Hi. I live in Indiana currently, but am hoping to get out west this spring. I am hoping to find work on a ranch or stockyard. If anyone on here is in the ranching business could give me some info, that would be great. How hard is it to find jobs on cattle ranches? Guest ranches? Pay? Experience needed? Any info anyone can provide would be great.

Matt

 

finding the work isn't as bad as the surviving on what most of them can pay. I last had a job in South Dakota on a ranch a few years ago on a ranch, they supplied the housing, and I got $1000 a month. That was before taxes. If you want to make a little better money, and like working cattle, you'll do better at the stockyards. Pick up a farm and ranch magazine, you'll find a few ads there looking for help. They like for you to have worked cattle before, and ag experience is a plus. There is a reason most city slickers don't make it, the hours can be long and gruelling, and work isn't all that easy, you don't just punch a time card and go home, there are times that you have to go out in the night to put the cattle in, or storms moving in so you have to get them in from the pasture. Main ranch areas will be Nebraksa, South Daokta, North Dakota, Montana and some in Wyoming. It's pretty dry the further west you go, so the ranches need more ground to feed the cattle, so are spread out more. Many of the jobs can be hard to find, as local ads are all they have to try and find help. I worked 2 ranches out there, and with a family, it just wasn't enough, and hacd to leave it. I grew up raising cattle, and had my life full of experience. Horse riding skills are a plus as well, because there are many areas that you can't effectively access any other way.