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Montana Trivia

A

Anonymous

Guest
This morning on Montana Trivia on the radio they said that in 1886 during the days of open range- there were 700,000 cattle and over a million sheep grazing the open ranges of Montana...

Then the winter of 1886-87 came along and wiped almost all out...Pretty well began the end of the large absentee ranch owners on open range ....

Made me think of my favorite Charlie Russel painting-Waiting for the Chinook- or-- Last of the 5000

http://www.charlierussell.org/lastofthe5000.htm
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
During the period of the open range big ranch's in Montana -1860-1885- the average cowboy earned $30 a month wages--($1 a day-bed and board)
In 1999 (last year surveyed) the average Montana cowboy earned $10,151 a year wages or $845 a month....
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Not a real big jump in pay scale there is it LOL.....but don't most ranches up there furnish a house, and utilities, along with beef? you'd hafta figure that in as "income" even tho they never actually see the $. Still not great wages.......but....when your doin what you love it's worth it, right???

Only time I see a paycheck is when we sell calves. Guess I hafta look at it the same way them cowboys do. Mr Lilly has a monthly salary, and mine's once ever 6 mo or so. LOL
Dang......I'm a ranch hand :roll: But....he calls me "the boss" guess that hasta count for somethin hehe
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
We looked at a place in Southern Illinois that had 4 hands on it. They ran 600 cows and about that many horses too (Lots of Mustands and Draft horses) and did some farming too. One guy told me he brought home 200 a week but would be willing to stay on for less. They did get a house (they rent for very cheap down there anyways), a vehicle (800 dollar car), the use of a horse or two, and the owners paid basically all their living bills from gas to heat to electricity and they all had workmans comp.. Still, they guy worked 6 full days and 1/2 a day Sunday wth no vacation..I imagine his pay was probably in the 4-4.50 bucks an hour range even considering all the benifits..

There were people lined up waiting to take the job... NOthing else to do down there... Here we have to compete with Tyson and Walmart for wages per hour... You can get someone for min wage but you get what you pay for as the saying goes.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
When we worked on ranches in the early 60's we made $200 month
in the summer and $150/month in the winter. Summer was 3 months
and winter was 9 months. We then changed jobs to go to work for the fellow that eventually helped us get started on our own. He allowed us to have some chickens and a milk cow. We sold milk and eggs. I had a regular route delivering milk and eggs to town. He paid us $225/month and I will never forget the take-home pay: $216.83.

Our first investment in cattle: $750 for 6 hereford heifer calves.
We borrowed the money from the bank.

We had some friends that worked on a ranch and they were to get
their meat, milk and eggs furnished. The man always joked that
he had to milk the cow for the milk, gather the eggs for the eggs,
and furnish the bullet for the meat. :wink:
 
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