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Lecture 6 dealt with ranching on the Great Plains. The American ranching traditions have their roots in Spanish traditions. The progression of American ranching, however, is unique. After the Civil War, there was a surplus of cattle on the Plains. Joseph McCoy took action and connected the supply with the demand. He developed cattle towns where the herds were driven to be sent elsewhere, usually back east. For most cattle towns, this was a good start. As time passed, the townspeople implemented herd laws, requiring cattlemen to "restrain the beasts." Herd laws drove out the cattle trade so that more respectable folks could settle the town. Cattle towns moved further and further west, as they were forced to by herd laws. The end of open range ranching and the transition to fenced ranching caused many changes. Fixing fence, upbreeding and haymaking are some of them. Finishing beef on grass was popular in the 1950s and the feedlot empire began in the 1960s. Consumer taste for marbled beef, hybrid grain sorghum, ground water irrigation, and surplus investment capital all influenced feedlot development.

Ranching is an interesting topic for me because I grew up on a farm/ranch/feedlot on the Great Plains. I enjoyed learning about the cattle drives from Texas to Montana. Our family has a few Texas Longhorns that came up on one of those cattle drives. Talking about the pressures on beef was also interesting to me because they are all things that my family has to deal with in our business. They include consumer taste, environmental activism, animal rights, and packer oligopoly. Additional pressures that are facing the beef industry are increased beef prices (for customers) and lower prices for producers, greatly reducing profit.