Political economy: concepts, theory, and applications

Cattle Drive

Our role play recruitment for cattle drive recruiters and recruits takes place in 1866 in a Texas panhandle town after the American Civil War. Herd owners hold a meeting where they recruit discharged Confederate war veterans and others to drive their cattle across hundreds of miles of prairie to Kansas and Nebraska. Kansas, which had been open before is now more than ever being settled by homesteaders in need of cheap land. The land is more valuable there in producing farm crops than in cattle. In comes the cattle investor who decides to use the old Spanish/Mexican practice of cattle driving to bring the goods from the interior of Texas to the northern areas where railroads in Kansas will take the beasts to market.

Role Play

The Texans simply learned the practice of cattle driving from the Spanish and Mexicans before who used the practiced to get their animals to markets in the North. While 1866-1886 was the classic time for the American cattle herding movement, it was much older. The state and former province had always relied heavily upon ranching and already existing were simply expanded. Long horns were originally raised and driven north for their ability to use in farm activities as draft animals. However, the invention of refrigerated freight cars, the demand for beef became more pronounced and the animals more and more were driven north for this purpose. The immediate emphasis mentioned at the meeting was the packing plant built by Phillip Danforth Armour the year before in 1865. Both United States and overseas demand had to be supplied ("People & events:," 2012). This year, the cattle can be sold to the northern markets for as much as $40 per head. This makes it profitable for cattle, particularly from Texas to be herded the long distances to market in Abilene. It was the Chicago plant and Mr. Armour's money that made the meeting possible.

The drive itself had its own style of organization. The recruiter at the meeting remarks that he needs twenty experienced cowboys who can handle 3000 cattle along the trail to Abilene, Kansas. One less experienced understudy can be hired to handle the extra horses. The horse seller at the meeting is tasked with providing three horses for every cowboy and enough oxen and replacements for the chuck wagon outfit. The cooks interviewed will be become highly respected and prestigious members of the crew as they will have to feed this large group of men and keep them healthy on the move to Abilene the recruits at the meeting are told what they already know: cattle drives strike a balance between weight of the cattle and the speed of movement of the herd. While cattle might be driven as far as 25 miles in one day, this was not good. They might lose so much weight that they would be impossible to sell when they finally reached the end of the trail at Abilene, KA. It would be better that they be taken shorter distances every day and to be allowed periods to graze and rest at midday and night time. The average herd could keep a healthy weight while moving about 15 miles a day. Such a pace meant that it would take as long as two months to travel from a home ranch to a railhead. ("Lesson plan 1:," 2006).