Hungry Heifers and One Good Dog

I just got in from helping my dad with chores, and this time of year that aint much around our place. Afternoon chores at my house currently consist of packing 10 five gallon buckets of feed to the bulls that we have remaining (although that number is dwindling as more and more buyers are entering breeding season and we are delivering them their bulls that they have bought) and putting about 4 big round hay bales into the heifers (young female cattle).

All through the winter our cattle are fed by hand, we pack buckets of grain to them instead of using a feed truck. This means that by this time of year they are all pretty tame and are not scared of us. Having tame animals has its ups and downs, although it saves a lot on maintenance costs and they have an increased weight gain they are also a huge pain when it comes to feeding. Because these animals are so tame they are not afraid to come right up to me while I am trying to hold a gate open so my dad can get in with the tractor meaning it is super easy for them to escape. They also like to crowd right up to me and start eating their bales before I can even get the twine off.  

This is where my good dog Kricket Lou comes in. (yes my dog has two names, for some reason most things around my farm do, my sister and I once had a cat named Ginger Pumpkin because we couldn’t decide on a name.. but that’s a story for later) Kricket is a blue Healer dog that my family bought back in 2005. Although at first she was really aggressive working cattle, she has now slowed down and is really helpful around the corals. She works great to keep cattle out of the gate while the tractor is going through. She is also very good at bringing cattle up to the trough when it is time to eat. Having Kricket around is a huge help to us around the farm, she is like one of the family, and defiantly does her share of the work! Like the rest of us she has a weakness for ice-cream, this is why when she is in the truck and we go to Dairy Queen we have to order her her own cup of ice-cream so she doesn’t climb up on someone’s lap and eat theirs!