Feedlots/Farms in KS (Wichita, Great Bend: sales, selling a house, wedding)

[farmgirl1213]

My husband and I currently live in SE Indiana but are looking to relocate to the Kansas area within the next year. He is considering a job on a ranch or feedlot and shoeing horses (he's currently a full-time horseshoer) and I am a kitchen designer, design wedding cakes and have a Degree in computers. What are the bigger feedlots in Kansas and where are they located? I am open to a career change, but where are the best places to look for employement in those fields. Are there websites or online newspapers to look in? We are planning to visit the area this fall to check it out. We want to stay away from the larger cities and be in a rural area, towns of about 5,000 people. Those of you who have horses........is there a farrier's association in the state? Thanks for any info you can give us.

[prango]

yes, there is "Kansas Farrier Association"
we could sure use another farrier in the lower southeast part of Kansas..the 620 area code, as you look at the following link, you will see there is only one farrier in that area code, and they live in Girard, Ks. ...that is way too far for me to have a farrier come in and do my horse's hooves.

http://www.farriers.com/kansas.htm[/url

I know there is a feedlot in Parsons, Ks, which is 20 miles from me...do not know details about work there thou..I probably could find out...Parsons, Ks. is a fairly good size town, but not a city like Witchita, Ks.

[mile high]

Great Bend (check out other discussions on this forum) has a couple of feedlots, one is huge!

Great Bend is 40 miles due south of Russell, which is located on I-70. If you look on a KS map you'll see the Arkansas (that's AR-KANSAS!) River making a, well, great big bend right in the middle of the state, Great Bend is right there.

It's a decent sized town but don't expect any of these towns under 50,000 (Great Bend is around 15,000 people) to have all the amenities. There's no Home Depot but there's the ubiquitous WalMart, an Ace hardware and a lumber yard. There's no italian restaurant but there are pseudo-italian sandwiches at Quizno's. Oh, and breakfast at Perkins or Granny's Kitchen is tolerable.

I've had surprisingly forthright and honest service from the biggest Ford/Chrysler dealer, Marmie's. If you drive one of them thar "furrin'" cars you'll have to go 70 miles to Hutchison for dealer service. A lot of people do just that.

The nearest "real" airport is in Wichita, but I believe there's a daily puddle-jumping turboprop vomit comet to Great Bend.

You could do worse, but then I'm selling a house there so I have to be up front about that. I'm not that desperate that I'd sell you a bill...Great Bend is small town living on the Kansas prairie. Folks are bible-belt friendly, and if you like wind and bierocks you'll love Kansas.

Cheers!

PS: If you're a compu-geek there aren't a lot of high-tech. jobs other than data entry, and maybe a sales position with OPI office products or After Hours in Great Bend. Teaching at the local Barton Co. Comm. College is another possibility. You'd probably have better luck with the wedding cakes or kitchen design. There's a pretty good segment of the population that's willing to spend bucks on either of those.