It’s a farmer’s life at the Kent County Show
I don’t think I’d like to be a farmer. It might be nice driving those giant combine harvesters around a field filling up trucks with corn as the summer sun beats down.
But I would imagine life can be pretty bleak in the winter, plodding through fields kneedeep in mud or shivering in the snow.
However, I thought I’d see how the other half lives and braved the traffic to visit the Kent County Show.
If you ignored the animals, it was pretty good.
I know many people went to cuddle a cow, pet a pig or stroke a sheep but for me the fun was in the arena where an Aussie chap was demonstrating how to herd ducks with two collie dogs.
That seemed much more entertaining than watching sheep bleat their way around a paddock.
“Come-by,” yelled the Australian and instantly one of his hounds switched direction. He snarled at a second dog with a strange sounding grunt and the animal dropped to the floor.
Children were plucked from the audience and asked to help while the ducks did what ducks do and quacked a lot as they were driven up a set of steps and then pushed into a pool of water.
The children were told that if all the ducks hit the water they would receive a prize. “When you leave the ring, your parents will buy you an ice cream,” he announced. I liked the man’s style.
Unfortunately, not all ducks went for a swim. One took a short cut and flew onto the grass. The man beamed. “Well, that’s that,” he said. “They didn’t all go in the water so you don’t get a prize. That’s life. Get used to it.”
In these days, when it is hard for youngsters to do any wrong in the classroom and burglars get a rap on the knuckles, I found his down-toearth attitude quite refreshing.
I’m not sure what the youngsters thought about this rather harsh treatment in the ring but millenials are going to have to learn to toughen up.
They could join the Army, Navy or Air Force. Or they could become farmers...
‘He snarled at a second dog with a strange sounding grunt and the animal dropped to the floor’