CASPER — Working a modern ranch in the 21st century means a commitment to the cowboy lifestyle.
It’s not exactly the cowboy romanticized by John Wayne and movie Westerns, either.
Cowpunchers need to be fence welders, irrigation pipe layers and midwives to heifers having their first calves when it’s minus 20 outside with a blistering Wyoming wind.
Heading to town every Saturday night is off the agenda if cattle decide that’s their time to bust through a fence and stand on a highway or romp around the neighbor’s property.
Falls Ranch in Casper recently posted an ad for a ranch hand on Facebook. Ranch veteran Tanner Miller, whose dad is the general manager at the ranch, said a lot of resumes have already come in, many from those who have no experience but are eager to give it a try.
He suspects the “Yellowstone” television series may have a part in the eagerness of the inexperienced to try and get themselves a ranch job not really knowing what they’re trying to sign up for.
There also are some solid, experienced hands expressing a desire to join the team.
Skills Needed
“We're looking for somebody that's pretty versatile, that can wear a number of different hats, that can ride a horse, get in a tractor, can feed cattle, I mean, do it all in a sense,” he said. “It's nice to find individuals who have several years of experience.
“We don't have to teach them the ins and the outs of cattle, because they already know that. The only thing we have to teach them is just lay of the land.”
The lay of the land at Falls Ranch stretches over 80,000 acres with 1,300 momma cows grazing on the land in addition to 2,000 acres of farming operations.
Miller said in the past they’ve hired all experience levels, but this time of year is a good time to seek new help because the calving season is over and ranches are getting ready for winter. Some cowboys are looking to move on to another ranch for whatever reason.
The ranch skills listed in the ad include branding, putting out gated pipe, tagging cattle, pregnancy checking, breaking ice, irrigation equipment, preparing water systems for winter, moving cattle, farming such as cutting and baling hay, and much more.
At Casper College, agricultural instructor Heath Hornecker said they often get requests from area ranches for hands, but from his standpoint the availability of the candidate pool is small. Many of his students come from a generational ranch family and are headed back to their ranch or they have come to the program already with a position in mind.
The college offers several tracks for agriculture students for associate degrees that allow them to move on to four-year degrees as well. They also have a certificate program in ranch management and agrotourism. The pipeline for cowboys and ranch managers is not at capacity.
He said many students come from agricultural backgrounds, but not all.
Cowboy Dream
Count Arlo Primozich, 18, a freshman at the college in that category. The Boulder, Colorado, native has no ranch or farming heritage to draw on. There were no agricultural classes at his high school.
But he did get a job on a Boulder-area ranch as a sophomore in high school and loved the work. He wants a future with cattle in a Western state.
“I’d like to manage a cattle ranch,” he said. “I learned a lot of the hands-on stuff, just general cow-working and horsemanship skills. In college I am hoping to get more of a scientific approach to all the management aspects like cattle health, range management, that sort of stuff.”
He said he knows students who grew up on a ranch that don’t want to make it their livelihood. But he does.
One thing he never learned because he was school in the late winter and early spring was how to help cattle and calves during the birthing process.
Primozich knows that’s an area he needs skills because cowboys and ranchers need to understand when something is going wrong in the birth process, and they have to have the ability to turn a calf inside the womb and pull it out when necessary.
At Falls Ranch, Miller said the calving skills are extremely important in the harsh conditions that can exist around Casper well into the spring season.
Checking on a cow at Falls Ranch outside of Casper is just part of a day’s work. (Courtesy Tanner Miller) 
Arlo Primozich, 18, hopes one day to manage a ranch somewhere in the West. He said he has no background in agriculture other than landing a ranch job when he was a sophomore in high school. (Courtesy Arlo Primozich) 
Falls Ranch outside of Casper, Wyoming, covers a lot of ground — nearly 80,000 acres with a herd of 1,200 cattle roaming on it. (Courtesy Tanner Miller) 
A cowboy prepares to lasso an animal while herding cattle on the Dumbell Ranch in Wyoming in this undated file photo. (Getty Images) 
Moving cattle along the Beartooth Highway in northwest Wyoming. (Getty Images)
Helping Calves
“You’ve got to be over the top of them and understand when a calf is cold,” he said. “It needs to be brought into the barn and be supplemented with colostrum to help it kind of get boosted and going.”
Miller said it is a skill they like to see in candidates because on a ranch their size, cowboys often are doing tasks alone. The ranch management need to trust when a calf is born and it is below zero, their worker can see that the calf is not getting up and getting milk like it should and take the right steps to rescue it and bring it to the barn to be warmed up.
“We are talking about a pretty expensive animal by the time they are fully grown and if they never make it that far it is lost money,” Miller said.
The ranch has about 250 heifers who are about to be first-time mothers. So those are the cattle that likely will need assistance. Typically, there is a team who will get involved when a calf is stuck inside the mother and needs to be turned or helped into the world.
“Once they have their first calf, it is usually pretty smooth sailing after that,” Miller said.
Cowboys also need to recognize when a cow is fighting disease and how to treat it before it gets serious. It’s one thing to read it from a book, Miller said, and another to actually be around the herd and identify what health issue may be affecting the animal.
“In order to get really good at it you have to see it firsthand and be around it firsthand,” he said. “It takes a lot of years of experience to learn it. You are not going to go out there and run cows for one year and say ‘Yeah, I can identify sick cows.’ Yeah, you are probably better than the year before, but it takes a lot of years of seeing sick cattle and obviously it helps being around someone who knows more.”
Welding Skills
Another skill helpful for cowboys welding. Metal fences get kicked in and equipment breaks down. Being able to handle a welding torch adds a lot to the resume. Miller said the welding needed on the ranch is not as fancy in manufacturing, it just needs to be functional.
Hornecker said Casper College offers welding as an elective in its agricultural program. Primozich said he knows that would be a handy skill to have.
The main things cowboys need is a commitment to the lifestyle, Miller said. His ranch is also looking for good character.
“Aside from the experience, we really look for individuals that are just hard working, that love the lifestyle, and are honest and full of integrity,” he said. “You know, willing to sacrifice a lot. I mean this is what this job entails, sacrifice. It becomes your life. In reality, it is 24/7 because at any moment you can get a call about a cow on the highway that could be at 1 in the morning on a Sunday.”
Primozich said as a freshman he just has one class this semester in the agricultural department — animal science. He already knows the physical challenges of working with livestock. He was roping calves a couple of years ago on horseback as they prepared to move them in paddock made from an electric fence. His horse backed into the hot wire and bucked.
“I wasn’t prepared for it so I went right off and came down on my left wrist and just snapped it pretty well,” he said. The injury meant riding back to the ranch and a long trip to the hospital to get his wrist set and in a cast.
While his ultimate goal might be to own his ranch, Primozich knows financially that is unlikely and he would be safer to pursue a ranch management career. He’s thankful that the outlook means there will be more wanted ads like the one from the Falls Ranch when he is ready to graduate — whether that is after two-year or four-year degree.
“There is a great demand, and I think that will help me out a lot with my future. If there weren’t a demand, I would be the last person to hire,” he said. “Just because I didn’t grow up doing it.”
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
