• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Average Salary for Ranch hands

Help Support Ranchers.net:

N

needtolearn

Active member
Joined
Apr 4, 2006
Messages
36
Reaction score
0
Location
Jackson County
Hello, I'm just running my own little survey here. Trying to get a fix on the average salaries for ranch hands in the western South Dakota region.

I realize that salary consists of more than cash in hand. If you don't mind sharing, I would greatly value the input.

Many thanks.
 
in this area, we are more farm / ranch with more on the farm side of it, but the guys are earning from 22 to 30 thousand. Ive heard alot of guys just ranching only making 17 to 20. but I am guessing there are perks that are included in there.
 
Around here I've heard from 1200 to 1500 a month, with housing provided and on one place all the food also. But on that one, the wife does pretty much all the cooking and cleaning for the boss, too.

Most places around here are family ranches and thewre are few hired hands. We all neighbor a lot. I like it that way. Woo hoo, brandin' season is about to start!

One young feller who just moved a little further east is getting 2000 or 2200 a month for a straight ranch job. Housing provided and I thnk insurance also. Thats why he moved. :wink:

Plus he get to run all the horses he needs for the job and it sounds like he can sure keep 3 or 4 rode down pretty good during calving and riding on cattle during the summer.
 
farm hands do make quite a bit more than ranch hands (on average). Anyone have a guess why that is? :???:


Anyway, the boss's ranch up on Standing Rock is currently paying a couple of the younger, single guys $1400 plus house/utilities/work pickup. The older guys with families are getting more in the range of $1900-$2200. (Of course the higher end is for the guys that have been around a while...)
No insurance, retirement, or chance to run cattle. Horses are fine.

Woo hoo, brandin' season is about to start!
Click to expand...
Ours is Saturday. 8)




(And I still need to finish cleaning the house, get the garage all cleaned out for the picnic tables and chairs, and COOK! :shock: )
But on Saturday I'll be ready to have fun. :D
 
theHiredMansWife said:
farm hands do make quite a bit more than ranch hands (on average). Anyone have a guess why that is?
Click to expand...

Yep, because the lifestyle is different. There's nothing romantic or peaceful about working 14-18 hr days in the heat of summer when a pivot's down or the crops need to go in/come out. That, plus most farm operations that have a hired hand expect the hired man to take care of the cattle in the winter, so there's no break there. At least that's what I think...
I know of long-term relationships that a hired hand is pushing $50K-$60K in total compensation, plus retirement matching contributions. Most experienced farm hands will start out at $30K and move up from there, at least on places worth working for.
Phil

EDIT: Those hired hands are farm hands. Not ranch hands.
 
How many times have you been working horseback on a great day and thought "Ah what a life..."

And how many times has a farmhand thought the same thing...

And which would you rather do, work for a ranch for $25K or a farm for $30K? That answer's the question of why... because people just seem to be willing to take less to work on a ranch than on a farm. That's a line of thought that just baffles me. If you're working for someone else, a job's a job. Period. I think it would be easier to just win the lottery. :wink:

Of course, what a lot of beginners forget/don't know about that $25K is that they get to earn it all in the middle of Feb pulling calves at 3:00 AM. :lol:
 
Pk~ I have to agree with HMW. I think you must not realize that ranching is just as busy as farming.

My father and grandfather were farmers, so I know that side of things, and I married a rancher's son.

I can't honestly think of a time when there isn't work to do as a ranch hand. The number of outfits where a cowboy doesn't have to do any form of farming at all are rare and getting more so I'll reckon.

The majority of ranch hands have to do it all. They feed hay all winter while some work horses to prepare for the calving and branding season. Then there's calving, which you're usually doing while still carrying the workload of feeding. Then you start branding, and you don't just do it for yourself, you're juggling getting sent here and there to help the neighbors. And when you get home at night, theres still things to do, like getting the equipment ready for haying.

Then you guessed it, you're haying, and the cows are needing to be rotated, and once again you're helping your neighbors with theirs. Then its hay hauling time, meanwhile you're preg checking. And then before you know it its weaning time, hauling the cattle to market, holding your breathe, hoping the banker will smile when you go into his office, and you're right back to winter feeding. I can't honestly think of a lull in a ranch hand's schedule. I have to drag my hubby away for a week at my folks over Christmas.

I can't say why it is that farm hands and ranch hands have such differences in salary. I don't begrudge the farm hand his good fortune, and I'm sure he earns it, and as long as he's as happy as my husband and all the folks we work around, I guess it can just be one of those mysteries of the universe we never solve.
 
LOL too true PK. We had a friend over helping us with some dirt work. He'd just finished 2months of night calving for a local outfit, and he was say how he'd never do that again.

We spend our time over coffee coming up with different ways you could trick a boss into paying you more for your work that would make it worth the misery. Not sure we found a cunning enough idea. There's nothing in the world more cunning than a cattle boss, unless its a cattle buyer lol.
 
And which would you rather do, work for a ranch for $25K or a farm for $30K? That answer's the question of why... because people just seem to be willing to take less to work on a ranch than on a farm.
Click to expand...

Well that's the simple question of what do you want to do for a living?
My husband, for example, has his Bachelor's degree in ag. biz.
People he graduated with that have the same degree are doing things like managing John Deere dealerships, ag. loan officer in a bank, managing a Co-Op, etc. All of which earn considerably more than he does as a ranch manager. Most of whom put in fewer hours and labor, too.
But he's doing exactly what he wants at the moment, and is making less because that's just the nature of his occupation.

However, there are people who are equally happy to be farming as we are ranching. And I've seen both enough to know, also, that the labor, the hours, the positives balancing the negatives, etc. are pretty similar.
 
Up here your not going to make anything <$1200 a month>with a pure riding job.
I only know of a half dozen outfits that are big enough to hire cowboys.
There are lots of grazing associations that take bids on contract riders but from what I have heard the bids are so low that you would be silly to do it.
Then there are the rich absentee owner who hires a guy to do the ranch work. But then as soon as there are losses he gets fired. Much easier to fire someone than to admit you are wrong. Example I know one guy who was expected to calve out 650 calves with no help, no feed, no vacilities, no gear except his string of horses and his rope. They had a hard winter, they had big loses. Haha So they fired him as if somebody else could have done better<rolling my eyes>
Feedlots pay good but who wants to ride in a feedlot?
 
There's alot of town jobs that don't pay much better,No house,no beef and no benefits.
 
Seems to be the average around here is 1200 - 1500 with not a lot else then housing. A few let them run 10 head of cows and a few still do beef. If you consider Turner a rancher he gives benefits, housing, and two weekends off a month not sure of the money though.
 
CattleRMe said:
Seems to be the average around here is 1200 - 1500 with not a lot else then housing. A few let them run 10 head of cows and a few still do beef. If you consider Turner a rancher he gives benefits, housing, and two weekends off a month not sure of the money though.
Click to expand...

I think that'd be about average here too, in Wyoming. Maybe even a little lower for some.

What sort of income do ranch managers make in various places?
 
We've seen about 26K-50K, starting salary DOE (house/utilities of course)
The higher end seem to be mountain ranches on tax-write-off operations.

Lower seems to be more likely to be a ranch that is expected to turn a profit.
 
Well during my cowboy days I used to like those bosses who blamed the whole deals lack opf profitability on the minimum wage I was getting paid-I was worth every penny of it lol. Up here if guys don't pay competitive wages they flat out lose their men to the oilfield or logging business.
 

Latest posts

Top