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Wow... wish I had of posted some info about my background before getting bashed into near submission. So... here is a little bit concerning my background for anyone else who may wish to take offense to my question. I am now 28 yrs old. Started riding Quater Horses at the age of 2 and at 5 I was working the 300 head of black baldy cattle under the Rockin "O" brand of my grandfather (may he rest in peace). By the age of 7 I was imprinting my first colt (he was a Peppy / Doc bred Dun horse colt in case you were wondering). At the age of 9 I was just getting a saddle on him as well as three other 2 yr old fillies I wanted for my own string. Finished them out at the age of ten. By 16 I had finished out probably in the neighborhood of 21, 2 yr olds that eventually went on to bigger and better places. It was at that time I also went to work for Cook Brothers Farms. A 10,000 acre row crop operation (5,000 of which were irrigated by Valley Pivots sourced from the Cumberland River) based out of my home town. The crops were white corn, soybeans, wheat and grain sorguim. Worked there for exactly 6 yrs averaging about 85 hrs pr week and operating any and every type of equipment you can imagine. Oh.. and I was still handling things on the Rocking "O" as I had before. Next ,rather than going ahead and pursuing my dream to head out west and obtain my degree and some great experience, I felt it my duty to join the Marine Corps and do my part to help protect our great nation in a time of war. Now that I am close to having my obligation filled to the Corps and America I am ready to try and continue the life that I started, only in a place that may offer better oppurtunities. I'm not saying that I am a horse whisperer or a cattle baron so please don't get me wrong, I'm just a "Green Hand Wannabe" looking to work hard, make an honest living, get an education and learn more about being a better Horseman and Cattleman from the people who wrote the book.
( P.S. Any one who is lost to this POST please refer to the Post " Trying to find a job Ranching..." by WyorBust.)
WyoOrBust, NWC has a STRONG ag / equestrian program & I would bet they would be able to help you find work that you could do. There are a LOT of horse ppl out here that need trainers or just ppl to help care for them - esp if they are out of town a lot & may even provide you with bunking. https://www.wyomingatwork.com/ may help you out. It sure seems that somebody made a lot of assumptions in your prior post - glad you made THIS one! Good luck!!!!
Wyoorbust,
I just reread your original post and wanted to say I think you have misunderstood sunsprit's point...
I don't see anywhere that he was trying to "bash" you. He was giving you an honest opinion and had care and concern for the workload as well as schedule you would have to bear and answered your question based on the information you shared at the time. Provide as much detail as possible and that helps further misunderstandings...
No one is bashing your service to our country or you past experience as a Rancher...
The harsh reality however is it is hard in Wyoming in some places right now. There are booms that take up housing in some towns... Wyoming may be one of the "cheaper" places for fuel in the country, but housing, food and living are expensive.
Now Powell may not be as bad as some places in Wyoming like Gillette, Sheridan or Pinedale....
But Ranching is not cheap anymore, it is getting harder and harder for people to get into the business... Boy do I wish it was the good old days again, my husband and I would ranch and farm in a heart beat.
We will be lucky to get an acre or two outside of Buffalo.
I hope that helps some... Please understand this is a forum though and it is easy to misunderstand the tone of everyone's posts so always take them with a grain of salt. There are a lot of wonderful people in this forum that would give you the shirt off their backs and we all will help as much as we can help you to relocate to Wyoming...
But this state isn't completely sheltered from the bad economy in this country right now... One thing we do have is plenty of work though... but sometimes it requires working in several jobs as stepping stones or learning a trade first and working your way into ranching...
A an old co-worker of my husband's has a ranching family... but he had to learn HVAC and is slowly investing till he can do ranching full time.. It will take him years, and his wife is going to nursing school... but he has a small chunk of land and a small herd of cattle I think like 40 head of cattle to start with... and in 5-10 years will be trying to start ranching...
Feel free to ask away any questions you might have we all would be more than happy to try to help you out...
Last edited by Kristynwy; 06-09-2008 at 11:45 PM..
Reason: added to first paragraph a sentence...
Well then, you have some real potential of getting a job.
How close are you to finishing your time in the Corps? (And thank you for serving!) Because many of the job postings I see say that they're hiring until the middle of July or August, then they're just "going to deal with what they have" until next season.
I used to own and run a farm in Nevada. Saw a lot of people come to my gate looking for a job, and here's my perspective (FWIW) on what an ag employer would like to see. NB that I wasn't a rancher - we just grew hay, we did very little livestock and no horses.
- We'd get a large number of people who were obvious (I mean really, really obvious) drunks or meth-heads. These were all sent packing without a second thought.
- Then we'd get the big talkers - the kids that thought they knew it all and they were "here to save me." Very annoying at times. They're not looking at my books, I am. If I've got my eye on the books, I've got reasons for doing some things the way I am, even if they're not immediately apparent to employees. Trust that successful ranchers and farmers have reasons for doing what they do, even if it doesn't make sense immediately. The Schedule F on the 1040 form is a maze of twisty little passages that even most accountants don't navigate correctly.
- Don't get picky about what jobs you'll do on the outfit. (This doesn't sound at all like you, so you're WAY ahead in this respect). Lots of my buddies in Nevada who were ranchers told of young guys that would show up looking for a job, and all they wanted to do was ride and move cattle. The favorite phrase of these guys was "If it can't be done a-horseback, I ain't doin' it."
Usual response of the rancher was "Well, there's the gate, best get on the other side and down the road."
There's all kinds of crappy jobs and great jobs on any ranch or farm, as I'm sure you know. Tell a rancher of your experience and tell him/her that you can do, will do, and know how to do those jobs and you're way, way, way ahead of anyone else.
Probably the most important crop skill on a ranch is putting up hay or silage, depending on how they run the outfit.
Tell a rancher that you know something about fixing equipment and you're practically walking on water.
I've seen ads around Sheridan for ranches that are looking for people to work with horses and put up hay. West (in central WY) I see more "real" farms and ranches (ie, the folks are making their living on the ranch, not running a summer-time retreat for rich out-of-staters.) It sounds like you could walk onto many real farms and be a real asset for the farmer/rancher.
The one problem you're going to find, I'm afraid, is that being a ranch hand doesn't pay much. Best deal you could hope for is room& board handled by the ranch, and maybe you get $1500 to $2500/month pay during the season.
If you'd ever consider working in Nevada and can't find a position in Wyoming, drop me a note, let's chat and see what might be available in central/northeast Nevada. I know plenty of folks in Nevada in some pretty remote (ie, both very pretty, and very remote) places. Nevada doesn't have as much fishing, hunting, etc as Wyoming, but it is some darn beautiful country.
I would say (living in Park cty myself) that Wyoorbust has a better chance finding work in this area (or maybe up in the Absaroka mountains here) than in a lot of areas of the state. There are some very large farms where the sons/daughters & husbands have moved away to pursue their own careers & whether they are horse, cow, or farming ppl, you may as a student have a decent chance of getting a job in the area with your background, esp.
Wyoorbust - Just use the skills you learned as a kid and the discipline you perfected in the Corps (I'm an old 'Nam riverboat sailor - we needed a few Marines) to introduce yourself. Be completely honest with what you will do and what you expect for doing it. While you are still in the service get in touch with the Wyoming Grange. They will have information on who is doing what and who needs hands. Good luck and Semper Fi.
WyorBust ... no "bashing" was intended in my original response ....
Thank you for your service.
As you have apparently seen, ranching type work is a lot of hours ... and, as I have seen, for very little pay. You simply must love working with livestock and all the other aspects of a ranch/farm operation above all else to seek employment in this very fickle industry. Even if you're the owner of sufficient land (through family inheiritance or independent wealth) to run cattle successfully in Wyoming, the profits are minimal even during the current cycle of "high" cattle prices. As is historically the case, it's the middlemen and the retailer who get the bulk of the profits ... not the cattle producer. There's simply not a lot of money to spread around with ranch labor. Keep in mind that Wyoming land/climate dictates about 100-120 acres per cow/calf unit to be feasible, so it takes a lot of land to be making a living in the cattle business here. If you hadn't noticed, land costs money ... an ever increasing amount with all the pressures on the Wyoming scene these days. You can't go out and buy $2,000/acre land for a business that supports $100/acre land ... which is about all a cattle operation is worth in the long term in today's pricing.
As I pointed out, I've got friends with crendentials, a background similar to yours, and 30 years ++++ of actual experience. They still get very low incomes, and are now both managing/working 50,000+++ acre operations. The one will be leaving his job soon, as he has two teenagers heading off for college (with scholarships) and he cannot afford to supplement their expenses at all. He's going to be managing an overseas "backgrounding" cattle operation, where he'll be out of the country 3 weeks each month, but the salary will at least allow him to rent a modest apartment for him and his wife here and see their children off for an education.
Good luck in your job search. Jobs are available. The question is, can you afford to take one of them ... make a living, continue school, and then make a real living afterwards as a ranch employee?
Man... That's just the type of information I need. I knew it was going to be hard to do all the things that I wanted to do. But you all have certainly enlightened my perspective. Not sure that I can ranch and go to school full time sounds like money is going to be tight. I am making a trip up in November to tour Campuses. Surely it can't hurt to knock on a few doors while up in Powell, just to see what is available, Can it? Heck, I may have to sell Avon door to door if that's what it takes and then just make freinds along the way that allow me to get my feet wet alittle at a time in the ranching. ( But it wouldn't be Avon it would be something cool like Thermous's or Vacuum's) Surely school will afford me the oppurtunity to make some great connections as well. Again, thank you all so much for your input it really helps.
Man... That's just the type of information I need. I knew it was going to be hard to do all the things that I wanted to do. But you all have certainly enlightened my perspective. Not sure that I can ranch and go to school full time sounds like money is going to be tight. I am making a trip up in November to tour Campuses. Surely it can't hurt to knock on a few doors while up in Powell, just to see what is available, Can it? Heck, I may have to sell Avon door to door if that's what it takes and then just make freinds along the way that allow me to get my feet wet alittle at a time in the ranching. ( But it wouldn't be Avon it would be something cool like Thermous's or Vacuum's) Surely school will afford me the oppurtunity to make some great connections as well. Again, thank you all so much for your input it really helps.
You are EXACTLY right in that school will give you some connections. Many ranchers who are looking for entry level type workers go to the colleges to try to find cheap help but often have housing avail for them. You'll do fine. I'd gander a guess that somebody who is wanting to do what you do isn't doing it for the big bucks - you are doing it because you love the worik & not planning to get rich at it. So, just push on - you'll make your own path. Wyo'ites tend to apprec ppl who are forthright, sure of themselves, & shake your hand. Don't stand there w/hands in pockets saying that you would be happy with whatever you can get. You feel free to let them know what is fair for what they are expecting & work it out from there. It shows self-confidence & self-value. NOT that I see you as one who would stand there moving sand w/the toe of your boot,hands in the pockets & lookng at the ground......
You are right on the money WyoMama. Money's not everything, being happy doing what you love is worth a lot more. All I need is a roof, three squares, and enough to cover my financial responsibilities till I can earn my way to making a good living, which will come in time. I also whole heartedly agree with looking an individual right in the eye with a firm hand shake. But, I do believe I'm just going to have to get real lucky to find the right employer who can accomidate my situation. (being in school full time, with bills to pay, and the cost of living) But it sure won't ever happen if I don't make it happen. Thanks for the encouragement!
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