Everyone has their own take on this, here is my opinion. Scotch Collies were bred to be exactly the kind of dog you are describing. They herd, they hunt, they guardian, they have a great temperament and are wonderful with children. The size of the dogs wold be a factor in what you are looking for so I would shoot for the top end of the breed for size so they can hold their own better in a fight. There are all types of breeds, and each one was bred for a specific purpose. The lab was bred to hunt, the doberman bred to be a guard dog, the german shepherd breed that was imported to the US was a guard/ police dog. If you want to hunt coyotes get a greyhound. They all have their purpose and their place. I raised german shepherds for 35 years and thought they were the smartest dogs around, then I had to get rid of them when we moved to the farm and got livestock. We had a shepherd kill a 400 pound registered calf we sold him to a guy who had a salvage yard and needed a good guard dog. Some of our shepherd puppies ran a goat to death, It happened to be the full blood brother to the previous years national grand champion doe. An expensive mistake, they weren't trying to kill it, they were just playing, but they chased it till it dropped dead from exhaustion and heat in the summer sun. At that point I said the dogs have to go or the livestock have to go, this isn't working!
Through research and a bit of divine providence we discovered the Scotch Collies. The were purpose bred to be the ideal farm dog. Other breeds are derived from the original Scotch Collie lines, the Australian shepherds were Scotch Collies crossed with Dingos, the Border Collies and English Shepherds were crossed along the border between Scotland and England, etc. The point of all of my rambling is this. If you need a farm dog, pick a breed that was bred to be a farm dog. If you need a livestock guardian dog, get a breed that was bred for that, if you need a guard dog, get a guard dog breed. Don't get an AKC show collie! They have been bred for the show ring, not the farm. My wife had one when we got married. Most of them have had the things that make for a good farm dog bred out of them a long time ago.
Our dogs are great a herding anything from chickens and ducks, to sheep, to beef cattle. They guardian over the farm and alert you if anything is amiss, they are intuitive and have a great temperament. They will chase off or attack anything that doesn't belong on your farm. Our male Arch attacked a pit bull that was digging under our fence to get to the goats. The pit tried to grab him by the neck but just came away with a mouth full of fur and a damaged ear, the pit went for the neck again, and came away with another mouth full of fur and my dog took off most of his left ear, he decided to leave then and didn't come back that I know of.