The Country Ham is distinctive to Kentucky and the Southeast. The 4-H Country Ham project begins in January and ends at the Kentucky State Fair. The project began in the late 1990’s with approximately 40 4-Hers and has grown to over 1000 from the majority of the counties in the Commonwealth. The hams are judged at the state fair while the 4-Hers give a three to five minute speech on their experiences in the project. The 4-H Country Ham Project not only teaches Kentucky’s youth about where their food comes from, but also teaches them about our food heritage.  

This year, McCreary County had 6 youth enrolled in the 4-H Country Ham Project. This was the second year in total that McCreary County has been involved in Country Ham. All 6 youth cured their own country hams, completed 6 hours of instruction, conducted an auction at the McCreary County Farmers Market to raise money for the Kentucky State Fair, and presented their speeches at the fair. We had 4 youth who repeated the project this year, and two new participants. This project has allowed our youth to build upon speech skills learned the previous year, and give them a larger experience outside county and area competitions. This was a record year for country ham participants at the state fair. 

4-H Country Ham Summary for State Fair Day

 Over 80 counties participated in Ham Project this year.

Over 971 hams judged and speeches given

Over 54 judges and 25 room hosts- 6 hours each- A total of 474 hours 

10 ham judges- 5 hours of ham judging time- A total of 50 hours

12 Registration workers- 6 hours registration time- A total of 72 hours

8 Holding Room Workers- 6 hours each- A total of 48 hours

12 Ham Scoring Workers- 6 hours each- A total of 72 hours

16 Tabulation Room Workers- 8 hours each- A total of 128 hours

15 Ham Workers for Taken day- 6 hours each- A total of 90 hours

10- Set up and clean up on Wednesday and Thursday- 2 hours each- A total of 20 hours

Totals for Wednesday and Thursday

160 plus Workers who are Extension Staff and Volunteers

950 plus Total Hours for Wednesday and Thursday only

If we figure each youth who gave a speech had 2 other persons with them then there were over 3000 plus total people at the State Fair because of foe the ham project.

If we use an average of 3 minutes for each speech given at State Fair then there were a total of 48.5 hours of speeches given on Thursday.

If we used $100/hour for the economic impact of volunteer hours the total value of volunteer hours is $95,000  

Using the average Ky retail price of a country ham the total value of the 4-H country hams that participated in the 2023 Kentucky 4-H Ham Project at State Fair would be over $194,000.  WOW!