I was raised on a beef farm in AR, but my dad always milked and raised
orphan calves on nurse cows, (as well as teaching Earth science and math at
HSU,  and raising all our vegetables).  We were some of the first to use
artificial insemination,
I sure was upset when dad sold my cow!  She was half charolais and out of
Lily, our best nurse cow (Ajax).  HE sold her in a package of 20 for 40
grand, because they were bred to simmentals artificially.  He realized his
mistake too late- it would have been worth that much to him for me to stay
in the cow business.

He had the best bulls in the business, but he would use any cow that made
money.
Dad would go to the sale and buy any cow that others didn't like.  There
was old Longbag (guess) and Heidi.  Heidi was an arkansas scrubcow
(probably mostly jersy) that didn't weigh 500lbs. I liked her because she
was so deer-like, but my brother's friends made fun of her, so he asked Dad
why not sell her?  Dad said "Why sell her when she'll have a calf and in
six months you can sell the calf and get twice what she's worth?

Worked our cows with scutes, and I don't remember ever being kicked,
although I was kicked at a few times.  One big reason was Daddy walked
through his cows twice a day, so they weren't wild, also Daddy sold the
ones who made him mad as quickly as he did the ones that made him money.

Dad and his sister had a collie in the twenties that took care of them when
they were little. My aunt likes to tell how Laddie used to stay inbetween
them and snakes.   Their farm (now mine) was in the middle of the dust
bowl, and by the fifties  they had cow dogs of a different breed - they
were called miniature or midget collies.
They had shorter, thinner hair, and weighed about 30-35 lbs.  I suspect
that the larger breed literally died out in the thirties in this area.

In 1976 when I lived in columbus Nebraska  I got my next "shepherd".  Daddy
took one look at him and said " that's a collie. "  Other people called him
a farmcollie others told me he looked like an english shepherd.  He was SW
between Maeve and Skeeter.

Dad's friend gave him a curly aussie. ( I suspect that she was curly
because people liked poodle crosses to hunt squirrels with.)  He bred her
to the vet's aussie before he had her spayed.  The pups worked better than
she did.

I thought all this about my family and dad might give some idea of the kind
of dog that people have used.  I willget some pictures to the farmcollie
page.




----------
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: cattle breeds
> Date: Friday, July 25, 1997 12:11 PM
>
> In a message dated 97-07-25 11:37:18 EDT, you write:
>
> <<  Date: Friday, July 25, 1997 10:24 AM
>  >
>  > You make some good points, I never had sheep to start my ES on, but
they
>  > are real quick to catch on when you bring the cows in for milking
every
>  > day- then the cows are motivated to come in too.  Wild cows in a small
>  pen
>  > might injure the dog, especially if he was not on a leash of some
kind.
>  > The trainer would have to know cattle  and be able to assess the
>  situation.
>  >  The key here is for mary to find an experienced trainer who is
willing
>  to
>  > help her.
>  >  >>
>
> I agree, a experienced trainer  that is familar with working with that
> paticular breed is so important. There's also a big diffrence between
> training a ES and training the more intese herding breeds, I've only had
ES's
> so I really don't know how to handle a more intense breed, although I
have
> worked with Aussies, Beardies and a ACD in my 4-H class, I wish Karen C
was
> closer so she could have helped me with that Boxer. I knew that would be
> biting off more than I could chew.
>  Do you have a dairy? My grandfather had dairy and beef cattle.  A dairy
farm
> is a 7 day a week job.
>
> Randi