Your setting and what you intend for the heritage, ancestry, and background of your character is going to shape they type of ranch and trail your character is likely to head down.

Given the setting of the 1870's you have quite a bit to choose from. A majority of your trail riding cowboys and ranch hands are going to be young mid teens to mid 20's. Given this time frame it likely means that if they are black (and fairly high number were) they were likely born into slavery but likely only old enough to remember the post-Civil War hardships. Immigrants, Civil War Veterans, Hispanics, and part-Native Americans are likely to round out a majority of your crews. Additionally, where the ranch is located makes a difference as well. Traditional "westerns" and most histories of trail driving have the cattle being driven up from free ranges in Texas up to the cattle towns in Kansas. There were other ranches scattered about the plains in Kansas and Nebraska at this same time who also would have some "mini-drives" to those cattle towns. Most of those were self-sustaining by the families or groups that ran them.

Part of the logic and reasoning behind this is that the Northern Plains were still home to mostly hostile Natives between the Platte River in Nebraska and site of the Union Pacific Rail Line on the Southern end, the Rockies in the West and the Missouri/Mississippi on the Eastern end. The natives in Texas (and Indian Territory, Oklahoma today) had endured a bit more "subjugation" by the Spanish, Mexican, Texan, Confederate, and Union governments.

The crux of this is that your character would likely have a bit of an outcast background, perhaps be an orphan nephew of either the rancher, one of his top men, or simply from one of the nearby settlements. They would have a much higher than normal likelihood having a minority background.

Riding Trail was in several ways a bit like the various mining rushes: you have a lot of young men from a melting pot of backgrounds looking to make a lot of money and a cottage industry of services meant to separate these young men from their pay.

One major difference is that driving cattle typically had at least some barrier to entry in that your character will be working and getting paid by the owner and doesn't have any claims to stake nor any hope of a lucky strike to make it rich. Those cattle owners are going to expect and pay for skills that aren't needed mining.

I say all of the above because the background would matter. Despite the melting pot there was certainly a fair amount of racism in the hierarchy of how the drives and ranches were put together. A hand who could pass as white would have a bit easier time and better pay than say an ex-slave or mulatto who might have an easier time than a mixed raced or full blood Native American. That said certain skills roping, handling horses, or cooking were often treated with at least some respect regardless of race.

Ranch life on the open range wasn't all that different from trail life. The primary differences would be that on the ranch you had more semi-permanent seasonal base camps that you would be based out of rather than having a few wagons to call home on the trail.

Riding herd meant that your job was too keep the main group of cattle together and not to spook them. On the ranch it mostly meant keeping an eye on them while they grazed, keeping an eye out for predators and thieves. On the trail it means keeping them moving while doing the same as above. In experienced kids riding herd would often be working near one of the trail bosses to make sure they didn't spoke the cattle and for them to learn the trade. This also means having shifts through the night keeping watch. This is where status matters a bit. Higher up in status would get you choice of night shift first shift if you were a night person or last watch if you were a morning person. Lowest would get the middle shift at night where you would have a few hours of sleep with a watch in the middle with a bit of sleep before getting up to do it all over again. Or if the watch structure was different (it varied according the bosses preferences), you could draw an extra night off or not have extra watch in bad weather.

Stray and round up duty usual went to the more skilled ropers and riders who also would have better and more skilled horses. Their primary duty would be working as a small team to round up any stray cattle and bring them back to the herd. The would also be called upon to rope the young cattle for branding and for separating out any injured or sick animals from the herd. This is a highly skilled position that often also requires some skill in horse training as it takes a certain temperament of man and animal to gain the skills needed to rope and herd cattle that don't particularly care for being roped or herded.

There are other jobs like cooking and horse tending (and breaking) and wagon driving. That would go along with the ranches and drives.

There are several trail museums in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas I don't have a particular one to recommend the ones I've been to have been interesting some of it rather good and some of it more Hollywood. I would recommend seeing several to get a good feel for it.

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Just in case a Google search brings anyone to this post in the future, I finally came up with a few sources. The key was searching for the word "Ranchman".

The best one I've found is "Reminiscences of a Ranchman" by Edgar Beecher Bronson.

Other sources:

"A Ranchman's Recollections" by Frank S. Hastings

"Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest" by Joseph G. McCoy

"The Day of the Cattleman" by Ernest Staples Osgood

The first three are all available on Kindle for cheap.