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Lecture 6 was about ranching and cattle on the Plains. The story of cattle on the Plains is an interconcontinental one. There are Spanish roots of the open range cattle industry. After the Civil War, there was a surplus of cattle and a large market for meat. Joseph McCoy helped connect the supply and demand of cattle with the first cattle town of Abilene. Herd laws changed the cattle industry by doing away with open range practices. Sliding markets, herd laws, overproduction, and hard winters were used as excuses as to why the cattle kingdom faded. There was then a transition into fenced ranching. This led to other work such as fence fixing and haymaking. The lecture ended with a little discussion about the development of feedlots and the meatpacking industry. This lecture is proof that ranching has evolved on the Plains just like everything else has.

I think it's interesting that something as simple as barbed wire fencing could have such a huge effect on ranching practices.