How To Become A Barn Hand: What It Is and Career Path

What is a barn hand and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a barn hand. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.46 an hour? That's $28,005 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 6,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreBarn HandUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $28,005

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.6

Growth Rate 1%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.12%

Asian 1.75%

Black or African American 3.85%

Hispanic or Latino 21.71%

Unknown 3.01%

White 68.55%

Gender

female 75.28%

male 24.72%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress Level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.4

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.8

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a barn hand

Explore barn hand education requirements

Most common barn hand degrees

Bachelor's

42.6 %

High School Diploma

29.3 %

Associate

18.9 %

Start to develop specific barn hand skills

Skills	Percentages
Clean Stalls	44.81%
Horse Stalls	23.57%
Tack	11.58%
General Upkeep	5.96%
Water Buckets	3.74%

Complete relevant barn hand training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New barn hands learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a barn hand based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real barn hand resumes.

Research barn hand duties and responsibilities

Clean stalls bath horses and done a lot of out side work mowing and building fence.
Fed livestock, prepare milking machinery and assist with milking operations.
Perform cultivation and harvesting activities by using heavy machinery like harvesters and tractors.

Prepare your barn hand resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your barn hand resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a barn hand resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Barn Hand Resume templates

Build a professional Barn Hand resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Barn Hand resume.

Apply for barn hand jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a barn hand job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do barn hands rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Barn Hand reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2021

Pros

Working with cattle

Cons

They wants alot work and they don't pay not even the minimum wage of 8.75 with the salary and they thinking we don't have a personal life and we need time off.

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019