that's turned in at Club Congress. To the horse side of things, we've got photography contests and horse art contest where you could be drawing a picture or drawing a cartoon to designing a piece of furniture that's horse related.
Dean Jousan: So there's all kinds of opportunities available. The opportunities are endless. It's just how much do you want to jump in and how much do you want to get involved with.
John Long: Right, and sounds like there's a little something for everybody.
Cobie Rutherford: And it seems like most of the kids or youth that participate in these showing animals and livestock, it seems like they do other things within 4-H. I've seen him here at Club Congress participating in public speaking contest or maybe did other things under the AG and natural resources umbrella, forestry judging, meats judging. It seems like they're really involved in a lot of different things.
John Long: And Cobie was at the... you were at the cookout?
Cobie Rutherford: Yeah. Man, that was phenomenal. I was very impressed with the beef cookout and pork cookout this year. Well even poultry too. So it was kind of neat to see those kids light up their grills Most of them pretty delicious, I think.
John Long: All I ever get to do is hear about that. I never get to go because I'm in Nebraska at that time. So y'all have fun.
Cobie Rutherford: What else I like about the youth program, it's something that a child can select as their project and either make it a short term project, like a getting a market hog or a pig project or even a chicken project that's even a shorter duration of time. Or they can get a long term project like a heifer and keep that heifer for an entire year and work that animal and do something with it from January to December.
Cobie Rutherford: So it kind of, you can design how you want your project to work depending on what species you select, if you have that option, and even go on to different levels. I know you go chair several national contests and take 4-H'ers from the state. Where do y'all go?
Dean Jousan: Yeah, so I'll start at the regional level first. We do have a Southern regional 4-H horse championship that we host in Perry, Georgia. And this is the only regional 4-H horse show that's offered in the entire country. So youth in the 13 states that make up our region, are eligible to compete in if they qualify to go. I'm the chair of the equine specialist group, so it's a lot of work that goes into putting on that event. And we can send our top two senior teams or individuals in our horse contest to compete in that educational event and we can send up to 70 horses that qualifies as well. And we've had a good history of our youth, with our horses, being very successful at that show.
Dean Jousan: From an educational standpoint, there are a variety of state contests that I host throughout the year where we qualify youth to go to national competitions. So in November of every year at the North American International Livestock Expo in Louisville, Kentucky, we will send a dairy Quiz bowl team and a dairy judging team. And then I guess this is maybe the third year that we've sent a 4-H livestock skill-a-thon team. And that's sort of a unique team that that we develop, that's not a county based team. We kind of worked with some of the elite 4-H'ers in beef, sheep, Swan and meat goats and we kind of single out some of them and do some mock contests and really kind of select a cream of the crop to represent us on that team.
Dean Jousan: And then early January is where we send the majority of our youth out to the Western National Roundup in Denver, Colorado. We send up to six horse related teams, a meats judging team, a livestock judging team, a livestock Quiz bowl. And then we also take a couple of other competitions that I'm not directly involved with, but we take a consumer decisions team and a prepared public speaking individuals. All together, it's probably over 30 youth that can qualify to go out to that event.
Cobie Rutherford: Now, do y'all usually take a plane or drive a bus or how do y'all get out there to Denver?
Dean Jousan: We used to take an MSU bus and that was about a 24 hour trip out there and back with very little stops. In recent years, we've taken the big airplanes and every county sort of coordinates their own travel to get out about the same day. People like taking a direct flight of about two hours versus a 24 hour bus ride with people not brushing their teeth and all that stuff, yeah.
John Long: I got a funny memory of that. I've never been to it, but I got a funny memory of that. Hey Cobie, you've heard me talk about Clover Clues, when we had this little thing?
Cobie Rutherford: Yeah.
John Long: Dean, I had to get a report. Do you remember this? You probably don't, it's been a long time ago. Dean had to give me a report of how the teams had done out in Denver and they were on their way back. Poor Dean, he was talking on the cell phone to me and I could just tell he was tired. But we did really well that year, I remember, and I had to give his report for him. But I remember those bus trips and y'all talking about them. So yeah, that would be a long time.
Cobie Rutherford: I'm sure there's a lot of good memories. Well Dean, another thing that I think is pretty neat with what you do, yesterday I had the chance to help out with that dairy products judging. And we think about livestock specialists helping with a bunch of different live animals species, but the products are just as important as the actual animals, right?
Dean Jousan: Sure, yeah. And I guess that's what's interesting about a lot of what I do. Dairy products is a little more unique than maybe some of the other judging contest. But the neat thing about all of those things is that, again, like John referred to earlier, you don't have to own the animal to be in dairy products judging. That's a simple contest where you're evaluating samples of Milk and cheddar cheese and ice cream for flavors and, and different ways those products are prepared. They're not prepared in unhealthy ways, but they're prepared differently. And that makes those products taste differently, just like if you season your steak. The way I season my steak versus the way you season yours, maybe a little bit different to the degree that you cook your steak, maybe different than the way I cook mine. It doesn't mean you're right or I'm right, it's just the way we do it, and then they're evaluated.
Dean Jousan: So a lot of the things I do, it's neat because the kids can form a basis of what the ideal product should be, what the ideal animal should be. And the neat thing is, a lot of the judging contests, all that stuff can go over to consumer decisions judging or another type of judging event. You know the structure of how to present your reasons and how to make your choices, you just have to learn about judging refrigerators versus judging a class a steers.
John Long: So you're saying it can cross over into other areas.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, and that's where I think a lot of our livestock kids... To me, I see a lot of them crossing over into other aspects of 4-H just because they meet kids from around the state when they're at the state fair, when they're at Dixie National. They're interacting with youth all over the state and they hear about other contests and they say, "Hey, wow, if I win that, I can go on a trip." So they want to really invest and learn and engage in ways to learn to better themselves.
John Long: Right, right. And it's just like any other areas in 4-H, if we offer those programs based on the areas of interest of young people and we get them in and we all teach them life skills. Regardless, it's youth development from day one. So that's always fascinating with me is how those areas all work together for the same common goal, and that's great.
John Long: Well Dean, we certainly appreciate you coming in and sitting down with us today and whenever you can, catch your breath, please. We want you to stay around for a long time because you do such a great job and we appreciate all that you do for 4-H and for the youth of our state. So thank you for that. And if anybody wants more information on livestock and other areas of 4-H and what to do, go to the Extension webpage and check us out there. You've got information on there?
Dean Jousan: Yup.
John Long: Anywhere else we need to go to.
Dean Jousan: I've got a Facebook page. If you're on Facebook, you can type in to search for Mississippi 4-H livestock and horse program. And as you alluded to, if you go to the MSU Extension website and search for 4-H livestock, there's plenty of information about our big major shows and education contests and all sorts of information.
John Long: And not to mention, other publications that we have that you can read-
Dean Jousan: Lots of publications and newsletters and lots of information.
John Long: Wonderful. Well thank you for that. And with that, we're going to wrap up this week's podcast. And Cobie, we'll be back next time with some more good stuff that 4-H is doing.
Cobie Rutherford: Yeah, next time we'll have two attendees for the co-op leadership camp joining us.
John Long: Yes, that'll be great.
Cobie Rutherford: Looking forward to that.
John Long: Be great. All right, well with that, I'm John.
Cobie Rutherford: And I'm Cobie.
John Long: And we'll talk to you next time.
Announcer: Thanks for joining us for 4H4U2. For more information, please visit extension.msstate.edu and be sure to subscribe to our podcast. 4H4U2 is produced by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, Office of Agricultural Communications.
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By Mississippi State Extension 4-HDr. Jousan talks to Cobie and John about the many opportunities that the 4-H Horse and Livestock Program has to offer the youth of Mississippi.
Transcript:
Announcer: This is 4H4U2, a podcast from the Mississippi State University Extension Service, promoting 4-H programs and positive youth development. Here now, your host Dr. John Long and Cobie Rutherford.
John Long: All right, and welcome back to another 4H4U2 podcast. I'm your host, John Long.
Cobie Rutherford: And I'm Cobie Rutherford.
John Long: And Cobie, we have a special guest with us today, Dr. Dean Jousan and Dean, give us your title.
Dean Jousan: So my title is Extension 4-H Livestock Specialist. I'm an Associate Professor in the Department Of Animal And Dairy Sciences.
John Long: That's a lot of credentials there, Dean.
Dean Jousan: It is a long title, yeah.
John Long: When did you start?
Dean Jousan: I started in September, 2006 so I'm approaching finishing out my 13th year.
John Long: Awesome. Yeah, you started in just a little bit before us because I remember me and you being new kids on the block, so to speak, I guess. So tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from and how you got to where you are today I guess.
Dean Jousan: So you could probably tell by the tone of my voice, I'm from the South, I'm from East Texas, a little small town called Jouaquin, a population 800.
John Long: Wow.
Dean Jousan: We're so large, we finally got a traffic light a couple of years ago. So now you got to watch out for traffic lights when you go home.
John Long: Did they have this big christening for the-
Dean Jousan: I wasn't there so I'm not sure.
John Long: Probably.
Dean Jousan: They probably did at Christmas time so we'd have more lights for the Christmas parade.
John Long: That's great. They decorated.
Dean Jousan: Exactly.
John Long: I'm sorry, go ahead.
Dean Jousan: No, no. So I grew up getting into 4-H and FFA as a young person and was involved with mainly show and breeding cattle all over the country. But we did a little bit of a poultry because that was big in our home county. Went to college at Texas A&M, got my undergraduate degree and went off to Virginia Tech for a master's degree and the University of Florida for a PhD. Literally graduated on a Saturday and interviewed here the next Monday for this opening, and I've been here ever since.
John Long: Wow, wow.
Cobie Rutherford: That's pretty exciting, a lot of traveling.
John Long: Yes, yes, now family?
Dean Jousan: Yeah, I'm married just over 10 years to a pharmacist and we've got two kids, Keegan, a seven year old girl, and Web, a four year old boy.
John Long: Awesome. And trivia, I was in Dean's wedding.
Cobie Rutherford: Oh, how about that.
John Long: Yes I was. I enjoyed that a lot. That was lot of fun. And I saw that come up on Facebook the other day and I thought, "Wow, 10 years just flies by." That's just insane, insane.
Cobie Rutherford: That sounds like that could be a whole another podcast with the wedding stories.
John Long: Well, no-
Cobie Rutherford: Probably won't get into that.
John Long: We're going to keep that under wraps.
Cobie Rutherford: Dean, I guess I known you since I started at Mississippi State. Maybe you were on the search committee that hired me. So you were one of the first people I met in the department.
Cobie Rutherford: But what intrigues me about you is that you are also a reproductive physiologist by trade. So kind of how did some cutting edge stuff with your PhD work in embryology. Is amazing how many talents this man has in terms of his education and then what his skillset is and his job. So how did those two kind of tie in together?
Dean Jousan: Yeah, so like I said, I was a 4-H'er growing up, I was interested in cattle. As I started competing in contests, educational contests, through 4-H, FFA and our state and national Simmental Association, I became interested in reproductive efficiency and the reproductive process of cattle development. So I was really interested in embryos and embryonic development. So that's what attracted me to Virginia Tech for a master's degree and the University of Florida for a PhD as I mentioned earlier.
Dean Jousan: And even though I was doing a lot of laptop research on embryos, I guess I still kind of had a heart for the producer, even though I was working more with dairy cattle at that time. I still wanted my research to be applicable to a producer because what was the point of doing research if you can't tie it back to benefiting someone's life and profession. So I try to do lots of things during both my graduate degrees to help producers and also even to help youth in some of the contests and things that I was able to help with.
Cobie Rutherford: Cool. So you wear many hats and John and I know that. But let's talk about all the things you do with 4-H youth lifestyle. So what are some of the contents and activities and programs you do on an annual basis?
John Long: This'll be part one.
Cobie Rutherford: Yes, this'll be a two-parter for sure.
John Long: Cobie and I both know how Dean is just constantly, constantly going. Go ahead Dean.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, sure. So I'll try to break it up. So livestock wise, I help to manage and oversee the Dixie National Junior Roundup. So that's the largest market show that we have in Mississippi that takes place in Jackson. So I oversee that entire show. And because my title is 4-H livestock specialist, I'll work with the [inaudible 00:05:28] champions committee that's really involved with raising a lot of funds to purchase champion animals and also really works to have developed a scholarship program over the years. Our other big livestock show, would be our Mississippi State Fair, which takes place for a couple of weeks in October. So I'm in charge of all the junior livestock shows that take place there.
Dean Jousan: I also work with our extension equine specialist, Dr. Clay Cavender. I'm heavily involved with our state 4-H horse championship. So those are the bigger animal type shows that I'm involved with in state.
Cobie Rutherford: That's quite a few. So Dixie Nationals, I understand, is the largest show east of the Mississippi.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, it's a large event. We typically have probably 24, 2,500 head of livestock that we currently exhibit over about a six day period and probably 1,500 plus youth involved. So it's a large ordeal.
John Long: Now, Dean, don't give me a canned answer to this, but of all those things you listed, what's your favorite today? We all have our favorites.
Dean Jousan: I guess probably what's been most rewarding to me and it probably took time, I guess, to realize it, the impact that you make through the sale of champions and through the awarding of scholarships. And when you see those kids on campus, since I've been here 13 years, your whole 4-H career starts as an eight year old and concludes as a 18 year old. So I've been here long enough to see kids that were beginning in 4-H, or not even 4-H age, develop all the way through their entire 4-H career.
Dean Jousan: So you've seen them change and and grow and gain knowledge and expertise. So really, that's been the most impactful probably.
John Long: Yeah, I think that is. That, I know has to be because you see the effect of the whole... through the whole process for sure.
Cobie Rutherford: So besides earning scholarships and premiums through the sale of champions, what kind of skills are these youth learning when it comes to you-
John Long: You stole my question. You stole my question.
Cobie Rutherford: It's almost like we've got this-
John Long: I know.
Cobie Rutherford: ... mind thing.
John Long: Not even talking and we know what we're saying.
Dean Jousan: That's scary.
John Long: Go ahead with his question Dean, or it could be our question.
Dean Jousan: There we go, we'll share it.
John Long: Yeah, share it, please.
Dean Jousan: So the livestock shows are fun and that's a teaching moment. We're not directly in front of the youth teaching but the youth are still learning a lot about their development of their animals. So everything I do is educational and everything that the the youth learn is beneficial to them. We do have tons of educational contests. And I care about those a lot because, to me, that's where the youth separate themselves from other 4-H'ers. And I guess I'm biased. I mean, I do livestock and horses as well. To me, that's sort of the cream of the crop of our 4-H youth because it takes a lot of responsibility to wake up. Here we are in the middle of July and we're having mid 90 temperatures and heat index 105, 110. It's hard to get up in the morning and go out in the afternoon and get your show heifer out of the barn and take her to the wash rack and rinse her off and cool her off and work with her hair and go to some of these jackpot shows that are happening all around.
Dean Jousan: It takes a lot of responsibility, a lot of dedication, a lot of discipline to get up and do that. And we try to educate our youth with quality assurance practices to make sure that they know what they're doing to their animals, with safe and humane and they're treating them to the best way they can. So there's just a lot that really goes into the whole 4-H livestock project.
John Long: I myself not owning livestock, my dad had some cows, but other than that, how does a young person own that early stage in 4-H? How do they get involved in the livestock program if their parents or whoever doesn't have the availability of an animal? How does that work? Or does it work?
Dean Jousan: Well, as far as showing an animal or just getting involved?
John Long: Yeah, getting involved, getting started, I guess, from the base level since we talked about that.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, so if a family isn't able to own the animal for whatever reason, but they're still interested. We've got a whole variety of contests. A couple of weeks ago, we just had our 4-H beef cookout contest in the North and the South. So you're still learning about choosing your selection of beef to cook and how to prepare it. And that's educational in and of itself. And then we've got lots of other contests. We've got judging contests. We're either going out and learning about animal selection and what makes a good market animal versus a good breeding animal. And how to compare animals within a class and how to defend your reasons and how to come up with your decision making process. We've got Quiz bowl competitions and visual presentation contests.
Dean Jousan: If you were interested in showing beef cattle, it would be easy to go to a project achievement day for a younger 4-H'er or to Club Congress for an older 4-H'er and talk about breeds of cattle or whatever topic was of interest to you. So that way you're doing some homework and you're learning more about maybe livestock options that are available to you before you actually invest the money and get the animals and proper housing and things of that nature.
John Long: And I guess that would dispel the myth that it's just not getting in the ring with an animal. There's just so much more than to do other than that.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, I would say everything that I do with livestock and horses, there's probably over 30 educational type contests that a youth could be involved in. And that could be from more of the arts and creative expression, type contests such as creating a dairy poster about the theme that year for Dairy Month in June that's turned in at Club Congress. To the horse side of things, we've got photography contests and horse art contest where you could be drawing a picture or drawing a cartoon to designing a piece of furniture that's horse related.
Dean Jousan: So there's all kinds of opportunities available. The opportunities are endless. It's just how much do you want to jump in and how much do you want to get involved with.
John Long: Right, and sounds like there's a little something for everybody.
Cobie Rutherford: And it seems like most of the kids or youth that participate in these showing animals and livestock, it seems like they do other things within 4-H. I've seen him here at Club Congress participating in public speaking contest or maybe did other things under the AG and natural resources umbrella, forestry judging, meats judging. It seems like they're really involved in a lot of different things.
John Long: And Cobie was at the... you were at the cookout?
Cobie Rutherford: Yeah. Man, that was phenomenal. I was very impressed with the beef cookout and pork cookout this year. Well even poultry too. So it was kind of neat to see those kids light up their grills Most of them pretty delicious, I think.
John Long: All I ever get to do is hear about that. I never get to go because I'm in Nebraska at that time. So y'all have fun.
Cobie Rutherford: What else I like about the youth program, it's something that a child can select as their project and either make it a short term project, like a getting a market hog or a pig project or even a chicken project that's even a shorter duration of time. Or they can get a long term project like a heifer and keep that heifer for an entire year and work that animal and do something with it from January to December.
Cobie Rutherford: So it kind of, you can design how you want your project to work depending on what species you select, if you have that option, and even go on to different levels. I know you go chair several national contests and take 4-H'ers from the state. Where do y'all go?
Dean Jousan: Yeah, so I'll start at the regional level first. We do have a Southern regional 4-H horse championship that we host in Perry, Georgia. And this is the only regional 4-H horse show that's offered in the entire country. So youth in the 13 states that make up our region, are eligible to compete in if they qualify to go. I'm the chair of the equine specialist group, so it's a lot of work that goes into putting on that event. And we can send our top two senior teams or individuals in our horse contest to compete in that educational event and we can send up to 70 horses that qualifies as well. And we've had a good history of our youth, with our horses, being very successful at that show.
Dean Jousan: From an educational standpoint, there are a variety of state contests that I host throughout the year where we qualify youth to go to national competitions. So in November of every year at the North American International Livestock Expo in Louisville, Kentucky, we will send a dairy Quiz bowl team and a dairy judging team. And then I guess this is maybe the third year that we've sent a 4-H livestock skill-a-thon team. And that's sort of a unique team that that we develop, that's not a county based team. We kind of worked with some of the elite 4-H'ers in beef, sheep, Swan and meat goats and we kind of single out some of them and do some mock contests and really kind of select a cream of the crop to represent us on that team.
Dean Jousan: And then early January is where we send the majority of our youth out to the Western National Roundup in Denver, Colorado. We send up to six horse related teams, a meats judging team, a livestock judging team, a livestock Quiz bowl. And then we also take a couple of other competitions that I'm not directly involved with, but we take a consumer decisions team and a prepared public speaking individuals. All together, it's probably over 30 youth that can qualify to go out to that event.
Cobie Rutherford: Now, do y'all usually take a plane or drive a bus or how do y'all get out there to Denver?
Dean Jousan: We used to take an MSU bus and that was about a 24 hour trip out there and back with very little stops. In recent years, we've taken the big airplanes and every county sort of coordinates their own travel to get out about the same day. People like taking a direct flight of about two hours versus a 24 hour bus ride with people not brushing their teeth and all that stuff, yeah.
John Long: I got a funny memory of that. I've never been to it, but I got a funny memory of that. Hey Cobie, you've heard me talk about Clover Clues, when we had this little thing?
Cobie Rutherford: Yeah.
John Long: Dean, I had to get a report. Do you remember this? You probably don't, it's been a long time ago. Dean had to give me a report of how the teams had done out in Denver and they were on their way back. Poor Dean, he was talking on the cell phone to me and I could just tell he was tired. But we did really well that year, I remember, and I had to give his report for him. But I remember those bus trips and y'all talking about them. So yeah, that would be a long time.
Cobie Rutherford: I'm sure there's a lot of good memories. Well Dean, another thing that I think is pretty neat with what you do, yesterday I had the chance to help out with that dairy products judging. And we think about livestock specialists helping with a bunch of different live animals species, but the products are just as important as the actual animals, right?
Dean Jousan: Sure, yeah. And I guess that's what's interesting about a lot of what I do. Dairy products is a little more unique than maybe some of the other judging contest. But the neat thing about all of those things is that, again, like John referred to earlier, you don't have to own the animal to be in dairy products judging. That's a simple contest where you're evaluating samples of Milk and cheddar cheese and ice cream for flavors and, and different ways those products are prepared. They're not prepared in unhealthy ways, but they're prepared differently. And that makes those products taste differently, just like if you season your steak. The way I season my steak versus the way you season yours, maybe a little bit different to the degree that you cook your steak, maybe different than the way I cook mine. It doesn't mean you're right or I'm right, it's just the way we do it, and then they're evaluated.
Dean Jousan: So a lot of the things I do, it's neat because the kids can form a basis of what the ideal product should be, what the ideal animal should be. And the neat thing is, a lot of the judging contests, all that stuff can go over to consumer decisions judging or another type of judging event. You know the structure of how to present your reasons and how to make your choices, you just have to learn about judging refrigerators versus judging a class a steers.
John Long: So you're saying it can cross over into other areas.
Dean Jousan: Yeah, and that's where I think a lot of our livestock kids... To me, I see a lot of them crossing over into other aspects of 4-H just because they meet kids from around the state when they're at the state fair, when they're at Dixie National. They're interacting with youth all over the state and they hear about other contests and they say, "Hey, wow, if I win that, I can go on a trip." So they want to really invest and learn and engage in ways to learn to better themselves.
John Long: Right, right. And it's just like any other areas in 4-H, if we offer those programs based on the areas of interest of young people and we get them in and we all teach them life skills. Regardless, it's youth development from day one. So that's always fascinating with me is how those areas all work together for the same common goal, and that's great.
John Long: Well Dean, we certainly appreciate you coming in and sitting down with us today and whenever you can, catch your breath, please. We want you to stay around for a long time because you do such a great job and we appreciate all that you do for 4-H and for the youth of our state. So thank you for that. And if anybody wants more information on livestock and other areas of 4-H and what to do, go to the Extension webpage and check us out there. You've got information on there?
Dean Jousan: Yup.
John Long: Anywhere else we need to go to.
Dean Jousan: I've got a Facebook page. If you're on Facebook, you can type in to search for Mississippi 4-H livestock and horse program. And as you alluded to, if you go to the MSU Extension website and search for 4-H livestock, there's plenty of information about our big major shows and education contests and all sorts of information.
John Long: And not to mention, other publications that we have that you can read-
Dean Jousan: Lots of publications and newsletters and lots of information.
John Long: Wonderful. Well thank you for that. And with that, we're going to wrap up this week's podcast. And Cobie, we'll be back next time with some more good stuff that 4-H is doing.
Cobie Rutherford: Yeah, next time we'll have two attendees for the co-op leadership camp joining us.
John Long: Yes, that'll be great.
Cobie Rutherford: Looking forward to that.
John Long: Be great. All right, well with that, I'm John.
Cobie Rutherford: And I'm Cobie.
John Long: And we'll talk to you next time.
Announcer: Thanks for joining us for 4H4U2. For more information, please visit extension.msstate.edu and be sure to subscribe to our podcast. 4H4U2 is produced by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, Office of Agricultural Communications.