PC student takes on market lamb project
When the annual 4-H Chick Chain program was canceled this year as a result of the incidence of avian flu in the region, Colt Thomas had to find a replacement agricultural project to challenge him. Enter: the Market Lamb project.
Students taking on the 4-H Market Lamb project – of which Colt, an eighth-grader at Phil Campbell, is the only one in Franklin County – are challenged to develop sheep management skills, learn to produce a healthy finished lamb product, develop an awareness for business management, develop record-keeping skills and realize the pride of accomplishment, according to an Alabama Cooperative Extension System fact sheet.
Colt named his lamb Danny.
“The 4-H agent, he said, ‘Are you going to name it after me, or your brother?” Colt said. “I said I was going to name it after him.”
Colt has been raising his little lamb since June 3. Mother Vero Thomas said the lamb was “pretty wild” at first but has already settled down.
Colt has been working to halter break the lamb and provide it the proper nutrition. His favorite job is bath time. “It’s something dirty and then it turns out white with the soap we use,” Colt said. He said he has enjoyed the project – but it’s been a challenge. He works with the lamb daily morning and evening and will continue to do so until the fair in September. He’ll aim to raise a meaty lamb headed ultimately for the butcher block.
“We’ll see how lamb tastes. I guess I’ll push through it,” said Colt, who said he couldn’t bring himself to eat his steer from the market steer program. “I might cry every time I bite into it.”
He’s grown a little attached to Danny.
And has the lamb grown attached to him?
“A little. I feed it, so it might as well.”
