The Casual Cattle Conversations Podcast: The Ultimate Guide for Training Ranch Employees

The Ultimate Guide for Training Ranch Employees

Picture this. You take the time to go on vacation during the winter and can leave the ranch without taking the stress with you. You are at ease knowing your employees can handle anything that comes up. The best part is you don’t get a single phone call or text about frozen water lines, sick calves, cows being out or equipment that doesn’t work. While this sounds like only a sweet dream, it is attainable for you and your employees to achieve this level of training, communication and trust.




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Erin McKnight ranches with her husband and their sons in the Sandhills of Saskatchewan. They rely on employees to help them keep the ranch operating smoothly but like many ranchers have experienced the negative impacts of poor communication and lack of training. The difference with the McKnights is Erin recognized these gaps and created a solution that can be easily replicated across ranches. She said, “I was a registered nurse for 10 years and our whole first year of nursing college was about communication. I thought it was unnecessary at the time but once I started working in an emergency room, I realized how important it was. Clearly communicating with your teammates builds trust and it is the same thing on farming and ranching operations.” Erin took her past experiences in nursing and ranching and created Ranch Academy – an online training platform for ranch employees and family members.

Ranch Academy is a complete guide of trainings for ranch employees that can be customizable to each operation. Examples of trainings include transporting cattle, treating cattle, troubleshooting water lines and wells, equipment safety, and power tool safety. Employees can access trainings from their phones to read instructions and watch videos to prepare for an upcoming task or troubleshoot a current one. “Nobody wants to pull up a YouTube video and fast forward to the 30-second clip they need. These trainings are short and sweet yet effective,” said Erin. Once ranchers purchase this program, they can go through and adjust trainings and directions to fit their needs and preferences.

Ranch Academy is used by a variety of individuals. From people with no ag background who want to be ranch hands to new spouses and even kids returning to the operation this program is versatile. The ability to train employees who didn’t grow up on a ranch is especially beneficial as it opens up more hiring options for ranchers.

A quality employee training and communication program is part of a good risk-management protocol. Whether you look into McKnight’s Ranch Academy or other options, remember the following quote by Zig Ziglar, “The only thing worse than training employees and having them leave is not training them and keeping them.” Investing in the time and resources to properly train your people will increase productivity, reduce the costs that come with mistakes, save time and improve employee retention.