Western Cattle Ranching Research Paper

Mexico inspired Western cattle ranching. The first cattle in the Americas came from Spain, there were so many cattle that ranching became a very good business for Californios, Tejanos and the Americans who learned from the Mexicans. The cattle from Spain were very thin and their horns were long and broad. Instead of the dairy products produced by Eastern farms, the Western ranches produced things like meat and hides. Rancheros overlooked their herds and fields while vaqueros were hired to take care of the cattle. One of the vaqueros most important jobs was branding, which was when they used a hot iron to burn a mark into the cow’s skin. Branding was necessary to tell people’s cows apart because different owners let their cows out in the same
unfenced grasslands. Another important job for vaqueros was the rodeo, this was when they gathered all the unbranded calves to the roundup area to get branded.