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

What is a ranch hand and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A ranch hand works on a farm or ranch, tending to animals and doing menial tasks around the ranch. They either live on the ranch or near it, and work long tedious hours. They attend to live farm or ranch animals that may include cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, bees, or poultry that produce animal products such as milk, fur, skins, meat, feathers, eggs, and honey. They are responsible for feeding, watering, herding, grazing, castrating, branding, weighing, catching, and loading animals into transport vehicles.

The ranch hand cleans and maintains animal housing areas, shears wool from sheep, collects eggs from hatcheries, and do routine menial tasks such as repairing fences, operating heavy machinery like tractors, and so on. They require physical stamina to do tasks around the ranch. They have to be up very early in the mornings and retire late at night.

Only a high school diploma or GED is necessary. A ranch hand earns an average of $25,368 per year, which translates to $12.20 per hour. Career growth is described as having little or no change at 1% and will produce 10,900 new jobs across the US by 2028.

ScoreRanch HandUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $27,569

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.6

Growth Rate 1%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.16%

Asian 1.80%

Black or African American 4.24%

Hispanic or Latino 26.80%

Unknown 3.05%

White 62.94%

Gender

female 21.69%

male 78.31%

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

Newest jobs for Ranch Hand in Columbus, OH

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Key steps to become a ranch hand

Explore ranch hand education requirements

Most common ranch hand degrees

Bachelor's

37.9 %

High School Diploma

33.1 %

Associate

19.0 %

Start to develop specific ranch hand skills

Skills	Percentages
Harvest	14.86%
Farm Work	11.62%
Farm Machinery	8.87%
Physical Characteristics	7.47%
Cattle Ranch	6.16%

Complete relevant ranch hand training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New ranch 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 ranch hand based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real ranch hand resumes.

Research ranch hand duties and responsibilities

Manage habitat, predators, whitetail and several species of exotic animals.
Assist with lessons and summer camps which include helping riders groom, tack up and mount.
Relocate wheel line sprinklers used to irrigate crops.
Halter training fillies and colts, handling mares, studs and foals

Prepare your ranch hand resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your ranch 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 ranch 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 Ranch Hand Resume templates

Build a professional Ranch 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 Ranch Hand resume.

Apply for ranch hand jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a ranch 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 ranch hands rate their job?

1/5

Based On 1 Ratings

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Ranch Hand reviews

1.0

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 Apr 2021

Pros

To take care of fresh good ,to organize the goods ,I to work by touch .on the market they clean good

Cons

To destroy goods when time is for harvesting ,I don't want to damage the goods

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019

Cons

I like all this job

What is a ranch hand and how to become one

Newest jobs for Ranch Hand in Columbus, OH

Ranch Hand career paths

Key steps to become a ranch hand

Explore ranch hand education requirements

Most common ranch hand degrees

Start to develop specific ranch hand skills

Complete relevant ranch hand training and internships

Research ranch hand duties and responsibilities

Prepare your ranch hand resume

Choose From 10+ Customizable Ranch Hand Resume templates

Apply for ranch hand jobs

How Did You Land Your First Ranch Hand Job

Average ranch hand salary

How do ranch hands rate their job?

Ranch Hand reviews

Ranch Hand jobs by state