The deadline is fast approaching to nominate your farm dog for a big award. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
photo credit: AFBF, Big Foot Media
The nomination period for Farm Bureau’s 2024 Farm Dog of the Year Contest closes Friday. Denny Ashcraft, Kansas Farm Bureau Member and owner of Tough, the 2023 Farm Dog of the Year, says the contest is a great way to honor working dogs.
“Well, I think farm dogs are an important part of what people do on a farm, and every farm dog out there has different talents, different purposes, and they fill a big void. So, it’s a good opportunity to nominate your dog and hopefully show what they do,” he said.
Sponsored by Nestlé Purina PetCare, the Farm Dog of the Year will win a year’s worth of Purina Pro-Plan dry dog food and $5,000 in prize money. Ashcraft says there are a variety of traits that make a good farm dog.
“The original purpose for her was working and handling livestock. Then we started trialing her some, which a dog doesn’t necessarily have to be a trial dog to be a good farm dog. Besides the work she does there, she’s a great companion. She just likes to be with you. There’s a lot of roles that they fill for everybody. So, I don’t think there’s any one thing that makes a great farm dog, for each person that’s probably going to be different,” he said.
Ashcraft encourages others to nominate their dog.
“We had talked about nominating her for a while, and I suppose we’re like everybody else, you think there’s a lot of other dogs out there that would probably be a better candidate, but then we decided why not, let’s go ahead and take a chance,” he said. “And we were very surprised when we found out that we’d won. And I would say anybody that’s even remotely thinking about entering the contest, go ahead and fill it out and send it in, because you never know.”
Enter the contest through July 14 at fb.org/farmdog.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land Of Ours program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.