By Deb kroon
Review Staff Writer
Whitney Henning is one of two 4-H members that was a recipient of dollars to purchase a goat in the third year that Cal and Ann Solomon have given a goat, or the money to buy one, in the name of Shelby Scheick, Ann’s daughter, who was killed in a car accident.
Whitney wrote an essay explaining why she would love to own a goat and her essay won! “There were rules to follow,” she said. “You couldn’t use any personal information in the essay. It had to be totally anonymous.”
She read me her essay, which explained how she had been showing cows at the Nobles County Fair. Her family has a dairy herd and is switching to beef, so one of the cows she showed had been sold. She had checked with a friend that showed sheep, but her parents said- “no sheep”. It was her mother’s idea to try goats. She explained in the essay where she would keep the goat, how she would care for it and what it would mean to her.
Whitney’s research found that a goat cannot be alone. So her parents bought her one goat and she entered the Great Goat Giveaway and now has two goats. Zoey is the name of the goat from the Solomons and Chloe is the goat she got from her parents. Since then, after spending the most time trying to convince her dad, Andy, to add goats to the farm, Zoey and Chloe will be joined by her dad’s goat Speckle, and brother Jacob’s goat, Winchester.
Her brothers are also 4-Hers that show at the fairs. Now besides the goats, they will show rabbits and their milking short horn cows. With COVID-19 putting a damper on the fairs, they will show for one day and everything will be live-streamed, no spectators. This will be a big change and Whitney wasn’t sure if they were going to take the cows or not.
“I am grateful to the Solomons for the chance to start raising goats,” Whitney said.
Whitney is the daughter of Andy and Sara Henning of rural Adrian.
