From Barn to Ring: Developing Skills for Every Species

From Barn to Ring: Developing Skills for Every Species is a hands-on youth livestock camp hosted by NDSU Extension – Dickey County June 8-11 at the Dickey County Fairgrounds in Ellendale, North Dakota. Designed for youth ages 8-18 involved in livestock projects, the camp provides practical, real-world training to help youth strengthen their animal care, showmanship, and fair preparation skills across multiple species.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own livestock animals to work directly with throughout the camp while learning from Extension professionals, experienced livestock volunteers, agricultural educators, and older youth mentors. Workshops will focus on grooming, feeding, animal handling, daily care, animal evaluation, equipment use, and showmanship techniques to help youth gain confidence both in and out of the show ring.

Registration is at 9:00 AM with the morning session beginning at 9:30-11:30 AM. Lunch will be from 12:00-1:00 PM. The afternoon session is from 1:00-3:00 PM.

The camp schedule includes:
• June 8 – Livestock Quality Assurance (LQA) certification training in the morning, followed by rabbit and poultry workshops in the afternoon. Poultry pullorum-typhoid testing and rabbit tattooing will also be available to help exhibitors meet county fair requirements.
• June 9 – Breeding sheep in the morning and market sheep in the afternoon.
• June 10 – Swine in the morning and goats in the afternoon.
• June 11 – All-day beef workshop.

LQA certification is required for participation in the North Dakota State Fair and many local livestock exhibitions and is valid for three years.

Camp registration fees are $50 for the full week, $15 per day, $10 per species session, or $5 for LQA certification only.

Pre-registration deadline is June 1.