As in the past, 4-H youth ages 8–18 planning to show market beef, market sheep, market swine, meat or dairy goats, dairy cattle, poultry and/or rabbits at the county fair, state fair and/or AKSARBEN 4-H shows are required to complete quality assurance training by June 15. On March 1, Nebraska 4-H will transition from using the Nebraska Livestock Quality Assurance (LQA) online course to a new national Youth for the Quality Care of Animals online program (YQCA). For 2017, Nebraska 4-H will accept the “old” LQA training as well as the new YQCA training.
The LQA course at http://4h.unl.edu/quality-assurance is still available for 4-H’ers to access up until March 1. The fee is $5 to enroll. LQA will not accept new participants after March 1, but youth who start prior to March will be able to continue their work until June 15 by going through 4HOnline at
https://ne.4honline.com. As in the past, youth completing the LQA online course will need to complete three new modules with an 80% or better. Upon completion of modules, youth must print the completion certificates and bring to their local Extension office.
The new YQCA course will be available March 1 and accessed through 4HOnline at https://ne.4honline.com. Youth will need to be officially enrolled for the current 4-H year. There will be a new fee structure of $12. Youth will need to complete three modules and pass a test at the end of each module. Youth will not need to bring completion certificates to their Extension office but will have the option to print.
Lancaster County 4-H will offer a free Quality Assurance face-to-face training this summer. Details will be published in an upcoming 4-H E-Newsletter.