Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #13: Never a Dull Moment
One of the biggest challenges of ranching and cowboying for a living is the variety of tasks one must be proficient at in order to keep a ranch going.
The list of necessary skills on a ranch is not short: range management, advanced accounting, market analyzation, doctoring, horse training, nutrition, roping, stock handling, governmental relations, welding, mechanics, fencing, public relations, neighbor relations, plumbing, electrical, budgeting, irrigation, farming, framing, human resources, and tack repair. And if you ranch, there’s no question you can add to this list based on your own experiences!
But while the learning curve for this profession can be burdensome, the versatility acquired and the variety of work available makes this aspect of ranch life an overall plus on the balance sheet.
Sometimes on a ranch, a certain task must be done. Feeding cows after a blizzard, putting up hay before a rain, or branding calves before they’re too big. But for much of the year, day-to-day tasks are flexible. Maybe you trotted through the stocker cattle first thing. Until the noon meal you could weld on that new set of corrals. Maybe in the evening it’ll be time to begin breaking that colt.
Needing a break from all that manual labor, maybe the next day consists of putting out mineral and checking water. If a rain storm comes in and forces inside work, there are always bills to pay, budgets to develop, and maybe even emails to return.
One of the most attractive aspects of ranching is the fact that it’s never boring. If one aspect becomes too rote, there’s a multitude of other aspects of the career that you can dive into. If you’re laid up from a horse wreck, you can educate yourself on industry trends, build tack, or plan a new grazing rotation for next year.
Maybe the wintertime gives you cabin fever. Cattlemen’s associations are always looking for producers to become more involved. Join up and make a difference. Get off the place and see other producers to share ideas and experiences. Get in leadership and the next thing you know you’ll be taking the family to a convention in some big city for a vacation.
But for those times you need solitude, ranch work can provide that as well. Checking fence can give a guy plenty of time to ponder the meaning of life.
I hear about professionals reinventing themselves every 10 years or so with new careers and new challenges. But for a rancher, he can reinvent himself every day, week, month, year, or decade and never stop learning about his craft, building on his legacy, and providing for his family.
