Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond's daughter left corporate job to become cowgirl on family ranch

Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond's daughter Paige Drummond has returned to her roots on her family's ranch.

Ree, 55, who shares five children with her husband Ladd, previously revealed that Paige became the first of the Drummond kids to come back to her hometown of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and work alongside her father as a full-time cattle rancher. 

In a story that was first published in the fall 2024 issue of The Pioneer Woman Magazine and later shared on Ree's blog, Paige elaborated on her decision to quit her corporate job in Dallas and embrace the cowgirl lifestyle.

According to the magazine, Paige found working in an office all day to be too stifling after growing up on the sprawling Drummond Ranch.

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"When I was younger, I never really thought that I would be back here working on the ranch. I kinda had it written off," Paige explained in a video within the blog post. "I didn't enjoy it as much when I was younger, but then as I got older and I went away to college and then started working a full-time job, I just really realized how much I missed it and that I just wanted to come back here and try it out."

She continued, "My dad was like, you know, you don't have to be here forever if you don't want to, but you'll never know if you like it unless you like, give it a shot. So that's kind of what I'm doing right now. And it's been great so far."

Though Paige is the only female among the Drummond cattle ranchers, Ree said that her youngest daughter's upbringing laid the groundwork for her to take on the role.

"She can really hold her own with the cowboys," Ree said in the post. "She’s not learning it for the first time. She grew up doing this."

In the video, which featured scenes of Paige rounding up cattle and working in the pens, Ree and Ladd's youngest daughter admitted that ranch life was challenging.

"It's a hands-on job," she said. "It's physical. It's tiring. You get kicked by cattle. I have bruises all over my legs. It's definitely something where you kind of feel and see the physical toll of it."

"Thankfully, no one really treats me any differently than the next person," Paige continued. "They don't expect me to take it any easier, so I have to work just as hard as everyone else."

Paige said that waking up in the early hours to start her work days was the "hardest part of the job."

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"For this job, it's like multiple 4 a.m. mornings every day doing that and then working like 12-13 hour days, it gets to be pretty exhausting," Paige said.

However, she said that she was "thankful" and loves being "out on the land."

Per the blog post, a normal work day for Paige starts with rising at 3:30 a.m. to feed the horses before saddling her own horse and driving over an hour to work on land in Kansas, where she wrangles, vaccinates and brands calves.

Paige said that she wanted to clarify that ranch life is not as idyllic as it has been portrayed on television.

"I don’t think a lot of people understand what it’s really like," she noted. "Ranch life is glamorized on TV." 

"You see people riding horses, and it looks wonderful," Paige added. "If you could ride your horse all day, every day, everyone would want this job." 

"But 90% of the time it’s just hard, hard work. You’re getting kicked, you’re getting crap on you, you’re fixing fence, you’re doctoring cattle...it’s a time-consuming, exhausting — yet rewarding —profession."

Paige explained that her father had enlisted all of his children to help out on the ranch since they were children.

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"He definitely wanted us to work," she said in the video. "When we were kids, we would work quite a bit. We were also homeschooled, so it kind of gave us a lot more opportunity for him to take us out there and work."

"But I'm learning new things that I didn't do as a kid, like taking care of things myself that I don't have the responsibility of when I was younger. So it definitely is a lot different."

While Paige said she was "proud" to be the first of the Drummond siblings to come back to work on the family ranch full-time, she believed that her brothers would follow suit.

Along with Paige, Ree and Ladd share daughter Alex, 27, and sons Bryce, 21, Jamar, 21, and Todd, 20. 

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"They'll definitely come back," she said of her brothers. "So I'm excited for whenever they get older and graduate college and they're back here too. So it's just a cool thing to be able to do this with your family."

In a June interview with People magazine, Ree explained that though Paige, who recently got engaged to her boyfriend David Andersen, had returned to work on the ranch, she was not living with her parents.

"She is actually living in town, in the house that was my in-laws' house," the Food Network star said. "So it's kind of nice that we still have that house, hadn't sold it, and so she's moved in and made it her own."

Ladd's mother Nan died in 2018 after a battle with cancer, and his father Chuck, who was also known as Pa-Pa, passed away in 2021.

"In terms of how long she'll stay or whether it'll be a period of her life or forever, we're not really trying to predict or think about it too far in advance," Ree told the outlet.

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In the video, Paige explained that she was uncertain if cattle ranching would ultimately become her permanent job.

"I definitely could see myself staying here," she shared. "I don't know, I'm not sure, but for right now, this is great."