Feedlot Penriding

[Sacred_Petra]

Anyone ever done it? Anyone know about “average” (which I know can be pretty flexible depending on shipping trucks) hours, pay, work environment?

I’m having trouble finding a job in the more normal sectors (sales, waitressing, pet sitting, fast food, etc.), but there are a lot of feedlots in the area, and I have a pretty ag oriented resume, so I’m tempted to apply at those. I know it’ll be more of a long shot since I’m a girl, but I’m getting to the point where I need to start looking at long shots. I know it smells, is god awfully hot in summer and miserably freezing cold and wet in winter, often involves very early mornings loading trucks, and involves a good bit of physical labor, but I can live with those things as long as I’m making something close to minimum wage.

[Bluey]

How much do you know about cattle?

The local feedlots are sending their cowboys to these seminars:

https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/tab1.aspx?EventID=1544956

You can get an idea of what is involved by reading thru that.
If hired, it will take some time with a mentor showing you how to ride pens and work cattle in those, how to work with the doctoring crew or in a smaller feedlot, you are the doctoring crew.

You work horseback most of the time, but when it is too slick or frozen for the horses, you have to walk your pens on foot.

There are some women pen riders and in the feedlot rodeos, they tend to do very good, sorting and roping.
They are not taken for granted, they carry their weight just as everyone else does.

Why not go see what is offered in your area?
You may find a job in the office or mill also, feedlots employ all kinds of people.

[cowboymom]

I talked with a young lady today whose job it was to help the ranchers do the tons of paperwork required with selling their cows. She works for a cattle buyer and deals with the ranchers; sort of a buyer’s assistant. I have no idea how she got the job but she loved it; away from the desk a lot of the time, meeting lots of different people and busy though it was a lot of paperwork! I met her b/c our grain elevator was the only internet in town she could use to copy her paperwork. There are scads of ag jobs… but this one was a little unique.

Feedlot work is pretty hard core; you need to know cows as well as you do horses.

[Sacred_Petra]

Thanks for the link Bluey, that seminar sounds really interesting! I’d be interested in going to something like that just to learn about it. I admit I do not know as much abut cattle as I probably should to be considering applying to work at a feedlot. We covered cattle in some of my college courses (feeds and feeding and animal science, but I didn’t take Amy if the in depth cattle courses), but I would definitely need to work with someone experienced as I have minimal experience with doctoring cattle and working them in a non-show setting.

Cowboymom, that does sound like a really unique and interesting job! I wonder what get educational background was.

I think I may take a resume down to the local feedlot and see if they might have an opening somewhere I could work. So long as I’m polite and professional it probably can’t hurt.

[Bluey]

Well, feedlots are to humans a very dusty, smelly place, but they do, at least here, pay fair and have health insurance and after working for them some time, pension participation.

Good feedlots have people working there for three generations now, others have a large turnout.

Hope you find one that is well run and worth to work for and learn.
If working as a pen rider, they will pair you with an experienced one for a while before they give you a section of your own, so you can catch up with what you may lack in knowledge in a hurry.

You have to help ship cattle when the slaughter plant needs them, at times that may be 3 in the morning, or whenever.

Feedlots have been losing tons of money for three years, many have closed, but then cattle prices turned around last fall and have not quit climbing since and right now are making plenty, although it will take some years to get back what they lost.
The drought didn’t help by cutting cattle numbers down greatly, one reason why they are now so high.

I expect most older feedlots that have lasted thru the last bloodbath are good ones, well managed and worth working for.

Do you have your own horses that will work for feedlot pen riding?
If not, you may have to scramble to find some, three generally make it work for you.
Most feedlots don’t furnish horses, each pen rider has to bring their own.

If you know how to weld, you may find work in pen maintenance.
Then there is the mill, or driving a feed truck.

Just go see what you think of it all, nose pin helpful, but not necessary if you work there, you get used to the smell.

[Belmont]

[QUOTE=Sacred_Petra;7712305]
Thanks for the link Bluey, that seminar sounds really interesting! I’d be interested in going to something like that just to learn about it. I admit I do not know as much abut cattle as I probably should to be considering applying to work at a feedlot. We covered cattle in some of my college courses (feeds and feeding and animal science, but I didn’t take Amy if the in depth cattle courses), but I would definitely need to work with someone experienced as I have minimal experience with doctoring cattle and working them in a non-show setting.

Cowboymom, that does sound like a really unique and interesting job! I wonder what get educational background was.

I think I may take a resume down to the local feedlot and see if they might have an opening somewhere I could work. So long as I’m polite and professional it probably can’t hurt.[/QUOTE]

From what you are saying, it’s really iffy. You need to know a lot about cattle. I’m not just talking about college classes. They are sending “cowboys” to the seminar. I am a hunter/jumper that went and worked for Flying U Rodeo Company as a senior project in high school. It’s totally different riding, but it is really fun. I did get yelled out and drilled for letting cattle get past me, riding to far in or out, and riding too far behind or ahead. I can’t rope for a lick, so I am not much use. Lucikly, I wasn’t getting paid for it. When I did land a job with them and a sub contract company, it was to take care of pick-up horses and committee horses. I can do that job!

As Bluey mentioned, you will also need a horse that can do the job. Yes, cowboys take young/problem horses to the feedlot all the time to learn, but they are also experienced in the feedlot.

There is no harm in applying and it’s worth a shot. Heck, I just applied for a job that I am really under qualified for.

[SLW]

Ditto what Belmont said- in my area horses who need wet saddle blankets are sent to Feedlot Cowboys for training and it is a way those guys make a little extra money.

If you are interested in the job then apply for the position. Stay positive and make some contacts in the cattle world in your area which may lead to something if the feed lot job does not pan out. The positive for you is this: you are a blank slate and bring no poor cattle handling habits to the table. Stress that point if you get an interview. Cattle require a special way of being handled in sale pens to keep the already high stress level quieter.

Being a girl isn’t going to ding you from getting the job because there are plenty of girls/women who work with and push cattle. Good luck!

[Pat9]

Ovaries are not a limitation, and you can learn to handle cattle. Remember that not all feedlot stock are docile. Some feedlots feed out “baloney bulls,” which are sometimes off the rodeo circuit, or simply retiring from herd duty. Baloney bulls may be sweetie pies or they may stalk you from the other side of the fence while you go down the alley, head cocked and looking for a chance to get even.

The rank bulls are usually worked only on horseback, but as you gain experience, you might be on foot around them occasionally. It’s not unheard of to get one charging a horse, either.

Baloney bulls are going to be what goes into variety meats, as their carcasses are going to be pretty gamey. This is why young bulls are turned into steers for feeding out.

Bulls of any age deserve respect. A man whom we knew all our lives, went to school with him, watched him rodeo, watched him help with rough stock at the rodeos, a man who knew broncs and bulls…was killed by a Holstein bull at his own feedlot. He turned his back on the bull while on the ground, fiddling with a gate latch, and the bull charged. It took him two days to die.

In the winter and in wet conditions, the concrete alleys and feed aprons can be slicker than snot. This is not the place to reschool your new OTTB, at least until you get comfy with herdsmanship and Cattle 101. An older, experienced (even if not much cattle experience) horse will do you better at first, and you’ll find that most, if not darn near all QHs have a little bit of cow instinct. You’ll be up and down a lot, and a shorter horse will look a lot more accessible after a long day. Even though you’ll be doing gates on horseback, there’s still going to be a lot of get-downs.
Last, don’t forget sunscreen. A layer of sunscreen, powdered cow manure and dust will make you feel pretty crusty by day’s end, but you won’t have a face that looks like your saddle.
Remember you can learn from everybody. Not every cowboy is a person of skill - some of them have a hard time herding a milk cow down an alley. You can learn from their mistakes. The biggest one is whooping and hollerin’. Move cattle like you were sending them down the aisle at a church, polite but insistent.

[rustbreeches]

DH dated a pen rider before he met me. Yes, the rider was a girl. Ditto what everybody else said about needing to know a lot about cows, and have a cowy horse. Most of the jobs I have seen around here require you to have a horse or two of your own. My neighbor is a pen rider at the feed lot down the road and he mostly just does it to get young horses a lot of mileage. But he was also the champion CO High school Tie Down roper last year. His cow handling skills are impeccable.

One plus is that a lot of ag sector guys have moved over to the oilfield, so they may be willing to work with someone completely green. Good luck!

[cowboymom]

Holstein bulls have a reputation of being mean! Poor guy!

[rustbreeches]

[QUOTE=cowboymom;7715773]
Holstein bulls have a reputation of being mean! Poor guy![/QUOTE]

We rarely run clean-up bulls because of this, but every time we do, and we need to load them up for the sale barn because they have gotten mean, DH gets run down or flipped over a fence. He always leaves it a week or two too late it seems, to handle them safely.

The guy who owned the next section over was killed by his bull. His wife called the neighbor to go check on him, because he hadn’t come back from the pen still, and that neighbor was pinned down by the bull until a third neighbor happened to come by, see what was going on and plowed through the fence and nailed the bull with his truck.

I hate when we have bulls on the place.

[goneriding24]

Good Lord, things have changed quite a bit since I rode pens (of course, back in the day). All we did was saddle up early, ride through pen, eat lunch and go back to do the rest, unsaddle and go home. Every once in a while we’d get a sick one out or pull a few that were on the way to someone’s plate and that was about it. Once in a great while we’d process a load and chase them to their pen. But a pension and all that?? That was unheard of.

The benefit I got from it was taking my young horses, which I was getting paid for, and letting them experience and work a bit. I thought it was win-win way back when.

[Aces_N_Eights]

OP I wouldn’t discourage you from applying to ride pens at a yard, all they can do is say no. I know girls that do it. If you can ride, learn fast and have a good work ethic I don’t see why you shouldn’t.
I don’t ride pens but I cowboy for a living, my husband used to work at feed yards and after we get our calves shipped and everything buttoned up for the winter he wants to go to CA for the winter and ride pens for something different to do until spring instead of pitching hay off a hay wagon.

I think it would be a great experience. You will get really good at identifying and pulling sick cattle. You will get awesome at classing cattle. Sorting, you will get fast with little very effort from you and your horse.

Bluey had some good advice and description.
The work is going to depend on whether it is a starting or finishing yard, size and their policies.
You usually provide your own horses, although hubby has worked at places that cut you a few colts or outside horses to ride, but usually pen riders take outside horses to make extra money. Sorting and making pen lot changes make for snappy horses if you savvy.
Some places have a “no roping” policy and won’t even let you pack a rope on your saddle. Others which seem to be getting fewer and farther in between expect you to rope and drag something out of the pen if you have hell getting it out. Running sick cattle round and round in a pen trying to get it to the hospital will only stress it worse and run weight off.
Days start early usually with shipping loads, then riding pens and pulling sick cattle to go to the hospital(small yards you may do the doctoring rather the vet crew), pen lot changes, maybe building loads for the next day if needed and the end of the day putting back your “go home” cattle out of the hospital.
Depending on how big the yard is you may need two horses a day. Something to think about when deciding how many horses you need to get through a week.
Days off will depend on how big the yard is and how much help they have. You may rotate days off. Full weekends off are rare.

Good Luck!

[Sacred_Petra]

Thanks for all the replies and advice! I ended up getting a different job (that will allow me to finally replace my ancient Ariats boots :yay:), but I’m definitely going to keep this in mind! The job sounds interesting. This new job will allow me to save up some money so I buy some decent feedlot horses if I were to get the job. I like working with young horses, but I’d rather learn to ride pens on an old hat. As of right now I think I’ll wait until next year to apply and see if I can get some cow handling lessons in the mean time.