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Catching up on trends part of appeal for working cowboy

Published 5/26/2009 in Beef Empire Days-Industry

By STEPHANIE FARLEY

sfarley@gctelegram.com

Midwest Feeders, north of Ingalls, sells itself as being located "in the heart of the cattle feeding industry of Kansas.

"Located in an area known for plentiful grain and aggressive packer competition, we are positioned to provide you with many advantages...." says the Web site.

Kurt Snyder, Live Show chairman for Beef Empire Days, is involved with Midwest Feeders' operations, serving as yard foreman, he oversees the feed truck drivers, as well as maintenance of the yard.

What Snyder enjoys about Beef Empire Days and the events, particularly the ones that are industry related, is that in his world of working at a feedyard, he doesn't get much chance to see a lot of people.

So during Beef Empire Days, he tries to take advantage of talking and socializing.

Snyder said the celebration also gives people in the cattle industry a chance to compare notes and talk about things they've tried or never thought of in the business.

Snyder graduated from Colby Community College as a veterinary technician or "vet tech." He was raised around a cow-calf operation and started working in the feedyards back in 1985. He's been doing the work ever since.

He got involved in the industry mostly because that's where the money was. He started out riding pens and doctoring cattle and just worked his way up in the business.

A lot of people working in ranching or feedyard operations are the same way, Snyder said, explaining they're often raised around farming, cow-calf operations and agriculture.

And to Snyder, the job, especially starting out, usually means long hours. Weather is a major factor in how he does his job and what conditions he has to work in. The last blizzard, Snyder worked two 18-hour days in a row.

Anytime it rains, while it's ultimately a good thing, it's a pain to work in. Sometimes, he said, he wishes the yard had a dome over it, but he doesn't think that's likely to happen.

Cleaning pens is dirty work.

Snyder originally got into the work because he had mouths to feed, a family and himself to support.

And he ultimately believes, like many others in his field, that the cattle industry helped build the region.

If the cattle industry and those like Snyder willing to do the work weren't around, he feels the area's economy would be struggling a lot more and be closer to the blow the national economy is suffering.

Getting together

Greg Mahin, chairman for the Feedlot and Sponsors Roping and Riding events, landed his first "cowboying" job when he was 25.

He figures he was a yard pen rider for about 20 years and has now worked at Gray County Feedyard for 21 years. Snyder is the yard foreman, assistant manager. He's been in that position for about eight years.

He and Snyder represent a piece of the industry and also some of the industry population who attends and participates in some of the industry-related events for Beef Empire Days.

The industry events include the Live Beef Animal Judging Contest Feedyard Challenge on Wednesday — registration starts at 7:30 a.m. for the second annual event. Teams may compete anytime between 8 and 10 a.m. Breeding and market animals will be evaluated.

The Ranch Rodeo starts at 7 p.m. Thursday and includes events in which traditional working cowboys gather to compete and demonstrate skills used every day in cattle ranching operations.

According to BED, "although there are some similarities to rodeos people are normally accustomed to seeing, ranch rodeo events typically use combinations of roping, horsemanship and groundwork skills to create a more genuine presentation of real-life ranch work. This is considered to be a team event, not an individual event. Everyone works together to get the job done."

There's also, among others, the BED Cattle Working Contest open to all area processing crews that provides an opportunity to learn the newest trends and test the latest equipment. The event starts at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Finney County Fairgrounds Arena.

Mahin says about 90 percent of the men who participate in feedlot roping competition ride pastures or pens for a living, and it may be the only chance some of them get to see people they haven't seen all year and just have a good time.

While there are all kinds of personalities coming together from the industry in the competitions, Mahin said, a majority of the people generally care about the livestock. Most of them, he said, their main job is keeping the cattle alive, so the animals can go to market for their owners.

There might be three or so months out of the year when the weather's generally nice, he said, other than that, a lot of the men work in all kinds of weather conditions, and in general, they're "pretty tough characters."

Can't do it without them

Mahin got started in the business because he didn't want to farm. His dad was a farmer, but Mahin didn't want to stay in farming.

He's moved around some in the feedyard business and said a typical day for a pen rider is to get to work around 6:15 a.m., feed and saddle the horses, ship cattle that are ready and be done with that by 8 to 9 a.m., then start riding pens, getting sick cattle pulled and doctored.

The riders spend a majority of their day on horseback, Mahin said, and he feels most of the riders would say the best part of the job is getting to ride their horses every day, training the horses, and seeing improvement in them. And then, at the end of the day, being able to look back and "see you've gotten something done," he said.

The riders and everyone in the business are mostly the same in their importance, Mahin said, explaining everyone tries to work together.

"We couldn't operate without them," he said.

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