Ranch Raised

It has been an absolute pleasure connecting with cattle producers here at the Black Hills Stock Show. It makes my heart swell to everyone collaborating and working together.

I am still in the thick of it up here at the Black Hills Stock. Yesterday was an amazing day starting the morning off with the first ever Cattle Industry Townhall meeting at the Stock Show. A strong crowd of a couple hundred people were on hand. Views of the livestreaming were strong and there is no doubt that event was well received.

Today is a huge day! Check out the Your Ag Network Facebook page or YouTube channel to watch the cattle industry town hall meeting! What?!?! Your Ag Network even has a YouTube channel! Amazing, right! Truly thee best farm and ranch radio network out there, covering the events that are important to producers.

I had a blast last week walking through history and sharing with you stories and facts about the Omaha Stockyards! If you missed an episode or love cattle industry history, you can catch all of those episodes from last week on the Your Ag Network app or website.

The Omaha Stockyards spurred growth of jobs in other industries related to the stockyard. Immigrants flooded in from all over Europe. The men worked long, grueling hours to build a life for themselves and their families.

By 1892 the Omaha stockyard was pulling in 25 million dollars’ worth of business. Around 1900, the stockyards added new pens and brick floors along with new concrete watering troughs and weighing scales. The sheep barn was also rebuilt to hold 100,000 animals, and the new block horse and mule barn was hailed as “the largest and best single barn in the world. At its height of, the Omaha stockyard covered almost 250 acres! In 1910, 20,000 animals were arriving DAILY including cattle, sheep, hogs, and goats from all over the American west!

Before there were livestock markets and sale barns dotted the Midwest prairie towns, the big ranches were sending their market stock to the huge livestock market in Chicago, IL.

So, cattle towns were midwestern frontier settlements that catered to the cattle industry. The economies of these communities were heavily dependent on the seasonal cattle drives from Texas, which brought the cowboys and the cattle that these towns relied upon. Cattle towns were found at the junctions of railroads and livestock trails. These towns were the destination of the cattle drives, the place where the cattle would be bought and shipped off to urban meatpackers, midwestern cattle feeders, or to ranchers on the central or northern plains.

Before we dive into this week, I wanted to let you know that I will be back on the road next week headed to meet with cattle producers. I have learned that cattlemen travel in very small circles, mostly from the ranch to the sale barn and occasionally to the feed store.

There is just something about a dog. There is something about raising kids and dogs together. And none of this has anything to do with Border Collies. You choose the dog for you and sometimes the dog chooses you!