Media release – 20th August 2019
The 11 dogs vying for the title of Australia's hardest working farm dog have put in a tremendous effort in the first week of the 2019 Cobber Challenge.
South Australian dog Jed clocked up more than 200 kilometres to put him in the overall leader position at the end of week one.
The Border Collie covered an impressive 213km over 32 hours in the first week, to record an average speed of 6.57 km/hour during the time he was working.
Jed's strong performance comes as no surprise to his owner Peta Bauer, who said when they previously worked on a smaller property he'd run behind the ute, going paddock to paddock, to burn off extra energy.
Peta and Jed work on a property near Kingston, in South Australia's south east, with 25,000 sheep and 1,500 cattle.
Most of their work has involved sheep in the past week. The team has been busy moving the Merinos through the yards for jetting to protect against flies and giving them injections against diseases, in preparation for lambing. They've also moved stock around the farm.
Jed is one of four adult dogs that help Peta and her husband.
"We knew Jed did a lot but it's amazing to see just how much. He's got very good cover and a huge cast, he'll keep going until he's found all the stock," Peta said.
She says the four-year-old Jed is an easy-going dog when he's not working.
In second place at the end of the first week is Queensland competitor, Bonnie. The four-year-old Kelpie recorded 178km over a total time of almost 26 hours in the first week, to achieve an average speed of 6.94 km/h.
Her owner, Sam Wright says Bonnie's been a big help mustering cattle including replacement heifers and a few cows to preg-test.
Since last Monday, the 11 dogs have wearing a GPS collar recording how far, fast and long they have been working each day. The Cobber Challenge runs for three weeks until Sunday 1st September.
Ian Moore, Group Marketing Manager of Ridley which produces Cobber dog food, says the impressive work done all competitors highlighted the importance of working dogs to Australian farms.
Cobber Working Dog Food provides the fuel for the dogs competing in the Cobber Challenge as well as thousands of others working hard every day around the country.
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