Robert Mead is a veterinarian with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
He says the job outlook for livestock inspectors varies across the country.
That's because some states use private inspection companies, while others
use the state police to perform inspections.
Some states, like Florida, don't do livestock inspection at all. "You can
use your brand to identify your animals, but if it's lost or stolen, that's
handled by regular law enforcement as a stolen property case," explains Mead.
Brand inspectors may have better luck finding work in the western states.
According to Mead, most of the western states have brand inspectors, while
most states with lots of range land use the state police to do the job.
According to Mead, $36,000 is "a pretty good ballpark figure." He adds
that salaries definitely wouldn't be much higher than that and that this is
not a highly paid position.
Earnings and employment information from the U.S. Department of Labor is
not available for this field at this time.