Alaina Johnson is a recent graduate of La Crescent High School and will be attending UW-River Falls as a Pre-Vet major this fall. She is from rural La Crescent, Minn., where she has grown up on her family’s dairy farm. For the last 13 years she has been actively involved in Houston County 4-H. She’s held leadership roles in the Ridgetop Dreamseekers 4-H Club (which just started in 2017-2018), for the Houston County 4-H Federation and as a Day Camp Counselor. Although she has taken many projects while in 4-H, her favorite project is dairy.
Alaina’s love for the dairy project started when she was very little. At just four years old, she participated in the Little Britches show at the start of the Houston County Fair Open Class show. The next year, Alaina was a Cloverbud in 4-H. She’s been showing every year since.
Over the years, Alaina says her Uncle Paul and her Grandma Linda have been the most influential people in her life. “They taught me everything,” she says. She also credits her mom for keeping things organized at the fair. Alaina has learned about all aspects of the dairy project and dairy industry. In the last several years she says she’s really focused on growing in the areas of fitting and showmanship. She explains that she learned some from watching family members, but really grew in her knowledge of fitting when she started doing it herself. She has been in the top five of her showmanship classes, but hopes to earn the spot of champion showman someday.
Alaina knows how much hard work and dedication it takes to prep animals for the fair. Her hard work has paid off. She has done well in her dairy classes at the Houston County Fair and that has earned her trips to the Minnesota State Fair. Alaina says she really enjoys showing at the State Fair 4-H Show.
Alaina will enter the show arena at the Houston County Fairgrounds again this year. Even though it will be a little different because of COVID, Alaina and other Houston County 4-H Youth will still have the opportunity to showcase their projects! Join us via livestream to watch our livestock shows August 15-21 (the fairgrounds are not open to the public). You can get the link and a schedule at our Facebook page: facebook.com/houston4h.
This year we also celebrate the start of 4-H in Houston County 100 years ago! We had hoped to include all of you in an in-person celebration at the Houston County Fair this year. Since that can’t happen, we will celebrate individually with our promotional GREEN Spring Grove Pop! If you haven’t gotten yours yet, visit Red’s IGA (Spring Grove), Quillins (Caledonia and La Crescent) and Cenex (now Mileage in Houston). Please contact the Extension Office if you would like to purchase any commemorative 100-year shirts, pottery mugs or crocks!
If you would like more information on becoming a member of Houston County 4-H, please contact the Extension Office at (507) 725-5807 or email us at rpaulson@umn.edu or burrichj@umn.edu.
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