FARMINGTON – Eleven-year-old Ashlie Hardy held tight to a rope Monday as she led Della, her sister Marjorie’s Ayrshire heifer, toward the barn where fresh hay waited.
The freshly washed Della looked around at the hundreds of schoolchildren visiting the Farmington Fair on Agriculture Education Day.
Hardy of Farmington held tight as Della tried to stray and then walked the heifer around in a circle. A few more feet and around the two went again.
“It slows her down,” Hardy said. “It lets her know who’s in charge.”
Hardy said she has been working with animals at the family farm ever since she could walk.
Her heifer, a 2-year-old Holstein named Leanna, waited in line to get washed.
Hardy’s job was to take the animals from the barn to the wash area one at a time and then bring a clean one back to the barn.
Her mother, Teresa Hardy, had the duty this time to hose each animal down and scrub when necessary.
The Hardy children planned to show the animals Monday night.
They’re a lot of work, Ashlie said, as she led another heifer to the station.
“When they’re in a pen so long they get really dirty and then you have to to spend some time and clean them,” the sixth-grader said.
As Hardy approached the wash station with her brother Andrew’s heifer, who appeared to have some attitude, Hardy said to her mother, “Mom, I don’t think I like this one.”
Then it was Leanna’s turn for a wash and then Hardy returned it to the barn.
“It’s fun,” she said of farming. “You get to see the animals practically whenever you want. You always have a friend in the barn. Whenever something goes wrong, you can always talk to your friend, which is your animal.”
Comments are no longer available on this story