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Moffat County 4-H names Joslyn Bacon Top Record Book winner for 2020

Joslyn Bacon shows off her heifer at the 2020 Moffat County Fair.
Courtesy Photo

Joslyn Bacon is the 2020 Moffat County 4-H Top Livestock Record Book winner. In order to win this award, Bacon maintained meticulous records, tracking all goals, health and care details, expenses, and milestones associated with raising her 4-H livestock projects.

All 4-H members are required to complete record books for their projects. The 4-H record book is basically a journal that documents the project experience.

The 4-H program sets out to help our youth “Learn by Doing” to develop life skills, and the record book is a key piece to attaining these goals. The 4-H record book serves as an important bridge between the “doing” and the “learning”, allowing members to set goals, track their efforts, document skill development and reflect upon their learning experiences.



The Top Record Book award is an important award because a well-kept record book indicates that positive adult influence was present and experiential learning really took place, and that’s what 4-H is all about.

“We have many very talented 4-H book-keepers in Moffat County, so placing first is a well-earned accomplishment,” said Jessica Counts, CSU Extension Moffat County Director. “Joslyn has worked very hard for several years to continuously improve her record-keeping, and it’s so great to see her hard work pay off.”



Joslyn Bacon is in her seventh year with Moffat County’s 4-H program . She said that her older brother’s interest first got her into the club.

 “My brother started doing it, and not only did that start rubbing off on me but also influence from my family.”

She also gives her brother and her mom credit for helping her in winning the Top Record Book this year during the pandemic.  She said that some of her favorite parts of being a 4-H member was meeting new people and the possibility of making money at the end of the year. 4-H members that raise market livestock have the opportunity to earn income by selling their animals at the county fair.

This year Bacon raised Market Beef and Breeding Beef 4-H projects. An important task for keeping a good record book is consistently taking pictures of the animals as they grow.

“Throughout the year, when we wash them, when we first get them, we take pictures and then we do before and afters of clipping and washing,” Bacon said.

Joslyn Bacon washes her heifer in a previous year at the Fairgrounds.
Courtesy Photo

Bacon’s mother, Sarah, said that her family has always kept very diligent records to track spending habits, which helped her daughter develop this skill.

“There is so much record keeping too, that it’s hard to know how much you feed your animal per day and then at the end, you check weight again,” Sarah Bacon said. “It’s a good way to see how you’re gaining throughout the year for your market animal. Also, financially we keep track of every little thing, so that we know our profits and our losses.”  

Sarah Bacon said that the pictures that they take of  their animals allow them to see the progress that they have made as a family taking care of these animals over the years. She noted that the family has a few heifers that they got when they were babies that are now four or five years old.

Bacon added that winning the award was validation that over a year of  hard work had paid off.

“Finally being rewarded for that and knowing I did a good job was really rewarding,” Bacon said.


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