FORT PIERRE, S.D.— 4-H in South Dakota is in a really good place, says Tim Tanner, South Dakota 4-H Program Director.
“We’re one of the most popular things for young people to do in South Dakota,” he said.
Participation statewide has bounced back following a dip during the pandemic. Last year, 29% of all young people in South Dakota participated in 4-H.
“To put that into perspective, National 4-H has a goal that we will get to 20% here in the next few years nationwide. So, South Dakota is doing more than its share to kind of hold up our end of the bargain,” Tanner said.
In central South Dakota, Prairie Winds 4-H, which is a combination of Hughes and Stanley counties, has seen enrollment fluctuate over the past couple of years.
Last year, Prairie Winds 4-H had 262 kids involved. This year, their numbers are up by 11.
“But a lot of the fluctuation is due to older 4-H members graduating from 4-H and then we have the conflicts of sports with those older kids,” said Jackie Husted, SDSU 4-H program assistant for Hughes and Stanley counties. “And we have their jobs. And some of them are just choosing to not be in 4-H.”
In the two-county area, Prairie Winds 4-H has seven active clubs and four affiliate clubs. Those affiliates are two shooting sports clubs and two rodeo clubs.
While enrollment numbers are up this year, they are still down from what they were years before. Husted says a factor in this is the lack of farm kids in the area.
“They’re down because like in eastern Hughes County, we don’t have the farmers and ranchers with those bigger farms and their families have gotten where they go off the ranch or farm or it’s being bought up by corporations or bigger partnerships,” Husted said.
For the past few years, Prairie Winds 4-H Achievement Days schedule has gone down to two days from three full days. The first day is devoted to static exhibits and the second day is for the livestock shows.
“There’s just not the numbers out in the country or the farms like there used to be back in the 80s and 90s,” Husted said.
Husted said there will be challenges to getting the 4-H numbers back to where they were decades ago.
“There’s so many obstacles in these kids’ lives now compared to when I was in 4-H,” Husted said. “They are having to make choices between whether they want to be in sports, 4-H, their job and school takes a good part of their day.”
But there are some areas of 4-H that are seeing large growth and interest, one of those is shooting sports.
Shooting sports is the most popular branch of 4-H for South Dakota kids to be involved in.
“We continue to see growth and a lot of strength in our shooting sports program,” Tanner said. “I think as young people look for those more concrete objective experiences in their lives, shooting sports really appeals to them, not to mention we have a long kind of outdoors tradition in South Dakota, so that certainly helps.”
“4-H members and youth can go ahead and do shooting sports now, which includes the archery, the BB gun disciplines and more disciplines,” Husted said.
Livestock is also a top participation area, Tanner said.
Another area that has seen growth is the performing arts section of 4-H.
“We had a really nice turnout for our performing arts troupe this year,” Tanner said. “We had 10 to 15 more young people interested and involved in that this year, which was great to see at our state fair.”
At this year’s state fair, there were 89 different project types exhibited.
“Just kind of demonstrating the wide variety of interests that young people have and can take advantage of by being part of the 4-H program,” Tanner said.
There is still plenty of room for 4-H to grow in South Dakota.
“Unofficially, I kind of have a goal in South Dakota of getting to one in three (kids),” Tanner said. “So, if we can get to about 33%, that would be incredible.”
As students begin to be more removed from the agricultural lifestyle, 4-H is finding ways to reach all demographics.
“4-H isn’t rural anymore, it’s getting to be more urbanized,” Husted said. “It’s not just for the kids that have animals. A lot of the kids do photography, visual arts, home environment. I try to encourage those youth that are in shop, wood science, tech class, art, that they can use those projects in their 4-H achievement days to exhibit.”
Another way South Dakota 4-H is reaching more students is through a partnership with South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.
“We’ve embedded staff into their outdoor campuses, so they have one of those in both Sioux Falls and Rapid City,” Tanner said. “That’s allowed us to reach even more of an audience through some of our school-based programs.”
Those interested in enrolling their children in 4-H can do so by contacting their local 4-H office.
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