Ranching the Cattle Industry

Ranching the Cattle Industry

• A long drive was where you would herd cattle over long distances.
• Cattle trails were routes used for driving cattle: they needed to have easy access to both grass and water.
• Quarantine is where a cow is isolated from the rest of the herd because it may be diseased.
• Meat packing was the slaughtering, processing and packing of meat for distribution throughout America.
• A ranch was a large farm for breeding and keeping cattle.
• Rustling was where you would steal livestock from another farmer.
• Cowboys drove cattle from Texas to railroads to deliver to big cities. Cows did 15 miles every day.
• The Goodnight-Loving trail was one of the largest cattle drives, which finished at Wyoming to get cattle on railroad trains.
• A cowboy's life was lonely and difficult. They were out for months at a time herding the cattle.
• Snakes and insects provided danger as prevention methods in the Wild West were unreliable.
• Also food and water was scarce.
• People like rustlers and outlaws tried to steal cattle or attack you.
• The cattle often went into stampedes trampling people to death. There was also threat of attack by Plains Indians.
• In Chicago, industrialised meat packing was introduced and cows could be turned into food quickly, easily and cheaply. The Southern economy had…