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Why do ranch hands move so often?

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:? I think the reality of the situation as to why most hired help in the agriculture world is moving around and not staying is due to a large part the lack of competative wages. It amazes me how many ranchers cannot afford to pay the help well but in fact drive brand new vehicles. Can't afford to pay the health insurance but never blink at going to vegas for the national finals. Can't aford so many things but yet themselves could not live on what they are expecting a hired man to live on. So I do think hired men are looking for more money and benefits. Sometimes having to give up some freedom and an understanding boss to have the higher wages and insurance.
 
CattleRMe said:
:? I think the reality of the situation as to why most hired help in the agriculture world is moving around and not staying is due to a large part the lack of competative wages. It amazes me how many ranchers cannot afford to pay the help well but in fact drive brand new vehicles. Can't afford to pay the health insurance but never blink at going to vegas for the national finals. Can't aford so many things but yet themselves could not live on what they are expecting a hired man to live on. So I do think hired men are looking for more money and benefits. Sometimes having to give up some freedom and an understanding boss to have the higher wages and insurance.
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It's good to be the king! :lol:

And if employers didn't pay lower wages, how would you get the hired help to want to improve their station in life and go buy their own cattle and place? :shock:

:oops:

Meant that for a joke, but maybe there are some out there who really feel that way.

Most guys aren't very good bosses unless they've had a boss or two. :?
 
I wouldn't work for someone who wouldn't do the job they expected me to do and wouldn't hire someone to do the jobs I won't do.

I've got a friend who feels like the hired man was the one who was hired to clean out the stalls and it's not his job to do it.

I would want someone to HELP me and not do it for me. Unless it was some specialized skill, like mechanics or farming, that I don't understand and don't seem to be able to learn. Each should do what he/she is best at.

I can understand a farmer who hires a cowboy to take care of the cattle and a rancher who hires a farmer to do the farming, but I think then it's just a case of hiring someone with more skills than you have.
 
I honestly can say I don't believe (with that one exception) any of our moves were about money. Once OH even asked upfront why a guy was willing to pay so much more than other nearby outfits. That should have been a red flag.
There are an awful lot of places that don't get the school bus, too far to town to let the wife work, don't give beef, no insurance, etc.
But mostly, the pay is too low for a fella to have to take any crap :mad:
on the other hand, there are things, like the badlands at sundown, on which no price can be placed.
 
And if employers didn't pay lower wages, how would you get the hired help to want to improve their station in life and go buy their own cattle and place?

Jinglebob, I realize you know the very idea is a joke, but you're right, there are plenty of people in this world who have asked us, "Why don't you guys just buy your own place?" :???: :roll:

I always have to ask, have you ever looked into the actual logistics of getting started when you have nothing? No parents backing you, no land, no stock, etc?
Most ranche jobs these days are straight wages. The places that offer benefits like meat or the chance to run a few cattle are getting few and far between. There's no chance to build collateral.

We've looked at this a number of times over the years. It just can't be done to the point of being able to buy a place that would support a family. Even with Ma's proverbial "job in town." He'd still have to have another job, too, to pay bills...
If someone with nothing wants to actual work in this business, he's going to have to work for someone else.

Fair? Probably not. But then life's not fair, it just is.


why shouldn't they be asked before a man moves his family, lock, stock and barrel to a new ranch?

We have precisely the same thought, FH. In fact, my husband has asked for references from potential employers several times. He always prefaces the request with, "I realize this is unsual..."
One absentee owner was really put out at the very notion. We decided if that was too much to ask, we probably wouldn't be happy there. :wink:
This place (or rather the ranch in SD), we talked to every hand on the ranch (8 at the time) to get a feel before he hired on.

health insurance

Lt, there are self-insurance options... We've been self-insured since I fell off my parent's policy back in college.
It can be fairly pricey, but so long as you go major med with high deductibles, it beats the heck out of paying for the life-flight to Rapid City to stablize the stone threating to shut down your left kidney.
($25G the whole thing ran us. Or rather, ran BlueCross. We paid about $2G.)

ALWAYS thinking about "Letting this or that particular person go..."


We actually have some neighbors like that. They go through a lot of help. And he rarely even has a name, he's just "our hired man." :?
 
To this day I can find a help wanted ad for the outfit, (Nicky will confirm this).

We worked for a guy once where the neighbors told us he'd had about 70 hired guys (one at a time) in the past 20 years when they started keeping track. :roll:

I wonder about your guy in the Sandhills, though. Down by Alliance?
I know of two running ads, one for a guy near Lakeside (we've had several buddies snared by this one) and one for a guy closer to Alliance...
In fact, the one closer to Alliance we hadn't noticed was a running ad until calling the fellow when we were looking to leave the farm-that-was-supposed-to-be-a-ranch south of North Platte.

The running ad by Alliance was his dad's! :lol:
 
Gotta laugh as this remonds me of a Cowhorse trainer friend that is building a place,,,,

A couple sent thier dqughter to work for him. The first two days she really just watched and he'd explain things to her. His wife had some boots that were nice but didn't fit after pregnancy they GAVE the girl. Third day she showed up wanting to know when she would be getting paid. She was going to get paid sure enough, but it struck him that she didn't realize HE usually gets paid for what she had been doing, LOL...


Then he had a Hispanic man working for him. The others had come and gone and this guy was mainly helping him build stuff. He decided he could use someone to start riding and warmong horses up for him, colling them down kinda deal. The guy had been good so he gave him a chance. He really liked what the guy did as he didn't come with bad iding habits and would follow instructions quickly.

Well....Dave decided he needs to get back to building pens and finish the place up to bring more horses in. He says orlando started copping an attitude and making comments. he thought he'd encourage him by offering to take him into town and getting some better riding boots. Orlando started off by saying,"I no see why...You see me riding??? I no riding..."


LOL, we decided it must really be the shoes,


BTW, most owners wives could tell you why we leave, lol

PPRM
 
:? I think in most cases the good bosses are the ones who built their own operations and had to work for others. They know what it's like to pinch pennies and work to build an operation. But I think we all know that it's getting harder for people not born into it to get started in this modern age. Plus in these Sandhills of Nebraska we have the big boys coming in like Turner, the Mormans, and the 4th largest feeder in Nebraska buying up the land. How does the average rancher or a hired man compete? :???:

theHiredManswife- I know of the operation by Lakeside. The neighbors say that operation always has three hired men, one hired man is moving out, one is unpacking, and one is trying to find a way to leave. :x
 
Faster horses said:
Hey, Jinglebob~do you have the poem Jody Strand did several years ago about "The Hired Man"? I don't have a copy, wish I did because this would sure be a good place to post it.
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No, I ain't got a copy. You live next door to her, get one and put it on this thread. It's pretty apt.
 
in these Sandhills of Nebraska we have the big boys coming in like Turner, the Mormans, and the 4th largest feeder in Nebraska buying up the land. How does the average rancher or a hired man compete?

I don't know that it makes a lick of difference when it comes to buying, at least not for someone who doesn't already have something--but I do know that Turner, for example, has really mixed reviews. I've known a number of folks who have either worked on one of his ranches (in NE and SD), or been offered a job and have yet to hear anyone who wants to work for him, or go back.

And yeah, I'll bet we're thinking of the same Mr. E down by Lakeside. We had a buddy that went to college in Chadron because of Mr. E. Originally from Illinois, he found that job listing somewhere and hired on. Within a week he was looking for better options. And decided college was it. :lol:

Another buddy was from eastern Nebraska and didn't know diddley about ranching but really wanted to. He hired on to Mr. E's, lasted two entire months (with no heat in the middle of winter-- All they had in the bunkhouse was the gas stove!). He camped on our couch for a month after telling the boss where to stick it. But at least he had some cattle experience with which to get a better job. :)
 
I do think those big guys coming in does in fact have an effect on people wanting to buy the land. I know of instances where hired men built up cow heards and adventually found someone wanting to sell that would finance them. However with the money sitting right there ready to be taken the day of one guy helping another in I think is over.


As far as Turner I'm all for him bring him on. He brings jobs and it's that many less acers that are running cattle. I'd think that when he can take 5,000 head out of the local market it has got to help prices. I also have seen he's bringing young familes back to dieing communitites. With those families also childeren helping out the local school situation.
 
I always find it amusing reading the neighbor's ad looking for a hired man. They list all these things, looking for a self motivated cowboy, etc, when what they want is someone who does not think for themselves, but rather waits for orders, before heading to the tractor or the granery and the five gallon pails. :roll: We quit keeping track of names a long time ago, and often they have come and gone without us ever meeting them. I think people who have never had to work for someone else for their living tend to make very poor bosses. Working for someone else makes you appreciate good and fair treatment.
 
The fellow we got the pup from on my avatar worked for Turner in Nebraska until late last summer, so you are right that he does have some help there. But on many places he sure cut the numbers way down.

Turner had bought the Snowcrest Ranch in Montana where this fella's dad worked and he let most of those hands go. This guy went to Oregon for awhile and Turner hired him from there. He didn't stay long with him in Ne.
 

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