Page 228 - The Welfare of Cattle

ChaPter 19

animal Care Issues in Beef Cattle Feedlots

John J. Wagner
Colorado State University

CONteNtS

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................205
The Five Freedoms .........................................................................................................................206
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................209
References ......................................................................................................................................209

INtrODUCtION

Cattle entered what is now the United States through four distinct paths starting in the early
sixteenth century (Bowling, 1942). The Spanish brought cattle from the West Indies to the Atlantic
or Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida. Spanish cattle also entered the Southwest, including present-day
New Mexico and Texas, from Mexico. The third incursion of cattle came from French settlements
in present-day Canada into states near the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes region. The fourth
entry was associated with the settlement of various colonies along the Atlantic coast by the Dutch,
English, and Swedes. Interestingly, many of the cattle imported by the English were of Spanish
origin and were purchased in the West Indies. Imported cattle were initially used as draft animals.
Bowling (1942) concluded that the initial economic purpose for the importation of cattle by the
Spanish was for hide production. Tongues and tallow were also important products; however, the
production of beef remained a by-product of the hide industry. Cattle imported by the Dutch and
Swedes were used primarily for dairy production.
The interest in beef production as a primary economic enterprise did not occur until the end of
the eighteenth or the start of the nineteenth century in response to the production of surplus crops
in the Ohio River Valley. In June of 1817, New York City received its first shipment of Ohio grain-
fed steers (Matsushima and Farr, 1995). Early grain and cattle production systems were remarkably
simple. Whitaker (1975) stated that in early-nineteenth-century Illinois and Iowa, corn required lit-
tle effort to plant and even less to harvest, because cattle were often turned into the fields to harvest
the crop themselves, and hogs often followed the cattle to salvage any grain that the cattle knocked
down and wasted. Once fattened on surplus corn, livestock walked to markets located near the river
systems because railroads were not established yet. The cattle feeding industry expanded as surplus
crops were produced. Technological improvements, such as the invention of the John Deere steel
plow in the 1830s, the increased availability of hybrid seed corn in the 1930s, and the development
of deep-well irrigation in the 1940s, in addition to political decisions, such as the Homestead and

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