AGCO’s Farm Dog Photo Contest

As you may know by now, I grew
up on a dairy farm in Minnesota. One of the things I loved about my childhood was the proliferation of critters we had around the place; too many cats to count, horses, an occasional pig and of course, dairy cows and calves. But my favorite farm animal was always our dog.

The first dog I can remember was “Angel,” a white German Shepherd. Next came our little sweetheart collie-shepherd mix, “Schatzy” and the dog we had when I left for college was “BooBoo,” an Australian Cattle Dog or also known as a Blue Heeler. BooBoo came from a cattle ranch out west. My dad brought him home from a hunting trip when he was a barely 6 week old puppy because his mamma was such an amazing cattle dog.

Our dogs were never considered pets, my dad would not allow them in the house and I can’t ever remember giving them a bath or having them groomed. They were workers, hired help that earned their keep by herding cows into the parlour at milking time and chasing calves up from the pasture when it was time to put them in the shed at the end of the day. Our dogs were serious herding dogs.

My brother, who still lives on our farm, carries on this tradition with Rex’s Australian Shepherds, as he trains and shows Aussies in field trials. Belle, the seven week old puppy above and Moe, his national champion cattle dog, both play and practice herding in the same pasture where I chased calves as a kid.

AGCO knows what a valuable partner farm dogs are; they are loyal and quick to lend a helping hand, er… paw. Farm dogs, like all dogs, are always happy to see you, but then they quickly get to work, serious and anxious to do their job. In honor of farm dogs everywhere, we are proud to announce the latest in our ongoing series of contests for our friends and fans. And this one you can invite ALL your farm friends to get involved. As we do with all our contests, friends and fans will be invited to vote on the winning picture. But in an effort to encourage more entries and reach out to the entire agriculture community, we are waiving the requirement to have AGCO product in the picture. Let’s pay tribute to our hard working farm dogs by entering them in AGCO’s Farm Dog Photo Contest by clicking here. You could even win a Kodak Zi8 camcorder!

What do you like best about your Farm Dog? Will you enter the Photo Contest?