Hired man

[Dave]

You can't hire the kind of help he needs. You have to find someone and turn them into that help. Lots of time, and effort. Got to make it about more than a paycheck. They have to see a reason to put in effort, gotta make them part of it.

This part of the world is all cattle ranches. There is no shortage of ranch raised young men. Personally I think if he were to take the money he is paying the two of them and paid one good man that much he would be better off. He allows them to own and run 40-50 cows each. I don't know exactly how that is set up financially. But their cows run right along with his cows.

My bet is the girlfriends would be way better help.

The one certainly would be.

 

[Hardnosecattleco]

Good help is hard to find that's for sure. But I do wonder and I'm not taking sides by any means. But I do wonder what kinda guy he is to work for. What does he do to motivate? How well does he pay? All stuff like that. I'm sure it's all on the kids cause they weren't taught what the value of a dollar is but none the less that's what I wonder. Kinda sounds like he'd be further ahead without them.

 

[Rmc]

Good help may be hard to find but worthless help is worse then no help.
With no help you can focus on doing what needs done . With worthless help you spend half or more of your time double checking everything they where supposed to do . Even if they did do it you have to check to see if it was done and then stress about it being done half assed

 

[Atimm693]

Can't find good help because the competent ones are already working, getting full benefits, decent hours, and good pay somewhere else.

I can understand why ranchers won't pay much for help when they are likely scraping by themselves with the way things are. But you can't blame people for passing up a hard job that pays peanuts and has pretty much nothing else going for it, and then piss and moan about how nobody wants to work. There are just way greener pastures.

The neighboring farm was paying $15/hr and had trouble finding anyone. The pot farm down the road pays more than that to roll joints and pick buds. 40 hour weeks, overtime if you want it, no medical yet but they're supposed to be working on it.

It all boils down to the packing corporations keeping beef prices high and most of the profits to themselves, leaving the producers whatever is left.

 

[Stocker Steve]

My bet is the girlfriends would be way better help. Some of the best hands are girls and when I had help I had a couple of girls work for me.

Had a gal stop in a couple summers ago for a job. Said she would take part of her pay in hay for her horses. Unfortunately, she showed up in an old tee shirt she had outgrown and no bra. I thought she looked like a good worker, but the wife said "no way we are getting mixed up in that".

 

[wbvs58]

Gcreek seems to get along well with his hired help from his reports. I think a lot of them are from overseas looking for experience, I know he has had a couple of Australians.

Ken

 

[faster horses]

There is a big ranch that borders us. They put up a lot of hay and run cattle. The past couple of years girls have been changing the sprinkler pipe. They work hard. They are out there as soon as the sun comes up and they keep at it til they are done.
My husband would agree; girls/women are the best help.

 

[Brute 23]

Needs to fire both and use their pay to hire one good person.

 

[Dave]

Needs to fire both and use their pay to hire one good person.

I agree and he said as soon as he can find someone willing to work the two of them are gone. But as I said earlier he can't fire them until he has a replacement. He is feeding nearly 1,000 cows right now. And in about a month all those cows will start dropping calves. That is about 30, 40, 50 calves a day. One man can't feed that many cows and calf them out by himself. At least dumb and dumber can get them fed.

 

[TexasRancher]

If you can find yourself a diligent young man 14 to 15 year old saving up for his first car might be a good prospect. I'd hire any 13 to 17 year old that had a bank account in his name and was proud of it (shows good character, responsibility and dedication towards saving his money for the future). Basically I'd hire someone like myself...a young hard-working responsible go-getter. That would be my first interview question...if they could show me a savings account in their name. Ex-Military men are great farm workers too....they actually listen to you and what you want from them. I've gotten great results with disabled over age 50 men.

 

[farmerjan]

This part of the world is all cattle ranches. There is no shortage of ranch raised young men. Personally I think if he were to take the money he is paying the two of them and paid one good man that much he would be better off. He allows them to own and run 40-50 cows each. I don't know exactly how that is set up financially. But their cows run right along with his cows.


The one certainly would be.

Maybe I should apply. I only have about 25-30 head in the operation with my son......and I don't get a paycheck either unless I sell some cattle....

 

[faster horses]

If you can find yourself a diligent young man 14 to 15 year old saving up for his first car might be a good prospect. I'd hire any 13 to 17 year old that had a bank account in his name and was proud of it (shows good character, responsibility and dedication towards saving his money for the future). Basically I'd hire someone like myself...a young hard-working responsible go-getter. That would be my first interview question...if they could show me a savings account in their name. Ex-Military men are great farm workers too....they actually listen to you and what you want from them. I've gotten great results with disabled over age 50 men.

We used to hire kids to help us out during the summer. The best 'kid' we hired didn't have a drivers license yet. His brother had to bring him to the ranch to work until he got his license. He worked summers for us all through high school, through college and when we moved to SE Montana, he came and remodeled the upstairs so we could have bedrooms up there instead of just roofing with no insulation. He could do anything and everything and he did.

 

[Dave]

I helped him work a couple hundred head Saturday afternoon. We were moving the first bunch back to their pasture the subject came up. I said I guess you can't fire the one and hire his girlfriend. He said you don't know how hard I tried to do that. he said she would be better at a, b, c, d, e. It got down to everything until things requiring physical strength. She is all of 5' 1" and 100 pounds. Lots of try but some limitations.
He said he has hope for the one guy. But that is is like having two dogs and one is worthless. The dog with potential most likely follows the worthless one's example.

 

[D2Cat]

I remember years ago a man told me, "Have one boy and you've got a boy, hire two boys and you have half a boy, hire three boys and you have no boys!"

 

[Silver]

I remember years ago a man told me, "Have one boy and you've got a boy, hire two boys and you have half a boy, hire three boys and you have no boys!"

My grandfather said about the same thing: Hire a boy you almost have a man. Hire two boys you get half a man.

He also said to never hire a man that wears a straw hat and rolls his own cigarettes. You won't get any work out of a man that's forever rolling cigarettes and chasing his hat.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

We used to hire kids to help us out during the summer. The best 'kid' we hired didn't have a drivers license yet. His brother had to bring him to the ranch to work until he got his license. He worked summers for us all through high school, through college and when we moved to SE Montana, he came and remodeled the upstairs so we could have bedrooms up there instead of just roofing with no insulation. He could do anything and everything and he did.

That is a nice tribute.

 

[greybeard]

Some women really enjoy control, and like turnaround projects.

Some women marry men hoping they will change-men marry women, hoping they never will (change)

(or figure they can change their men)

 

[greybeard]

My grandfather said about the same thing: Hire a boy you almost have a man. Hire two boys you get half a man.

Kinda like dogs.
2 will keep each other company. 3, will fight.

 

[alacowman1]

I know a lot of companies hiring folks back ,out of retirement ....

 

[Dave]

I know a lot of companies hiring folks back ,out of retirement ....

I got hired out of retirement on Saturday. Late morning I went to the post office. On my way home I saw B was working at the corral. I stopped for a minute to tell him something. Ended up running 132 bred heifers and over 100 cows through the chute. Got home at 4:30. But I did get paid. Appearantly his wife was in town. He called her and order lunch. I got a double quarter pounder with cheese, fries, and a Coke. I work cheap.