The Kosciusko County Extension Youth Educator came armed with a few new-fangled ideas.
One idea is so new, she's considered an expert in the field. Christy Blomeke, a recent Purdue University master's degree graduate, is using retinal imaging to identify large animals.
"The U.S. Navy has used retinal imaging for 30 years as a means of secure access. Each print is unique. The process is less upsetting to the animal than a nose print," she said from her office on the lower floor of the courthouse.
When beef cattle projects were weighed in recently, Blomeke stood by, aiming an imaging gun at both the right and left eyeball of the 141 animals. The equipment not only captures an image of the the tree branch-like pattern of blood vessels at the back of the animal's retina, the time and longitude and latitude of the event are recorded as well.
Plans are to record feeder calves, sheep and goats, too.
"We'll use it to verify each grand and reserve champion," she said of the Optibrand imager, made in Fort Collins, Colo. "It's moving across the state. Twenty-two counties will use it to identify at least one species.
"We're the first state to use retinal imaging in a 4-H program."
Stockyards and slaughter facilities already use the technology to verify where an animal has been and which pen or lot it came from. Other countries use it to verify an animal's origins.
Blomeke's master's degree program centered around the imager and its applications. Currently ruminant animals - cattle, dairy calves, feeder steers, goats and sheep - are the only candidates for this identification process. The blood vessel patterns in a horse's, rabbit's or chicken's eye are too feathery.
"Purdue is working on modifications to image horses eyes," Blomeke said.
She considers the process less unsettling to the animal than nose prints, bar codes or microchips.
She's from Ashley, south of Angola, where she was a 10-year 4-H'er showing pigs, feeder calves and cats. She also was involved in the junior leader program and presented flower, gardening, food and food preservation projects.
This county's American Heritage, library and llama projects are new to her. "I've been invited to train a llama," she said laughing. "Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have the time."
Blomeke comes from a family of Purdue alumni. Her father, older brother and sister-in-law are graduates of the university. A younger brother currently attends Purdue and two brothers at home will undoubtedly head to West Lafayette for their higher education, too.
The addition is correct, Blomeke has five brothers. "It's OK, I'm pretty tough. And I have a lovely sister-in-law and a fabulous niece."
Essentially, in December, Blomeke moved from a county which boasts of 101 lakes to a county with 103.
"I know there will be a great influx of people in the summer, to buy gas on Wednesday, to shop at 1 a.m. to avoid the crowds.
"I'm still settling in and starting to visit each club now."
Blomeke spent the first four of her seven years at Purdue studying genetics.
"It was awful lonely in the lab and I'm a people person. I didn't want to be in a lab the rest of my life. I switched to ag and Extension." She was then advised she could go the agriculture route or the youth route and she chose the kids.
She's very impressed with the 4-H program here and hopes to share her interests in genetic biology and technology with some members.
"It is relatively easy to get DNA from a wheat plant, to see the structure of it," she said. "It's a hands-on project and I think you retain knowledge better that way. Like the 4-H motto, you learn by doing."
The fairgrounds are set up a little differently than she's used to, with a midway separating the animal projects from the general projects.
This year 4-H members are required to pay a $1 fee when registering general projects.
"It's an incentive to complete projects. They will get that dollar back with their premium money. A lot of office time and paperwork goes into each project and we've been losing money on that."
The enrollment deadline for returning 4-H'ers was yesterday. New members have until May 1 to sign-up.
For more information, call the Extension office at 574-372-2340. [[In-content Ad]]
