I wanted to take some time to highlight some important YQCA information and reminders as we all work to ensure our youth animal science project members are trained. Nebraska 4-H requires all youth enrolled in livestock projects to complete annual quality assurance certification through Youth for the Quality Care of Animals (YQCA). YQCA is a national multi-species quality assurance program focused on three core pillars: food safety, animal well-being, and character development.
YQCA information can be found at https://4h.unl.edu/yqca. For help with technology support within the YQCA modules or testing, please contact help@yqca.org.
1) Certification and Recertification for Trainers: Each trainer does need to re-certify each year. To re-certify, simply log into the YQCA system and follow the recertification process. To become newly certified, please contact ashley.benes@unl.edu. Each name is discussed with the District Coordinator in your district and those approved to become certified have their name and contact information submitted to YQCA and they send you certification information. YQCA can be a good resource for information both during the certification process and online at http://yqca.org/4-h-ffa-and-other-youth-organizations/
2) A list of upcoming face-to-face trainings will be available at https://events.unl.edu/NE4H-Livestock/search/?q=YQCA+Training This is also a good resource for any animal science program coming up across the state.
3) For State Fair Swine Exhibitors: Youth will need EITHER a PQA or YQCA number to exhibit at State Fair. This is also something to consider if you work with a swine buyer for your county fair (such as Whole Stone Farms, formerly Hormel). We recently received confirmation that both will be acceptable to ship swine through WholeStone Farms. If youth tested out using the LQA paper copy test out in 2018, they should have been entered into the PQA system by a certified instructor and issued a PQA card with a number. This number is valid for the duration of that age division. For those youth who have done the face to face trainings in 2018 or 2019, or who have tested out through YQCA the current year, they will need to utilize the YQCA number they were issued. Youth will need these numbers in order to complete their swine entries in ShoWorks.
4) As a reminder, all youth exhibiting beef, dairy, sheep, swine, goat, poultry and rabbit should be completing YQCA by your county deadline. Please confirm all your youth entering for State Fair have completed YQCA prior to entry deadline of August 10.
5) YQCA and FFA: If a 4-H member is trained by an FFA Advisor they will receive a Certificate of Completion from the FFA Advisor that will be brought to the Extension Office to be entered into 4-H Online. For all questions related to an FFA Advisor becoming certified or requirements for FFA members, please refer them to their state FFA contact: Krystl Knabe Krystl.knabe@nebraska.gov.
6) It would be a best practice for counties to keep a copy of the Certificate of Completion from the 4-Hers in case a problem occurs later.
7) As you encounter issues or areas for improvement within YQCA, please send those to me. I do keep a list of these and we do have opportunity to report them to the YQCA Board.
Thank you all for your hard work training our youth across the state. Thank you also for your patience through the transition both in leadership for our state 4-H YQCA contact and with transitions from paper test to YQCA test out. We know this is at times frustrating and I appreciate the constructive feedback and comments as we all work through the change. Please reach out with any questions.
(Source: Ashley Benes | ashley.benes@unl.edu | 308-696-6784)