Job Duties:
Feed and water livestock and monitor food and water supplies. Herd livestock to pastures for grazing or to scales, trucks, or other enclosures. Examine animals to detect illness, injury, or disease, and to check physical characteristics, such as rate of weight gain. Provide medical treatment, such as administering medications and vaccinations, or arrange for veterinarians to provide more extensive treatment. Mark livestock to identify ownership and grade, using brands, tags, paint, or tattoos. Maintain heated watering system. Segregate animals according to weight, age, color, and physical condition. Maintain equipment, machinery, buildings, pens, yards, and fences. Move equipment or livestock from one location to another, manually or using trucks or carts. Clean stalls, pens, and equipment, using disinfectant solutions, brushes, shovels, water hoses, skid loader, manure spreader or pumps. Mix feed, additives, and medicines in prescribed portions. Shift animals between grazing areas to ensure that they have sufficient access to food. Perform duties related to livestock reproduction, such as breeding animals within appropriate timeframes, performing artificial inseminations, and helping with animal births. Patrol grazing lands on horseback or using all-terrain vehicles. Groom, clip, trim, or castrate animals, dock ears and tails, or shear coats to collect hair. Spray livestock with disinfectants and insecticides, or dip or bathe animals. Operate snow removal equipment in order to operate feed wagons. Drive pick-up truck to town for cattle supplies on occasion. Remove ice formed in water. Confine livestock in stalls.
Special Requirements:
See Addendum C