Dawesley
farmer Annabel Mangal
appreciates all the help she
can get on her large property, with
200 ewes and around 500 calves
to tend to.
Mrs
Mangal works the farm with her husband, John, plus two part-time
staff, who feed the calves, clean the pens and carry out
maintenance.
But
their work is made much quicker
and easier with the help of their
four-legged workers, Emily the kelpie
and Scotty the border collie, who
run around the hills rounding up the animals and moving them to
new paddocks.
Mrs
Mangal has been rearing calves for about three years, starting by
answering an advert for two calves for sale. Now she is a contract
calf rearer and at any time has around 160 calves on milk, 150
between six weeks and three months, and around 200 between three
and six months.
"Having
working dogs was a natural progression as the calf numbers
grew," she said.
"We
no longer had time to spend two hours rounding up a group of
calves for their weekly weigh-in or moving them from nursery pens
to weaner pens.
"And
having the dogs makes our job of rounding up sheep for shearing
and moving paddocks a very simple task.
"Now
we just stan d at the gate and the dog brings them to us. Running
them "in to check for fly strike is now a one person job
instead of a three person job."
Mrs
Mangal said having the working dogs made managing small herds more
efficient, less stressful and less time consuming.
But
she pointed out working dogs and their owners needed proper
training.
"You
can buy the most expensive working dog with a great lineage of
