Account for the rise and fall of the beef bonanza
In the late nineteenth century, 1867-1887, the cattle trade boomed. The Cattle
trade peaked the most during 1880-5. It made good money for some, but it lead
to many clashes. From what simply started off as a left over from the Mexicans
to the Texans, it created a moneymaking bonanza across America and overseas.
Ranching cattle started in Mexico. Texas, which was owned by Mexico, began
rebelling against Mexican rule and entered the USA in 1840. Most of the
Mexicans were driven out of Texas, leaving their cattle behind. The cattle were
extremely durable, making their numbers increase rapidly. Their cattle, made up
of mostly Criollos cattle, interbreed with the English Longhorns, producing the
beef that was to become the most famous breed in the world, the Texas
Longhorn.
During the 1850's, the beef demand increased and people started to drive cattle
up east, but it was not until the American Civil War and the railways that the
beef trade really started to boom. During the American Civil war in the 1860's,
many Texans had to leave their ranches to fight for the southern states in the
war. The Southern states eventually lost the war and a lot of the money was lost
through artillery. They had to give their slaves their freedom and they
economically plummeted. Though, they did have one advantage; their cattle.
When the Texans returned from the war, they came back realizing their cattle
had multiplied. This provided the Texans with a way to regain wealth, as the
North Eastern States had an increasing demand for beef. This was because beef
had just become more popular meat to eat. The Government needed it for their
Army outposts and the Indian reservations depended on the meat supplied by
the Government.
Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving were both ranchers. Goodnight left 180
cattle in 1860 to go off to join the civil war. When he returned five years later,
he discovered that his herd of cattle had grown and now he owned 5,000.
Loving and he together, had a strong herd of cattle, which needed selling. They
both knew that the Government demanded meat for the Army outposts and
Indian Reservations. Together they blazed the Goodnight-Loving trail, which
allowed an easier route to the railways; this made them thousands of dollars.
Jesse Chisholm also blazed a trail for the cattle to pass through land without any
hostility from farmers.
Liff was a rancher. He opened a store in Wyoming along the Oregon Trail. He
started to buy cattle and it prospered. He sold the cattle to the transcontinental
railway and the Sioux Indian Reservation. He also cross-breaded the cows to
produce better beef.
Joseph McCoy saw money to be made in moving beef by rail to the Eastern Cities
and Indian Reservations. He built the first “cow town” called Abilene on the
Kansas Pacific Railroad. It was built to lodge the cowboys after the tough
journey. Within a year of opening, 35,000 head of cattle had passed through
Abilene. This is where the “Real McCoy” originated. McCoy made a fortune from
this. Cattle towns like Abilene and Cheyenne grew in wealth as a result of the
beef trade. When the cowboys had finished the journey, they would rest in these
towns. Even though they were paid little, these towns grew to provide ample
vices and temptations, for example, Saloons.
The railways allowed cattle to be transported up North. With the development
of refrigerated carriages, it meant that cattle could be slaughtered before
transportation. This allowed larger quantities of meat to be sold and transported
throughout America and abroad. Though the railways didn't reach down to
Texas, which meant that the cattle had to be transported to the railways
somehow. This was where the role of the cowboys came in.
The cowboys spent the winter and spring looking after the cattle, then rounding
and branding them for the long journey in the summer up to the cow towns. The
journey had many hazards, for example, torrential downpours and threat from
Indians and Homesteaders. They couldn't afford to lose much heads of steers on
the way up, as they already had a very low wage at the end of it all. Low wages
forth e cowboys meant more profit for the ranchers back in Texas.
With more land available, due to the Native Americans being sent off the land to
be placed in reservations, ranches could expand and more could start. In states
like Colorado, where in 1860, they didn't have any cattle, and then twenty years
later they had over three-quarters of a million. It was a profitable trade to be
involved in and a lot of money could be made from it. The Beef trade attracted
fortune-seeking men from all over the continent and Europe.
It was during the last ten years of the beef trade that led to its finale. In 1874, JF
Glidden invented barbed wire, which enabled large areas of land to be fenced
cheaply and effectively. Homesteaders had clashed with the cattlemen, because
the Texas Longhorns would destroy their crops, as they could not keep to the
furrowed boundaries made by the Homesteaders. With the Homesteader's
barbed wire, it meant reducing the cattle access to water and making the
journey even harder. Some ranches were also set up on the Great Plains to
reduce the distance needed to travel, but this could cause conflict between the
cattlemen and settlers.
Having barbed wire also meant that the ranchers had to use it too. This meant
that instead of having “free range” cattle, the cattle were now compacted into a
smaller area. This allowed disease to spread more easily amongst the cattle. The
cattle now had a smaller grazing area, which made it difficult for the cattle, as
they were growing too big for the area they were restricted to. With a different
diet, this made the meat taste different.
The invention of the wind pump increased the water supply, which brought an
end to the open range. Water was more accessible. This led to fewer jobs for the
cowboys, which meant less of them were needed. In 1883 there was a drought
and high summer temperatures, which ruined the grass, decreasing the amount
of food to keep up the cattle? In 1886-7, there was a severe winter, which sped
up the decline by killing large numbers of cattle and cowboys.
The beef markets started to demand a higher quality of meat than the
Longhorns could provide. People started to crossbreed. John Lliff crossbreeds
Herefords from Britain with the Longhorns, which couldn't live so easily on the
open range.
Conclusion:
The Beef trade had overall boomed for about twenty years. The advantage Texas
had had aided their economical problems after the American Civil War. The
railways helped to boost the beef trade's popularity; meat could now be
transported to places much quicker. It was mainly due to harsh winters, which
destroyed most of the cattle and the public's change in taste that brought an end
to the Beef Bonanza. Different breeds of beef meant different taste of meat,
which didn't turn out to be always good. People started to go off beef and
changed their taste to something else instead. The demand for beef fell after
1885, when the prices fell, as it was no longer profitable to keep huge herds. The
beef trade didn't stop altogether, it just declined, but the decline didn't stop the
huge commercial empires being built by the cattle barons. They carried on
booming.