Ag Heritage Contest Grand Prize Winner
Lassie & the Ducks
When my grandpa was young, he never lived on a farm. He lived in a house on the fringes of town with a few scattered neighbors. The only animals they had were their ducks and their dog, Lassie. Lassie was a Border Collie that they had trained to herd their ducks. They raised their ducks to eat, and every night they had Lassie go out and round them up. When it was time for the ducks to go into their little house, my great- grandmother would go outside and call for Lassie. Lassie would come up to the house and at Grandma’s command, would chase the ducks into their hut. If my great-grandmother wanted to start fattening up a duck for a holiday such as Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving dinner, she would tell Lassie to chase the ducks up to the house. Grandma would pick out which duck she wanted, then she would start force feeding it, because that is the only way you can fatten a duck. They stop eating when they aren’t hungry anymore, unlike chickens who eat as much food as you give them.
When she was done, she could point at the ducks and Lassie would scatter them back out into the yard. They had Lassie for ten years before she got sick and died. The ducks remembered her though, so whenever Grandma would go out and yell for Lassie, all the ducks would run to the hut by themselves. They did that for years, even ducks that had been born after Lassie had died would follow the others back to the hut. The tradition was passed down, and for years and years after Lassie was gone, all my Grandma had to do was call for her and the ducks would come in. Eventually, there were no ducks who had been alive when Lassie was around, but it had been passed down from the ones who were, so they still came when Grandma called for Lassie.
Kate-Lynne Hartley
FFA Ripley High School
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