How does cattle ranching work?

1. How does cattle ranching work?

2. THE BASICS • As people moved from farm to city, it became more necessary that SOMEONE ELSE raise the food that we eat. • Meat is especially subject to this, as it is not that easy to raise cows or pigs in the backyard of the local tenement building. • Finding a cheap way to raise this food was important for feeding the growing millions within the nation.

3. OLD SKOOL • Conveniently enough, the West was full of land that was not being used, and a lot of this land was perfect for grazing cattle to fatten them up for market. • The basic process is simple: Buy some young cows, set them free on the land to eat and get bigger, make sure they are healthy, round them up, sell them at market. • WHERE: Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Oklahoma were the states where ranching was most popular.

4. THE OPEN RANGE • In the early days, the no one claimed the land, so ranchers basically branded their cattle with the ranch logo, and set them free the cattle of others. This land was known as the “OPEN RANGE” • In the fall the cattle were rounded up, the different ranches separated their cattle, and moved them to the market. • The key here is that the grazing land was FREE to use, since no one owned it. This meant that SMALL RANCHERS could easily enter the market.

5. To Market: The Long Drive • Once the cattle were separated and rounded up they had to find their way to the populated cities in the East. • Getting cattle from the ranch to the COW TOWN was the most challenging part of the business, and this is where the cowboy became famous. • Managing a herd of hundreds of cattle through the weather, over foreign land, worrying about cattle rustlers (thieves) and stampedes, is when the cowboy really earned his pay

7. TO MARKET • They were usually taken to the nearest COW TOWN, which were places that had access to a railroad line and markets where cows were sold. • Cows were put on trains, and taken to Chicago and Eastward, where they were processed for food. • The long drive ended in these cow towns, where the cowboys were paid, and often spent their money on questionable things. • These were some of the rowdiest towns in the West, famous for hard drinking, gunfights, and general lawlessness. • When you watch western movies, they usually focus around a cow town or mining town, since they were usually the rowdiest.

8. New Skool • Ranching started as small business in the West, but eventually grew into one dominated by large well financed business. • One invention was more responsible for this than any other. BARBED WIRE was invented by Joe Glidden, and it forever changed the West. • It was cheap to buy, and allowed people to FENCE OFF large areas of land. • This meant the end of the OPEN RANGE.

9. Bring in Big Business • Once people could cheaply fence off their land, big business started buying up all of the open range and closing it to smaller ranchers. • The greatly INCREASED the cost of getting into the ranching business. Leasing or buying the lands was too expensive for small ranchers, and many of them sold out to larger ranchers. • Ranches became larger, more expensive to run, and cowboys were now just another employee in the system. They felt less attached to the ranch.

10. The King Ranch in Texas is one of the largest in America. It is 1,250,000acres, which is 4/5 the size of Delaware!