Youth Livestock
YQCA Updates pertaining to COVID-19
Please read this memo from the YQCA board: Family Memo. Instructions on obtaining certification are here, and the flash sale coupons mentioned in the memo are available here.
Youth for the Quality Care of Animals (YQCA)
Youth for the Quality Care of Animals (YQCA) is a new, national, multi-species livestock quality assurance program available for youth ages 8-21. This annual educational and certification program focuses on food safety, animal well-being, and character awareness for youth producing and/or showing livestock. The species included in the training are swine, beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats, market rabbits, and poultry. Extension specialists, the National Pork Board, national show organizers, and animal industry representatives were involved in designing the program with the intent to provide a national, standardized livestock quality assurance program applicable to multiple species. The curriculum is designed to provide different age-appropriate modules annually, so youth will expand their knowledge by covering new topics every year. There are two options by which youth may obtain their YQCA certification; they may attend a 60-minutes face-to-face training with a certified instructor, or they may complete the age-appropriate online certification course. There is a $3/child fee for the face-to-face training, while the online certification course is $12/child. The YQCA program has been integrated into the 4HOnline system, so families may register for a face-to-face training, or complete the online certification, by using their 4HOnline credentials to login and create a YQCA account on the YQCA website. There is also an option to create an independent account for FFA members.
ALL exhibitors are required to be YQCA certified in order to participate in the 2020 Kansas State Fair Grand Drive and/or Kansas Junior Livestock Show (KJLS). This includes youth who will be showing market animals, commercial breeding females, and/or registered purebred breeding females. The YQCA certification covers a variety of species, without being specie-specific. So, youth only need to complete one certification session to fulfill the requirement, regardless of the number of species they plan to exhibit. Since the program is designed to be a national standard for youth ages 8 and older, 7-year-olds who will be participating in KJLS are exempt from completing this requirement. However, they are encouraged to attend an instructor-led class for the educational value.
For more information about YQCA, please visit www.yqca.org, contact the K-State Youth Livestock Program Coordinator, Lexie Hayes, at adhayes@ksu.edu or (785)532-1264.
