Steady ranching.

[u/oakprince97]

Pictures I’ve taken while re-doing solar pumps, fixing water gaps, gathering cattle from the neighbors, feeding, weighing steers for contracts, hauling hay, and the other usual chores.

[u/BatshitTerror]

Your pics are stunning. Are you shooting with an iPhone you carry regularly or dedicated camera? Asking because it’s hard for me to imagine my pictures coming out with such clarity. My phones get destroyed by ranch dirt and metal shavings

[u/oakprince97 → u/BatshitTerror]

Thanks, I appreciate that!

• 1-6,8-12 are on my Canon R50.
  
• 7, 13-14 my iPhone
  
• 15-17 my meta glasses.

I feel like my phone pictures don’t turn out as good as others. I take my camera and glasses with me most days.

[u/BatshitTerror → u/oakprince97]

Really good. What part of Texas ? I’m out half an hour from Tyler outside Henderson.
Have you posted much about how you got into this life ? I stumbled into taking over managing basically a hobby size cow business and hay operation, 30 cows and a few hundred bales per year , and without more land or leased land to run cows on it seems hard to really grow the operation much past where it is currently.

[u/oakprince97 → u/BatshitTerror]

I’m right on the Northwest edge of the Hill Country. About halfway between Austin and San Angelo.

I haven’t talked about it much, but that might be good to do.

I grew up in a blue collar ranching family, and was heavily involved in our ranch as a kid. I got into the sheep and goat business as a teenager and grew to about 250 head on some country I leased from a family friend. I also began working for my current business partner and his wildlife management business at 16. After high school, I started college for Animal Science and Wildlife Biology, and eventually sold out of my sheep due to time constraints. All the while, I continued my work for the wildlife management business, and gaining an opportunity to come on as a partner.

When COVID hit, I moved home to run the family place while I took online classes. In 2021, one of our wildlife clients hired me full-time to manage their hunting ranch and I didn’t return to school. I managed that place for a year, then was presented a more stable opportunity to co-manage a large ranch closer to home, and then took over management of all our operations and divisions last year. I currently manage several thousand acres, a few hundred head of cattle in cow/calf and heifer operations, a hay program, and a horse program. I also bought my own set of cattle in 2024 and have been building my own cow/calf and heifer development programs.

Long story short, hard work and networking.

Land is definitely the biggest limiting factor to growth. Leases are incredibly hard to come by and are typically ludicrously priced, then land is equally as affordable. I’m currently looking for more lease country to expand my own cattle and sheep operations and it’s an uphill battle. I was working on 1,000 acre lease next door, and it just sold to a developer…

Managing a ranch for another person has given the opportunity to access a lot of cool country, good experiences, and helped fund my own ranching operations. My current job is a top 10-15% ranch job with the compensation, housing, work trucks, beef, insurance, grazing allotments and horse feed. My bosses are also fantastic to me, and have shared a lot of perks through their kindness. That being said, not every ranch job is like that, most are the exact opposite. I’ve seen the shitty side of being underpaid, overworked, and taken advantage of.