Ranch

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View of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch near Deer Lodge,

Montana, USA.

A ranch is an area of land, including

various structures, given primarily to the
practice of ranching, the practice of raising
grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep
for meat or wool. The word most often
applies to livestock-raising operations in
Mexico, the Western United States and
Western Canada, though there are ranches
in other areas. People who own or operate
a ranch are called ranchers, cattlemen, or
stockgrowers. Ranching is also a method
used to raise less common livestock such
as elk, American bison or even ostrich,
emu, and alpaca.

Ranches generally consist of large areas,

but may be of nearly any size. In the
western United States, many ranches are a
combination of privately owned land
supplemented by grazing leases on land
under the control of the federal Bureau of
Land Management or the United States
Forest Service. If the ranch includes arable
or irrigated land, the ranch may also
engage in a limited amount of farming,
raising crops for feeding the animals, such
as hay and feed grains.

Ranches that cater exclusively to tourists

are called guest ranches or, colloquially,
"dude ranches." Most working ranches do
not cater to guests, though they may allow
private hunters or outfitters onto their
property to hunt native wildlife. However, in
recent years, a few struggling smaller
operations have added some dude ranch
features, such as horseback rides, cattle
drives or guided hunting, in an attempt to
bring in additional income. Ranching is
part of the iconography of the "Wild West"
as seen in Western movies and rodeos.

Ranch occupations
The person who owns and manages the
operation of a ranch is usually called a
rancher, but the terms cattleman,
stockgrower, or stockman are also
sometimes used. If this individual in
charge of overall management is an
employee of the actual owner, the term
foreman or ranch foreman is used. A
rancher who primarily raises young stock
sometimes is called a cow-calf operator or
a cow-calf man. This person is usually the
owner, though in some cases, particularly
where there is absentee ownership, it is
the ranch manager or ranch foreman.

The people who are employees of the

rancher and involved in handling livestock
are called a number of terms, including
cowhand, ranch hand, and cowboy. People
exclusively involved with handling horses
are sometimes called wranglers.
Origins of ranching
Ranching and the cowboy tradition
originated in Spain, out of the necessity to
handle large herds of grazing animals on
dry land from horseback. During the
Reconquista, members of the Spanish
nobility and various military orders
received large land grants that the
Kingdom of Castile had conquered from
the Moors. These landowners were to
defend the lands put into their control and
could use them for earning revenue. In the
process it was found that open-range
breeding of sheep and cattle (under the
Mesta system) was the most suitable use
for vast tracts, particularly in the parts of
Spain now known as Castilla-La Mancha,
Extremadura and Andalusia.

History in North America

The historic 101 Ranch in Oklahoma showing the

ranchhouse, corrals, and out-buildings.

Spanish North America

A Mexican rancho in Jalisco.

When the Conquistadors came to the

Americas in the 16th century, followed by
settlers, they brought their cattle and
cattle-raising techniques with them. Huge
land grants by the Spanish (and later
Mexican) government, part of the
hacienda system, allowed large numbers
of animals to roam freely over vast areas.
A number of different traditions developed,
often related to the original location in
Spain from which a settlement originated.
For example, many of the traditions of the
Jalisco charros in central Mexico come
from the Salamanca charros of Castile.
The vaquero tradition of Northern Mexico
was more organic, developed to adapt to
the characteristics of the region from
Spanish sources by cultural interaction
between the Spanish elites and the native
and mestizo peoples.[1]

United States
An 1898 photochrom of a round-up in or near the town
of Cimarron, Colorado.

As settlers from the United States moved

west, they brought cattle breeds developed
on the east coast and in Europe along with
them, and adapted their management to
the drier lands of the west by borrowing
key elements of the Spanish vaquero
culture.

However, there were cattle on the eastern

seaboard. Deep Hollow Ranch, 110 miles
(180 km) east of New York City in
Montauk, New York, claims to be the first
ranch in the United States, having
continuously operated since 1658.[2] The
ranch makes the somewhat debatable
claim of having the oldest cattle operation
in what today is the United States, though
cattle had been run in the area since
European settlers purchased land from the
Indian people of the area in 1643.[3]
Although there were substantial numbers
of cattle on Long Island, as well as the
need to herd them to and from common
grazing lands on a seasonal basis, the
cattle handlers actually lived in houses
built on the pasture grounds, and cattle
were ear-marked for identification, rather
than being branded.[3] The only actual
"cattle drives" held on Long Island
consisted of one drive in 1776, when the
island's cattle were moved in a failed
attempt to prevent them from being
captured by the British during the
American Revolution, and three or four
drives in the late 1930s, when area cattle
were herded down Montauk Highway to
pasture ground near Deep Hollow Ranch.[3]

The Open Range

Cattle near the Bruneau River in Elko County, Nevada

The prairie and desert lands of what today

is Mexico and the western United States
were well-suited to "open range" grazing.
For example, American bison had been a
mainstay of the diet for the Native
Americans in the Great Plains for
centuries. Likewise, cattle and other
livestock were simply turned loose in the
spring after their young were born and
allowed to roam with little supervision and
no fences, then rounded up in the fall, with
the mature animals driven to market and
the breeding stock brought close to the
ranch headquarters for greater protection
in the winter. The use of livestock branding
allowed the cattle owned by different
ranchers to be identified and sorted.
Beginning with the settlement of Texas in
the 1840s, and expansion both north and
west from that time, through the Civil War
and into the 1880s, ranching dominated
western economic activity.

Along with ranchers came the need for

agricultural crops to feed both humans
and livestock, and hence many farmers
also came west along with ranchers. Many
operations were "diversified," with both
ranching and farming activities taking
place. With the Homestead Act of 1862,
more settlers came west to set up farms.
This created some conflict, as increasing
numbers of farmers needed to fence off
fields to prevent cattle and sheep from
eating their crops. Barbed wire, invented in
1874, gradually made inroads in fencing
off privately owned land, especially for
homesteads. There was some reduction of
land on the Great Plains open to grazing.

End of the Open Range

The severe winter of 1886–87 brought an end to the
open range. Waiting for a Chinook, by C.M. Russell.

The end of the open range was not

brought about by a reduction in land due to
crop farming, but by overgrazing. Cattle
stocked on the open range created a
tragedy of the commons as each rancher
sought increased economic benefit by
grazing too many animals on public lands
that "nobody" owned. However, being a
non-native species, the grazing patterns of
ever-increasing numbers of cattle slowly
reduced the quality of the rangeland, in
spite of the simultaneous massive
slaughter of American bison that occurred.
The winter of 1886–87 was one of the
most severe on record, and livestock that
were already stressed by reduced grazing
died by the thousands. Many large cattle
operations went bankrupt, and others
suffered severe financial losses. Thus,
after this time, ranchers also began to
fence off their land and negotiated
individual grazing leases with the
American government so that they could
keep better control of the pasture land
available to their own animals.
Ranching in Hawaii

Ranching in Hawaii developed

independently of that in the continental
United States. In colonial times, Capt.
George Vancouver gave several head of
cattle to the Hawaiian king, Pai`ea
Kamehameha, monarch of the Hawaiian
Kingdom, and by the early 19th century,
they had multiplied considerably, to the
point that they were wreaking havoc
throughout the countryside. About 1812,
John Parker, a sailor who had jumped ship
and settled in the islands, received
permission from Kamehameha to capture
the wild cattle and develop a beef industry.
The Hawaiian style of ranching originally
included capturing wild cattle by driving
them into pits dug in the forest floor. Once
tamed somewhat by hunger and thirst,
they were hauled out up a steep ramp, and
tied by their horns to the horns of a tame,
older steer (or ox) and taken to fenced-in
areas. The industry grew slowly under the
reign of Kamehameha's son Liholiho
(Kamehameha II). When Liholiho's son,
Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), visited
California, then still a part of Mexico, he
was impressed with the skill of the
Mexican vaqueros. In 1832, he invited
several to Hawaii to teach the Hawaiian
people how to work cattle.
The Hawaiian cowboy came to be called
the paniolo, a Hawaiianized pronunciation
of español. Even today, the traditional
Hawaiian saddle and many other tools of
the ranching trade have a distinctly
Mexican look, and many Hawaiian
ranching families still carry the surnames
of vaqueros who made Hawaii their home.

Ranching in South America

In Argentina, ranches are known as
estancias, and in Brazil, they are called
fazendas. In much of South America,
including Ecuador and Colombia, the term
hacienda may be used. Ranchero or
Rancho are also generic terms used
throughout Latin America.

In the colonial period, from the pampas

regions of South America all the way to the
Minas Gerais state in Brazil, including the
semi-arid pampas of Argentina and the
south of Brazil, were often well-suited to
ranching, and a tradition developed that
largely paralleled that of Mexico and the
United States. The gaucho culture of
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are among
the cattle ranching traditions born during
the period. However, in the 20th century,
cattle raising expanded into less-suitable
areas of the Pantanal. Particularly in Brazil,
the 20th century marked the rapid growth
of deforestation, as rain forest lands were
cleared by slash and burn methods that
allowed grass to grow for livestock, but
also led to the depletion of the land within
only a few years. Many of indigenous
peoples of the rain forest opposed this
form of cattle ranching and protested the
forest being burnt down to set up grazing
operations and farms. This conflict is still
a concern in the region today.

Ranches outside the Americas

Cattle in a dehesa in Bollullos Par del Condado, Spain.

In Spain, where the origins of ranching can

be traced, there are ganaderías operating
on dehesa-type land, where fighting bulls
are raised. However, the concept of a
"ranch" is not seen to any significant
degree in the rest of western Europe,
where there is far less land area and
sufficient rainfall allows the raising of
cattle on much smaller farms.
In Australia, the equivalent agricultural
lands are known as 'stations' in the
context of what stock they carry — usually
referred to as cattle stations or sheep
stations. New Zealanders use the term
runs and stations.

In South Africa, similar large agricultural

holdings are simply known as a farm
(occasionally ranch) in South African
English or a plaas in Afrikaans.

The largest cattle stations in the world are

located in Australia's dry rangeland in the
outback. Owners of these stations are
known as 'grazier', especially if they reside
on the property. Employees are known as
stockmen, jackaroos and ringers rather
than cowboys. A number of Australian
cattle stations are larger than 10,000 km2,
with the greatest being Anna Creek Station
which measures 23,677 km2 in area
(approximately eight times the largest US
Ranch). Anna Creek is owned by S Kidman
& Co.

See also
Animal husbandry
Garden tools
Estancia
Ranch school
 Holistic management
Homestead (buildings)
Intensive_animal_farming#Cattle
List of Ranches and Stations
Movie ranch
Pastoralism
Ranch-style house

References
1. Haeber, Jonathan. "Vaqueros: The First
Cowboys of the Open Range" . National
Geographic News, August 15, 2003.
Accessed online October 15, 2007.
2. Deep Hollow Ranch History Archived
2007-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
3. Ochs, Ridgeley. "Ride 'em, Island
Cowboy," Newsday,. Accessed May 5, 2008

Further reading
Blunt, Judy. Breaking Clean. Knopf:
2002, hardcover, ISBN 0-375-40131-8
Campbell, Ida Foster and Alice Foster
Hill. Triumph and Tragedy: A History of
Thomas Lyons and the LCs. High-
Lonesome Books, Silver City, New
Mexico, 2002, softcover, ISBN 0-944383-
61-0.
Ellis, George F., The Bell Ranch as I Knew
It, Lowell Press: 1973, hardcover, ISBN 0-
913504-15-7
 Greenwood, Kathy L. Heart-Diamond,
University of North Texas Press, 1989,
hardcover, ISBN 0-929398-08-4
Paul, Virginia. This Was Cattle Ranching:
Yesterday and Today, Superior
Publishing Company, Seattle,
Washington, 1973
Ward, Delbert R. Great Ranches of the
United States, Ganada Press, San
Antonio, Texas, 1993, paperback,
ISBN 1-88051-025-1

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Ranches.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Ranching.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization -

Native Ranching and Rodeo Life on the
Plains and Plateau
The Handbook of Texas Online: Ranching
Society for Range Management
Western Watersheds Project
Cattle Ranges of the Southwest ,
published 1898, hosted by the Portal to
Texas History
Guide to ranch archives in Southwest
Collection/Special Collections Library at
Texas Tech
 Cowboys to Cattlemen Virtual Museum
Exhibit and Lesson Plans at Grant-Kohrs
Ranch NHS from National Park Service

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