Feed, herd, and care for farm animals, maintain pens and equipment, and help with births and health checks.
Ranches, farms, and feedlots, outdoors
Early mornings, long days, weekends
May 2024–25 BLS wage data · 2024–34 BLS employment projections.
Openings a year counts new jobs plus the ones that open when people retire or move on — a truer picture of your odds than growth alone.
“Median” means half earn more and half earn less. Your city, employer, and years on the job move it a lot — that is what the 10th-to-90th range shows.
No formal credential
Training path: On-the-job training, paid.
No license required to start in most places.
You can earn while you train. This field has a genuinely paid pathway in — an apprenticeship, a paid academy, or employer-funded training — so you draw a paycheck instead of taking on debt to learn it.
Hard, hands-on ranch work outdoors — steady where agriculture is, but the overall count is shrinking.
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Standard Occupational Classification 45-2093. Pay, employment, and outlook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS wage survey and 2024–34 employment projections). See something off? Tell us.