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cattlecait

cattlecait

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Mar 13, 2011
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Location
Webberville, MI
Is there anywhere to find apprenticeships in the beef industry? I'm talking on a ranch, preferably room and board, I would prefer paid. Where does one look for something like this?
 
Hi Cait!
Can you dig post holes, Splice barb wire, pull a calf, cuss the wind and rain, praise the rain, sit on the porch with a cup a coffee while waiting on the rain to stop, work in the rain, did I mention snow and ice, love a good piece of equipment, cuss a piece of dookie equipment? And all the while still love it :D
I looked at your website, you are a beautiful young lady, and wish the best of luck to you. You sound like you have goals, and I admire that in people.
Lord if this had happened 20 years ago..........
 
Ouachita":3q36xxrz said:
Hi Cait!
Can you dig post holes, Splice barb wire, pull a calf, cuss the wind and rain, praise the rain, sit on the porch with a cup a coffee while waiting on the rain to stop, work in the rain, did I mention snow and ice, love a good piece of equipment, cuss a piece of dookie equipment? And all the while still love it :D
I looked at your website, you are a beautiful young lady, and wish the best of luck to you. You sound like you have goals, and I admire that in people.
Lord if this had happened 20 years ago..........
Click to expand...
Wow... You're picky :D . Right now I'd settle for someone that knows how to dig post holes. I can teach the rest... I'd be happy to teach someone how to dig the post holes and let them try a few by themselves right about now... Who am I kidding, I'd settle for someone to help me unload posts and then watch me put them in by myself...

Cait, at least around here, ranchers are fairly open to people who want to learn and a whole lot of work gets done by neighbors helping each other for free so it's hard to offer yourself up as paid help when you're learning. Try offering yourself as free help to someone in your area that has a good reputation and let it grow from there. I know of at least two top hands that got started by just "want to" and wanted it bad enough that someone helped them get to the point where they were marketable as cowboys. One of them has leased ground and runs forty mommas that were paid for with cowboy wages...
That being said, the world will bend over backwards to help someone that "wants to"... Keep it up. ;-)
 
I don't know much, but I'm willing to learn! Right now the extent of my knowledge is how to pull a bale apart and throw it to some heifers...

My only problem is that where I am in southeastern Michigan there isn't much for beef. LOTS of dairy farms. There is one beef ranch but I've emailed them, called twice, and tried to talk to the operators at their latest sale, and no luck at all. No responses, nothing! Would it be crazy just to find some folks' websites and email them? Would that be considered creepy or constructive?
 
cattlecait":1t2wh39v said:
I don't know much, but I'm willing to learn! Right now the extent of my knowledge is how to pull a bale apart and throw it to some heifers...

My only problem is that where I am in southeastern Michigan there isn't much for beef. LOTS of dairy farms. There is one beef ranch but I've emailed them, called twice, and tried to talk to the operators at their latest sale, and no luck at all. No responses, nothing! Would it be crazy just to find some folks' websites and email them? Would that be considered creepy or constructive?
Click to expand...

Constructive. Positive. Here's my persepctive: Lots of kids can't wait for the old man to kick the bucket so they can sell off the family farm. It has been seen way too many times already. Someone your age with interest is a positive to most of the older generation. Talking the talk is one thing but walking the walk is another. Your words (although limited) imply to me that you are not a know it all and you are willing to put forth the effort. A few months out you may change your mind - for better or for worse. Who knows. You may become even more destined.

In my 51 (almost 52) years, no one has ever come riding up on a white horse and offered me something. You gotta go get it. Taking steps in that direction is not "creepy". Sitting on your duff and letting life pass you by is creepy. Ten years from now you are going to be 10 years older. No one knows where you'll be or what you'll be like, no even you, but you're gonna be 10 years older either way. Where do you want to be in 10 years?
 
Oh. And yes. I agree with earlier posts that you are a very nice looking young lady. I snooped in to your website too. Looked at your critters. 36 or so years ago I played with raising rabbits a little too. Californians back then were the rage. I did the 4H and later FFA etc etc. Gardens, pasture, dairy, beef, rabbits - a little bit of all of it.
 
TennesseeTuxedo":nuwic4v3 said:
Why am I the only one who can't seem to view her website?
Click to expand...

I haven't turned the web address to a link yet. You have to copy and paste it into the URL bar. Also, if your internet is slow it might not come up...I've heard that it sometimes doesn't work if the internet is slow.
 
backhoeboogie":46op4y4x said:
Oh. And yes. I agree with earlier posts that you are a very nice looking young lady. I snooped in to your website too. Looked at your critters. 36 or so years ago I played with raising rabbits a little too. Californians back then were the rage. I did the 4H and later FFA etc etc. Gardens, pasture, dairy, beef, rabbits - a little bit of all of it.
Click to expand...

I've shown it all too, haha. Just enough to dabble and figure out what I like. Showed horses for awhile, dairy, some beef calves, sheep, goats, poultry, and the rabbits. Rabbits really stuck for whatever reason. I was given the option when I moved back to Michigan to keep either my heifers or my horse. Every day I regret keeping the horse.
 
My Internet connection is indeed very slow. Oh well, I try again this evening from the house.

Good luck in your quest to find an apprenticeship in the industry. I volunteer at a local therapeutic riding academy for special needs kids in order to work around horses and gain some knowledge of how to care for them. So far it has been wonderful and very rewarding, well at least until last night when the horse I'm assigned to care for decided to kick me in the knee. I told the barn manager the job didn't really pay well enough to take that kind of abuse. LOL!

Seriously, I hope you find an opportunity.

TT
 
You can really learn a lot at a dairy especially ,heath, nutrition and breeding. It is a great start for anyone wanting to work with livestock.

I could definitely use some help here, I might actually be able to get away once and a while. I doubt you want to relocate to cold blustery Alberta though to work on a small seed stock ranch though.
 
cattlecait":2o5zrlsb said:
TennesseeTuxedo":2o5zrlsb said:
Why am I the only one who can't seem to view her website?
Click to expand...

I haven't turned the web address to a link yet. You have to copy and paste it into the URL bar. Also, if your internet is slow it might not come up...I've heard that it sometimes doesn't work if the internet is slow.
Click to expand...
It requires an updated version of Flash player to view. If on an iPhone or iPad you cannot see it.
 
I just thought of something. Does Michigan have an agricultural extension service? You could contact them and make an appt with the extension agent to talk about your plans and what you'd like to do. Good luck!
 
I'll second HD, a dairy is a great place to gain tons of cattle knowledge and GET PAID while you get it. I'm on dairies seven hours a day and the only downside I've ever seen is that I get a little complacent around cattle. I can honestly say that it's put me head and shoulders above some cattlemen in my area as far as breeding and health issues and has fine tuned my business sense as all get pounded into your brain on a dairy. Dairy is certainly a different lifestyle than commercial beef production but the knowledge from the experiance can carry over really well.
 
cow pollinater":1es8po5i said:
I'll second HD, a dairy is a great place to gain tons of cattle knowledge and GET PAID while you get it. I'm on dairies seven hours a day and the only downside I've ever seen is that I get a little complacent around cattle..
Click to expand...

Agreed. Dairy stock is *generally* a lot easier to handle than beef stock, but you can get far more knowledge of problems on a dairy than you'll ever find on a beef operation.
 

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