Claire Andrew made the most of her opportunity to exhibit a corn project at the 2021 Ohio County 4-H Fair. The sixth grader from Rising Sun, Ind., could either exhibit a cornstalk or put together a poster related to corn production, but she did both!

Claire’s parents are Mike and Melissa Andrew. Her poster featured a drawing of a soil map from the field where she dug the cornstalk, complete with charts explaining soil type symbols. And while she acknowledged that her parents helped her, she knew her stuff when it came to explaining soils in that field.

“There are four soil types, and most are flat, but a couple have slope, which means there is a hill,” she explained. “There are a few wet spots, and because of the hills, there can be some soil erosion, but Dad works on that by doing things like using cover crops.”

What was the most important part about her exhibit? That she was able to exhibit it and explain it live in front of a judge. One year ago, all projects in Ohio County were exhibited virtually, including livestock. This year, 4-H’ers not only brought in their projects for judging, but also talked to the judges.

“We worked hard to make this year’s fair as good a learning experience as possible,” says Shannon Chipman, Ohio County Extension youth educator. “We staggered times for when 4-H members could bring in their non-livestock projects by last name, to keep the number of people inside the building at any one time down.

“We worked with the health department to get a plan approved. The best part was we were able to have a live fair with 4-H members getting and enjoying the full 4-H experience again.”