Demonstrating a cow castration earned two Houston youth red ribbons at the recent 4-H Provincials.
Carli Wardrop and Jody Siemens from the Topley 4-H Club used bananas and built a wooden calf model to step up their demo and earn second in B.C.
"It was a great honour to be at that level of communications," said Jody.
Competing against seven other 4-H teams among the "cream of the crop" from B.C., Jody said she first questioned if they deserved to be there.
"When they called our name for second we were like 'Wow, we really do deserve to be here," she said. "We technically beat all the people that those people beat too."
Carli said they chose their topic because they wanted something different, something that could get them to provincials.
Three judges scored them based on the power of their opening and ending, quality of presentation, teamwork and ability to answer questions.
"It was exciting to know that we could beat the other teams," Carli said.
Houston's youth also stood out in another division of 4-H communications.
Shawna Williams, part of the Quick Community 4-H Club, won fourth in the Provincial speech competition.
Competing against ten others, Shawna whipped up a five minute impromptu speech in the designated forty minutes.
She said it felt awesome to win fourth, especially since she was the youngest person there.
The speech was on diversity and opportunities of agriculture in the Okanagan, and followed a day-long agricultural tour in Kelowna, where they visited the Kelowna Farmer’s Market, Gray Monk Winery and Coldstream Ranch.
"We learned a lot, we had a lot of fun and I made a lot of friends, so it was a great experience," she said.
"I would just like to say thank you to all of the sponsors and supporters and organizers of the event, because without them this wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't have gotten this great experience."
Jody and Carli add their thanks to the Bulkley Valley Credit Union, Pleasant Valley Cattlemens' Association and the Bulkley Valley 4-H Council for their generous support and help getting to the competition.