An Illustrated History of Cattle Feeding in Alberta An Illustrated History of Cattle Feeding in Alberta From Start To Finish An Illustrated History of Cattle Feeding in Alberta By Kris Nielson and John Prociuk Published by: Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association Calgary, Alberta, Canada Copyright © 1998 From Start To Finish An Illustrated History of Cattle Feeding in Alberta By Kris Nielson and John Prociuk Published by: Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association Calgary, Alberta, Canada Copyright © 1998 Graphic Design and Production: Kris Nielson National Library of Canada Cataloguing-in-Publication Data F Cover Photo Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association W.C. Ranch near Pincher Creek. Photo Courtesy of Laura Leyshon-Thuresson From Start To Finish An Illustrated History of Cattle Feeding in Alberta F Preceding page The A7 Ranche near Nanton. By Kris Nielson and John Prociuk Glenbow Museum / NA-857-1 Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-9683271-0-9 E Following page W.C. Ranch near Pincher Creek. 1. Cattle Feeding - Alberta - History. 2. Beef Cattle - Alberta - History. Photo Courtesy of Laura Leyshon-Thuresson 3. Ranching - Alberta - History. 4. Agriculture - Alberta - History. Table of Contents Chapter one The Golden Era of Large Ranching 8 The Early Years of the Free Range in Western Canada Significant Ranches of the Golden Era Life on the Ranch in the Early Years Hardships, Challenges and Lessons Learned The End of the Early Ranching Era New Developments in Feeding and the Beef Business Looking to a Future of More Efficient Feeding Chapter two The Years of Challenge and Change 82 The Changing West in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Progress on a Number of Fronts Depression and Diversification Life and Times in the Cattle Business Cattle Feeding in the Years of Challenge and Change Chapter three The Years of Progress and Specialization 138 The Growth of the Feeding Industry in the Modern Era The Maturation of the Industry: The Contribution of Science The Evolution of the Industry: Business and Commercial Aspects Specialization in the Industry: Ranchers and Feeders Working Together The Birth of the Custom Feedlot Today’s Cattle Feeder and the Modern Feedlot The Role of Organizations What the Future Holds 6 Foreword Alberta’s history, it seems, is irrevocably woven into that of the cattle industry. The early open range activities provided the first basis for the Province’s economy, and over the years ranchers from the southern grasslands to the central park belt and on to the Peace River area utilized the abundant grasses and forages to produce the cattle which became the world-renowned Alberta beef. Probably because of its romanticism, the early era of the open range, with its round-ups and traditional cowboy lifestyles, has been used to define the essence of the cattle industry. Somehow, the unending, rippling grasslands seem to place cattle in a more appropriate setting than a farmyard or even an enclosed pasture. This mystique of the open range which suggests that cattle are best suited to year round range grazing downplays and even ignores the overriding importance of a crucial and vibrant component of the industry. More than anything else, the development of a sophisticated feeding industry has enabled Alberta cattle to keep pace in the race to satisfy an increasingly discriminating global market. The lesson that cattle needed winter supplemental feeding was learned the hard way in the late 1880s. The belief that grain finished cattle gave a market advantage led Alberta ranchers to probe the tariff-free United States mid-West market with their feeders and stockers between 1914 and 1920. The final realization that Alberta could and should finish her own cattle on a large-scale basis was much later in coming, and in part owed its growth in the late 1920s to informal agreements between ranchers and farmers. Subsequent efforts by feeder associations in the 1930s simply evinced the growing knowledge that the economics of cattle raising and grain growing were inextricably entwined. The modern custom feedlot of the post World War Two era was the logical result. The cattle feeding industry in Alberta has evolved through an integration of agriculture and ranching. It is also both technologically refined and sensitive to market and consumer variables. The following discussion places this development into meaningful historic context. Supplemented by informative visuals, the narrative makes a worthwhile and much-needed contribution to the historiography of Alberta agriculture. - Max Foran 7 chapter one THE GOLDEN ERA OF LARGE RANCHING The Early Years of the Free Range in Western Canada The roots of the cattle industry in the century Ohio cattlemen fattened G Alberta extend back to the sixteenth their small herds on grass and corn for A sketch of cattle ranching in century when Spanish explorers the Chicago and New York markets. Alberta as found in “The Western World Illustrated”. (c. 1892) introduced cattle and horses to the The livestock industry continued to Glenbow Museum / NA-727-2 Americas. Cattle raising became an expand after the American Civil War important part of Mexican life, but it because of the industrial revolution and was in Texas that the true cradle of the increasing population. Great trail drives cattle kingdom developed. By 1850 beginning in Texas and covering ranchers in the Lone Star State hundreds of miles north are part of F discovered a demand for feeder cattle American legend. Ranges in Colorado, The A7 Ranche near Nanton. Glenbow Museum / NA-857-1 as far away as Illinois. Soon cattle Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota drives could be seen winding their way were opened to the cattle rancher in to northern markets. Smaller-scale cattle the 1870s, offering an abundance of owners in Carolina, Massachusetts and free grass that could be claimed with Pennsylvania had been feeding relative ease. Overseas markets would livestock decades earlier, sending their soon develop to help the industry even finished product to eastern markets. In more, and technological advances made F Preceding page Cattle grazing on the Highwood the 1840s cattle were fed corn on the it possible to ship meat over long Range. (c. 1900) Illinois prairies, and by the middle of distances. In the span of a few years, Glenbow Museum / ND-8-107 11 CHAPTER ONE the Canadian West would become yet livestock business. Cattle were another frontier for the expanding introduced into British Columbia’s cattle business. Nicola and Thompson valley regions Cattle raising and feeding east of during the gold rush of the 1850s. This the foothills of western Canada owes its was followed by the appearance of origin primarily to a geography and cattle on the plains of southern Alberta climate that combined to provide and southeastern Saskatchewan. Of all Texas Longhorns at Union adequate grassland grazing for these areas, the foothill country of Stockyards in Chicago. During the livestock. Some areas in the British southern Alberta was a natural late 1800s, the largest cattle Columbia interior and southwestern heartland for the early ranching markets in North America were Saskatchewan also featured appropriate frontier. Nature had provided sheltered found in the eastern portion of the conditions. When these regions began and well-watered valleys, and welcome United States. (c. 1896) Glenbow Museum / NA-1741-1 to populate, investors immediately saw chinook winds tempered the effects of H an opportunity for success in the winter and exposed grass for grazing. 12 By the 1880s the Dominion G government was encouraging Cowboys preparing to drive cattle FORT r to southern Alberta from the entrepreneurs like Montreal’s Matthew e iv CALGARY w R Okanagan Valley in British o Cochrane to put money and cattle into lb E r e Columbia. (c. 1882) v i B the Canadian North West. John A. R o Vernon Museum and Archives / 5021 w wo o R h d MacDonald’s government was eager to g i iv H er carry out its National Policy by COCHRANE RANCHE Will developing the West, and feared ow F NORTH-WEST American expansionism into the C Cattle company leases as of 1884. r CATTLE CO. O e FORT l e region. This led to the amending of the dm k a MACLEOD OXLEY n “..For the purposes of the stock- R Dominion Land Policy to allow large- RANCHE i raisers it suffices to know that for v e scale land leasing in western Canada. WALROND r a great part of the winter, much of er r RANCHE iv e R v r i With the government promoting cattle n e the surface is free from snow, and o R t iv NATIVE r R y e r t trade with Britain, that initiative was a that it seldom or never attains a RESERVE a y l M l W e . t depth sufficient to prevent enough to lure businessmen from B S CANADA animals from feeding....in less eastern Canada and Great Britain to UNITED STATES invest in the new frontier. The early than ten years all will be changed, and the plain and hills...will be old-world British influence on the covered with cattle and dotted a small farming settlement in British industry would become recognizable by with ranches.” the frequent spelling of the word ranch North America along the Red River in with an “e” at the end, as in the what is southern Manitoba today. The -G.M. Dawson, Dominion Land Surveyor in the Montreal Gazette, Cochrane Ranche. little colony of a few hundred people November 17, 1881 However important the large was appropriately called the Red River businessmen-ranchers of the 1880s Settlement. They purchased a yearling were in expanding and promoting the and heifer from the Hudson’s Bay livestock industry, the very first cattle Company and optimistically named to make their appearance in the West them Adam and Eve.