by Lane Campbell on Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:44 pm
Hi, I'm Lane and live in south central Louisiana. I run a stocker cattle operation, manage a feedmill, and do some nutrition
work. After college I managed dairy operations in south Mississippi and north Louisiana and a beef cow/calf operation in
east Texas. After spending years working for others I decided it might be better to work for myself. For about 20 years I have been buying 3-4 wt. calves at several local sales, work them, straighten them out, put on about 400#'s and market in 50,000#
loads. I also run about 50 ewes (hair sheep) to graze behind the calves.
My dogs have to "dog-break" calves weekly and work calves daily. They also move my sheep onto pasture and back into their
nite pen. About 4 or 5 times a year I attend cowdog trials. I keep about 5 dogs- usually one simi-retired, a couple working, and
a couple I am training on. I have had dogs for about 40 years and have tried several breeds, but my dog of choice is a Border
Collie. I expect a lot out of my dogs as I usually work cattle alone, typically in groups of from 1 to 200 head, and living in
Louisiana we see a lot of heat, mud, and other things that can be hard on a dog. Unlike what a lot of folks think, my trained
dogs don't bite unless I ask them to, and there are only 2 places to bite a cow (end of nose, below rear hocks). I expect my
dogs to have a "turn-off" switch. I pay close attention to breeding and bloodlines, but I think getting and making a really good
dog is still a "crapshoot". I have never had a perfect dog, but I'm still looking.