Long been a dream of mine to become a cattle hauler

You woulda been better off going to a school like Texas A&M or similar and getting an Ag degree. Because the only construction knowledge you need to know as a livestock relocation specialist is how to fix fences and hang gates. Lol!

 

Stop waiting for the right time, it will never come. Drive for someone for 3 months, at the end of 3 months, if you still have the desire - then just do it. Falling on your face is a part of the process. It's the only way you learn to get up!

 

3 months ain't Sheet of getting a taste of cow hauling your toes aren't even wet yet.....You need atleast 2 years so you get an idea of what it's like... .. Weather and the 2 busy seasons change the whole perspective of cow hauling.. you do things completely different on a hot summer day than you do on a cold icy day with the wind blowing 30 mph..
But you wouldn't know about those things otherwise you wouldn't of said that

 

like everyone else said you should get a company cow hauling driver job first and see how you like it. I've seen many a new guy who talks big that got scared when the cattle got rowdy with em.

Once the cattle know you're more scared of them than they are of you you're gonna have a helluva time getting them to go where you want and your odds of getting injured are much higher.

You gotta know how to drive smoothly too. It's not real hard, but it's important. I once saw a greenhorn kill 2 cows just running short hauls in a months time because his driving was so bad. I didn't lose a single cow in 5 years.

As far as buying a truck and trailer I wouldn't even recommend buying your own trailer unless you just want to run spring/fall run or you have a customer lined up already. Most the good year round contract work with a pot is locked up by guys with multiple trucks,trailers and a longstanding reputation. I always preferred to pull one of their pots over one of my own as they have the steady year round work and wash outs and wash out guys at the yard. In 5 years of pulling pots I probably didn't wash out my own trailer more than 10-15 times and that was plenty for me! LOL

 

Best advice my parents gave me was go learn a skill or get a degree. If, later on, I still felt like driving then at least I had something to go back to if it didn't work out. My parents ran a successful 1 truck business for years so it wasn't like they weren't well versed on the subject lol.