Cattle Country
As Cattle Country (German: "Cattle Country") is the western part of the North American Great Plains called the mainly by the livestock industry is marked. 60 percent of the US beef is produced there. Due to the amount of precipitation , the transition to the Wheat Belt , which is mainly used for arable farming , is around the 100th degree of longitude, which coincides with the precipitation limit of 500 mm / a.
History of the Cattle Country
The first Europeans to immigrate to the United States in the 16th century took longhorn cattle with them, while Native Americans hunted bison in the plains . The indigenous peoples of North America lived as part nomads or nomads and based their rhythm of life on the migrations of the bison herds. As a result of the massive hunt by the settlers for the bison herds, their populations fell sharply, they were almost exterminated and the nomads lost their livelihood. At the beginning of the 19th century, the first cattle ranches were established mainly in the part of Mexico that later became Texas. From 1865, many settlers settled in the Great Plains in addition to the ranchers.
The longhorn cattle were kept in an open area and looked after by cowboys. When Texas became independent in 1836, the Mexicans abandoned their cattle ranches. The first Texan cattle ranches were founded or taken over. For the time being, the focus was on winning animal skins. In the 1850s, beef began to gain popularity and the price went up, making some ranchers quite wealthy.
Animal husbandry on cattle farms has changed a lot in the 20th century. Over the years several different types of factory farming emerged , such as " feedlots " or " ranching ". Nowadays the farms are run and controlled by large companies.
Use in Cattle Country
The Great Plains are divided into agriculture and livestock. 60 percent of the beef in the USA is produced on large fattening farms in the Great Plains or the "Cattle Country". In the west they only breed cattle because the amount of rain is so low that arable farming would only be possible with artificial irrigation, which is therefore too expensive in this area. Two different types of animal husbandry are widespread in the "Cattle Country". There is intensive animal husbandry and extensive animal husbandry.
The so-called feedlots are part of the intensive animal husbandry. Feedlots are facilities that are designed to fatten slaughter cattle, in this case cattle herds. Most feedlots are designed with more than 16,000 fattening places. Each year, around 500,000 bulls are fattened for slaughter in 3 to 4 months in open-air enclosures that are 1 by ½ mile in size and designed for a total of 225,000 animals. These animals normally need 3 years to reach this weight naturally in pastures. First, the calves are fattened to around 300 kg in fields and pastures until they are brought into the "feedlots". There they receive a special diet, a so-called silage, which consists of hay, maize, different types of grain, soybeans, sugar beet residues, cottonseed meal, minerals and waste products from the food industry. This mixture is preheated so that the animals use as little food energy as possible when they are ingested. In addition to the already existing 300 kg, the animal will gain 180 kg in weight in a short time. Due to the excessively high manure production, a state permit is required to maintain the "feedlots".
On the other hand, there is "ranching", which is one of the extensive animal husbandry. In this animal husbandry, the land is heavily used and accordingly the use of other production factors is very low. "Ranching" makes use of a particularly large amount of free space, so it corresponds to extensive grazing. It is typical of "ranching" that the animals are branded. This is necessary because the area is usually very large and therefore it cannot be fenced in. There are no stables and the water supply is ensured by a river or lake. The nature used is usually not changed by pesticides or other chemicals. The cowboys and ranchers thus limit their intervention in nature to a minimum. The owner's main house is called a ranch, but the term can also describe the entire site. The work is organized from the ranch. There are specially trained horses (so-called "Paint Horses" or "Quarter Horses") that are used by the employed cowboys. The cowboys take care of the herd and finally make sure that it gets to the slaughterhouse. Even today, livestock trails are still necessary in some cases, but they no longer reach the extent of earlier times.