A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products (milk), leather and as draft animals (pulling carts, plows and the like). In some countries, such as India, they are honored in religious ceremonies and revered. It is or sheep Domestic sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over 1 billion, domestic sheep are the most for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the and Canada Canada is a country occupying most of upper North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area and shares the world's longest common border with the United States to the south and northwest, though there are ranches in other areas. People who own or operate a ranch are called stockgrowers or ranchers. Ranching is also a method used to raise less common livestock Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fiber, or for its labor. The term as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning of 'livestock' is common such as elk The elk, or wapiti , is one of the largest species of deer in the world and one of the largest mammals in North America and eastern Asia. In the deer family (Cervidae), only the moose, Alces alces (called an "elk" in Europe), is larger, and Cervus unicolor (the "Sambar" deer) can rival the elk in size. Elk are almost identical, American Bison The American Bison is a North American species of bison, also commonly known as the American Buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Asian Buffalo (or "Water Buffalo") and the African Buffalo. However, "bison" is or even ostrich The Ostrich, Struthio camelus, is a large flightless bird native to Africa . It is the only living species of its family, Struthionidae, and its genus, Struthio. Ostriches share the order Struthioniformes with the Emu, kiwis, and other ratites. It is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs and the ability to run at maximum speeds and emu The Emu , Dromaius novaehollandiae, is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is also the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. The soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds reach up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height. The Emu is common over most of.

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 The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately 264 million acres (1,070,000 km²) or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. Most public lands are located in western states. With approximately 9,000 permanent employees, and over 1,000. If the ranch includes arable or irrigated land, the ranch may also engage in a limited amount of farming A farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single individual, family, community, corporation or a company. A farm can be a holding of any size, raising crops for feeding the animals, such as hay Hay is a generic term for grass or legumes that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal feed, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs. Pigs may be fed hay, but they do not digest it very efficiently and feed grains.

Ranches that cater exclusively to tourists are called guest ranches The guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism or, colloquially A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech, writing or paralinguistics. Colloquialisms are also sometimes referred to collectively as "colloquial language". Colloquialisms or colloquial language is considered to be characteristic of or only appropriate for casual, ordinary, familiar, or informal conversation rather than, "dude ranches The guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism." Most working ranches do not cater to guests, though they may allow private hunters Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law. The species which are hunted are referred to as game and are usually large or small mammals or or outfitters An outfitter is a shop or person that sells men's clothes . More specifically, it is a company or individual who provides or deals in equipment and supplies for the pursuit of certain activities. The term is most closely associated with outdoor activities such as rafting, hunting, fishing, canoeing, hiking, and trail riding using pack stations. In 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 Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek εικον and γραφειν (to write). A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the Byzantine and Orthodox of the "Wild West" as seen in Western movies The Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States , but also in Western Canada, Mexico (The Wild Bunch, Vera Cruz), Alaska (The Far Country, North to Alaska) and rodeos Rodeo is a sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States, western Canada, and northern Mexico. Today it is a sporting event.

Origins of ranching

Ranching and the cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century became a figure of special significance and legend. A subtype, called a wrangler, specifically tends the horses used to work cattle tradition originated in Spain Spain /ˈspeɪn/ (Spanish: España, pronounced [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), or the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.[note 6] Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north by France,, out of the necessity to handle large herds of grazing animals on dry land from horseback. During the Reconquista The Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims. The Islamic conquest of the Christian Visigothic kingdom in the eighth century (begun 710–12) extended over almost the entire peninsula (except major parts of, members of the Spanish nobility The Spanish nobility are the persons who possess the legal status of nobility, and the system of titles and honours of Spain and of the former kingdoms that constitute it. Some nobles possess various titles that may be inherited, but the inheritance and creation of titles is entirely at the grace of the King of Spain. During the rule of General and various military orders A military order is a Christian order of knighthood that is founded for crusading, i.e. propagating and/or defending the faith , either in the Holy Land or against Islam (Reconquista) or pagans (mainly Baltic region) in Europe, but many became secularized later received large land grants that the Kingdom of Castile Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It was one of the kingdoms that founded the Crown of had conquered from the Moors The Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims. The Islamic conquest of the Christian Visigothic kingdom in the eighth century (begun 710–12) extended over almost the entire peninsula (except major parts of. 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 Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain, Extremadura Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. It includes the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz. Extremadura borders Portugal to the west, and it is an important area for wildlife, particularly with the major reserve at Monfragüe, which was designated a National Park in 2007, or the project of the and Andalusia Andalusia is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Kingdom of Spain. Its capital and largest city is Seville. The region is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and Almería.

History in North America

Spanish North America

When the Conquistadors The captains of the company were not conquering old people and adolescents as the rest of the host. They were usually mature men, who fought in earlier battles with the Muslims in southern Spain. Conquistadors were more mercenaries than actual soldiers. They had to buy their armor, sword, and horses. The warlords of the conquest of Mexico were, on came to the Americas The Americas, or America, are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area in the 16th century, followed by settlers, they brought their cattle Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products (milk), leather and as draft animals (pulling carts, plows and the like). In some countries, such as India, they are honored in religious ceremonies and revered. It is and cattle-raising techniques with them. Huge land grants by the Spanish (and later Mexican) government, part of the hacienda Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities. The hacienda system of Argentina, parts of Brazil, Chile, Mexico and New Granada was a system of large land-holdings that were an end in themselves as the marks of status. 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 Jalisco is one of the 31 Mexican states that, together with the Mexican Federal District, conform the 32 federal entities of Mexico charros In Mexico, charro is a term referring to a traditional horseman or cowboy of Mexico, originating in the State of Jalisco. In the rest of Mexico the equivalent term was "vaquero". In Texas, which won its independence in 1836, "vaquero" was the term used by the Spanish speaking citizens of the new Republic. The term was also in central Mexico come from the Salamanca Salamanca is a province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Zamora, Valladolid, Ávila, and Cáceres, and by Portugal 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

As settlers from the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the moved west, they brought cattle breeds developed on the east coast and in Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast. Europe is washed upon to the north by the Arctic Ocean and 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 New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment. As host of the United Nations headquarters, it is in Montauk, New York Montauk is a hamlet within the Town of East Hampton. It is in Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population was 3,851. It is the easternmost census designated place in New York State, 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 Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as intact political communities. There has 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 The American Revolution refers to the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and then rejected the British monarchy itself to become the sovereign United States of America. In this period the colonies first rejected the, 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

The prairie Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, and the steppes of Russia and Central Asia and desert A desert is a landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than 250 millimetres per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system, deserts are classed as BWh (hot lands of what today is Mexico The United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos ), commonly known as Mexico (English: /ˈmɛksɪkoʊ/) (Spanish: México (help·info) [ˈmexiko]), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the western United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the were well-suited to "open range" grazing. For example, American bison The American Bison is a North American species of bison, also commonly known as the American Buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Asian Buffalo (or "Water Buffalo") and the African Buffalo. However, "bison" is had been a mainstay of the diet for the Native Americans The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations, Amerigine, and by Christopher Columbus' geographical mistake Indians, modernly disambiguated as the American Indian in the Great Plains for centuries. Likewise, cattle and sheep, descended from animals brought over from Europe, 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 Livestock branding is any technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding. Other forms of livestock identification include inner lip or ear tattoos, earmarking, 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 end of the open range was not brought about by a reduction in land due to arable 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 1886-1887 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 1800s, 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 Ranchos are also generic term used throughout Latin America.

In the colonial period, Pampas regions of South America, particularly the Semi-arid Pampas of Argentina, were often well-suited to ranching and a tradition developed that largely paralleled that of Mexico and the United States. However, in the 20th century, cattle raising expanded into less-suitable areas. 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

In Spain, where the origins of ranching can be traced, there are ganaderías operating on dehesa-type land, where fighting bulls are raised.

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. 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 average 10,000 km² or more, and the very largest is Anna Creek station which measures 23,677 km² in area. Anna Creek is owned by S Kidman & Co.

New Zealanders use the term runs and stations.

The term "ranch" and the need for vast grazing area is not used in British agriculture. The nation has far less land area, and sufficient rainfall to allow the raising of cattle on much smaller areas. From medieval times, cattle were traditionally raised in the small-area bocage. For similar reasons, the concept of a "ranch" is also not seen to any significant degree in most of western Europe. The only stock-raising properties in the British Isles that are anywhere close to the size of the ranches in other nations are the largest hill farms in the upland areas of the United Kingdom.

See also

• Pastoralism
• Farm
• Cowboy
• Horse
• Guest ranch (also known as a Dude Ranch)
• Rangeland
• Movie ranch
• Hunting
• Animal husbandry
• Transhumance
• List of Ranches and Stations
• Ranch-style house
• Homestead (buildings)

References

1. ^ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0814_030815_cowboys.html Haeber, Jonathan. "Vaqueros: The First Cowboys of the Open Range" National Geographic News, August 15, 2003. Accessed online October 15, 2007.
2. ^ http://deephollowranch.com/history1.htm Deep Hollow Ranch History
3. ^ ^{a b c} [http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-hs328a,0,6827509.story 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 7-880-510-25-1

External links

• 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 University

Categories: Ranches | Spanish loanwords | Cowboy culture | Livestock

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