After attending Pratt Community College and starting their careers while they were in college, both David McComb and Jake Lewis find it important to hire college students at the sale barn.
Each year Pratt Livestock employs about five college students.
“The majority of the time the students are hard workers and it works out well for us,” Lewis, assistant manager at Pratt Livestock said.
After graduating from PCC, both Lewis and McComb went on to KSU to receive degrees and came back to work at Pratt Livestock.
Many of the fulltime employees at Pratt Livestock have degrees from PCC. He said many of them have been faithful employees and have more than 15 years’ of experience.
One employee who is newer to the team is Tyler Beat, a freshman from Kingman.
While at work Beat does a little bit of everything including opening gates, pushing and sorting cattle, loading cattle onto semis and trailers and calls out pen numbers if the main person isn’t there to do it.
“I really like working there,” Beat said. “My family has a cattle business so it’s an easy and fun job for me.”
Since working at the sale barn, Beat said he has learned a lot about the business side of cattle.
“On the farm I see the side where we are feeding and taking care of the animals,” he said. “At the sale barn I see the market prices and what they are going for.”
Beat is hoping to be able to work there this summer and next school year as well.
The best parts of the job are the people has met while working out there, the flexible work schedule and having to reason to leave campus every now and then. Beat said he is also happy to know that he will have a professional reference when he finishes at PCC.
“Tyler handles the job well and is mature and responsible for his age,” said McComb, the yard foreman. “It is good for college students to have jobs. A lot of them don’t and when they get out of college they don’t know how to work.”
Beat is majoring in Farm and Ranch Management and is on the rodeo team, where he is a team roper and bulldogger.
