Why did cattle ranching grow so quickly on the Plains?

In the early 19th century the Great Plains had seemed a barren waste, inhabited only by the Indigenous Peoples.  Then the trappers and the gold miners had gone to live and work there, then the Mormons had arrived to form their own community. 

The next people to realise that the Great Plains had something to offer were the cattle ranchers. 

Cattle ranching had begun in Texas.  The first ranchers were the Mexicans, and their cowboys (called vacqueros) had learned how to brand cattle, rope them, round them up and drive them.  They learned about bog riding, riding the line in winter and breaking horses.  But in 1836 Texas rebelled against the Mexicans and drove them out.  The ranches were abandoned.  The horses and cattle ran wild.  Many died.  But some cattle -the Longhorn cattle - survived on the Plains.  They became tough.  They could survive without water in extreme heat and cold. 

About 1865 the Texans realised that they could build a business around three things that were freely available on the Plains - wild cattle, wild horses and grass.  Nothing else was needed.  Because these products were free, and needed little or no care, ranchers were able to set up easily, and make profits easily.  This encouraged men to set up ranches. 

Going to Market

There is no point in herding cattle unless you can sell them.  The Texas ranchers learned that beef in Chicago was selling for a very high price - up to $40 a head - ten times the price in Texas.  They started to drive their herds north to Sedalia, a small town on the Pacific Railway.  From there they trained their cattle into Chicago. 

In 1866, a rancher named Charles Goodnight and his partner Oliver Loving, drove his cattle north-west, to the mining towns and Indigenous reservations of Colorado. 

There he sold beef to the Indigenous tribes and the miners.. 

The success of the trails to market depended on two things - the railways and the cowboys. 

The railways were essential.  Without the railways, it would have been too far to walk the cattle to market.  With the railways, not only could they send their cattle to Chicago, but New York and (after the invention of refrigeration) the rest of the world! Ranchers sold beef to the men who were building the railways, and to the Army - who protected the railways against Indigenous attack.  A wider market meant greater profits; bigger profits encouraged more ranchers. 

Range Rights

In the early days of cattle ranching, a loop-hole in the law helped the industry to develop.  American law stated that, if a rancher owned any land in a valley, he had the right to graze his cattle over all of it.  It was a law left over from the time when Americans thought that the Great Plains were useless land.  This law, however, meant that, by buying a few acres, a rancher gained the right to use all of it for farming cattle - it was as though land had become much, much cheaper.  This helped the ranchers to set up huge ranches, and make huge profits - and this encouraged many others to begin cattle ranching on the Plains. 

Breeding

The Longhorn cattle were tough, but they did not produce much beef or milk.  There were cattle in England - the Durham or Hereford breeds - which produced much more of both.  But the English cattle were not tough enough to survive on the Plains.  About 1868 a rancher named John Iliff crossbred his Longhorn cows with some Durham and Hereford bulls he had bought from England.  The result - tough cattle that produced more meat.  More meat meant more profit, and this encouraged even more men to begin cattle ranching. 

Cowboys

Also essential were the cowboys.  They copied all the skills that the Mexican vacqueros had learned.  They developed clothes that suited the harsh environment (for instance, the hat to shield against the sun, the bandana to protect against the dust and leather chaps to protect the legs against rubbing).  They learned how to control a huge herd on a trail with a few cowboys, and how to stop a stampede. 

Cowboys managed the vast herds in the deadly climate.  They prevented deaths, taking as many cattle as possible to market, where they could be sold at a profit.  This allowed ranchers to set up on the Plains - they could never have done it without the cowboys. 

As the trailers drove north, they realised that places other than Texas could support cattle ranching.  This encouraged ranchers to set up all over the Great Plains. 

Law and Order

At first the Plains were wild, lawless places.  Bandits and rustlers roamed the land, stealing and killing.  If this had continued, it would have discouraged cattle ranching - it would have eaten into profits, and made it too dangerous. 

But slowly, law and order was established.  The Ranchers helped in this.  They formed associations of ranchers (for example, the Panhandle Stock Association and the Montana Stock Growers Association).  They paid gunmen to protect the herds and kill the rustlers.  Sometimes they simply paid the bandits to go away (which did not help ranchers in other areas!) Towns paid sheriffs to keep the law; the government sent judges and Marshals.  Men like Wyatt Earp killed the gunmen.  Gradually, the bandits disappeared; fewer losses from rustlers meant more profits and this encouraged cattle ranching. 

Publicity

A final factor which helped the development of cattle ranching on the Plains was publicity.  If no-one had ever heard about it, then no-one would have gone to do it! In 1881 an American journalist named James Brisbin published his book Beef Bonanza or How to Get Rich on the Plains.  It described the success of a rancher named Charles Goodnight.  It was published in Europe, as well as on the east coast of America.  The result was that thousands of farmers came from all over the world to set up on the Plains.  Many of them soon went bankrupt, but some survived and prospered.  The cattle ranching industry grew quickly.