Passionate about ranching and heavy machinery
BY JONATHAN KANE
Dee Jay McMurdo, a senior at Wood River High School, lives just south of Bellevue but spends a lot of time on the family ranch in Richfield. He also excels for the Wolverine football team and is going to state for rodeo steer wrestling, his first year on the Wood River Rodeo Team.
It’s at the ranch and at Glendale Construction, a company owned and run by his mother’s side of the family, that Dee Jay gets to operate large machinery.
“It’s my passion,” McMurdo said in an interview. “I really want to study diesel mechanics. Next year I’m going to Western Idaho in Caldwell and will be part of a program where you learn to work on heavy equipment like loaders, backhoes and tractors, and rebuild engines and learn all about them.”
Glendale Construction specializes in crushing rock for gravel and pouring concrete.
“I grew up around it and it really got me interested in the business,” McMurdo said. “The size of the machinery fascinates me. Ever since I was 10, I’ve been operating them and learning how they work.
“My mom taught me how to use a front-end loader at 10 and I loaded trucks with gravel and she taught me how to drive a big dump truck at 13. We also use them a lot on the ranch for loading hay but last summer I had a great time working in the mechanic’s shop at Glendale with my uncle. I got a chance to drive and work on a Volvo 180 loader, which is the biggest vehicle I’ve ever driven.”
McMurdo said most of his time is spent at the family ranch with his brother and parents.
“It’s 200 acres and family run and we’ve had it for eight years,” he said. “Before that, my parents bred horses. We have 40 head of Texas Longhorn cattle, 10 pigs, five horses and seven dogs.
“The cattle are really colorful and have long horns. They are really good eating because we grass feed them and the meat is leaner than Angus. The burgers taste like nice burgers,” McMurdo said with a laugh.
At about age 8 Dee Jay and his brother started raising pigs. They started with three sows and a boar but lost them in a tragic fire that also took a litter.
“We started over and went to Canada and bought Hereford pigs,” he said. “No one had them around here. My brother and I run the business and we try to sell them to 4-H kids to raise.
“I love the ranch life and couldn’t imagine anything else. It’s a lot of work but it’s really rewarding. Like it’s really rewarding to see the pigs grow up from something you can hold in one hand to a really large animal. Also, you know you are doing something for a greater good.
“It’s also great working with family and it can make you closer,” he said. Sometimes I get angry with my brother, but in the end, you know he’s there for you and trying to help you out.
“I’ll probably end up at the ranch. It’s the family business and I like that there is not set hours. Sometimes you are up all night and sometimes you make your free time by working and getting everything done.”