• Vote online daily at http://bit.ly/BecauseICare by Oct. 28 to help determine the $1,000 winner. You may vote once per day for any of the videos.

Buckeye Farm News

Forty-three videos containing positive and informative messages about livestock farming were submitted by Ohio farmers, county Farm Bureaus, youth and other agricultural organizations as part of the "Because I Care" video contest sponsored by Ohio Farm Bureau's Center for Food and Animal Issues.

Eight finalists are now competing for the most online votes to win the $1,000 grand prize.

The videos were required to be 90-120 seconds long and made publicly available on YouTube.com.

“We are very pleased with the overall quality of videos in the contest, and the messages they share,” said David White, OFBF senior director of issues management and the Animals for Life Foundation. “The eight chosen finalists did the best overall job of communicating their messages in a creative, original manner. It’s very clear they take tremendous care of their animals.”

“We need to have more farmers regularly sharing their stories online,” White said. “There are a lot of anti-animal agriculture videos on the Web, and they needed no prizes or incentives to be there.”

Finalists include:

• Bits N Bridles 4-H Club, Licking County – “Because I Care about my horses”
• Carrollton FFA Chapter, Carroll County – “Because We Care”
• Fort Loramie FFA Chapter, Shelby County – “FL Ag Ed – Because I Care”
• Nicki Gordon-Coy, Carroll County – “We Care For Cattle”
• Lisa Gress, Wayne County – “BecauseWeCare”
• Steve Humpal, Ashtabula County – “Happy Healthy Boer Goats”
• Meadowbrook FFA Chapter, Guernsey County – “The Meadowbrook FFA Cares!”
• Janice Stark, Cuyahoga County – “Backyard Poultry”

Entries receiving honorable mention include:

• Dream Catcher’s 4-H Club, Harrison County – “Dream Catcher’s Because I Care”
• Nicki Gordon-Coy, Carroll County – “We Care for Our Chickens”
• Steve Humpal, Ashtabula County – “Static’s Big Date”
• Jefferson County Farm Bureau – “Jefferson County Farm Bureau Cares”
• Kountry Buddies 4-H Club, Tuscarawas County – “Kountry Buddies 4-H Club Care”

ONLINE EXTRAS:

• Vote online for your favorite video at http://bit.ly/BecauseICare by Oct. 28. You may vote once per day for any of the videos.
• View an archive of all of the videos submitted in the "Because I Care" contest.