Wild Cow Tales by Ben K. Green

Author:Ben K. Green [Green, Ben K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77239-8
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-18T04:00:00+00:00

STEERS

STEERS ARE A PRINCIPAL CLASS OF cattle that have long been referred to in livestock market quotations, various cattle operations, in song, stories, and legend. To my knowledge no writer has ever written the reason that bull calves are castrated and hence afterward known as steers, and due explanation has never been made as to their special purposes in the cattle industry.

In the early days of the cattle business in the Southwest there was little or no market for calves at weaning age except for the few ranchers who would buy them to keep on open range until they were older and bigger. The demand for “light” beef had not developed in the early-day consumer’s trade as it has in modern times.

As bull calves develop into maturity, their shoulders and neck become thick and masculine with lots of cartilage and tissue developing in their muscle structure that is never palatable as human food unless it has gone through some grinding and other packer’s processing. To keep a bunch of bull calves to develop into grown cattle running on one range amounted to a constant bullfight and not a profitable growth and flesh gain. By this brief explanation, the reader can readily understand that keeping a great herd of bulls was impractical and unprofitable.

When these bull calves are castrated, their growth pattern is changed and they do not produce coarse shoulders, thick necks, and other fleshing patterns that are undesirable for beef after they have reached a mature age. Great herds of steers can be run on open range or in fenced pasture in order that they may be grown into larger cattle without any particular difficulty of handling. This would show why it is most desirable from a cowman’s standpoint to be raising steers.

It is common knowledge among stockmen that certain regions of semi-arid pasture land that is commonly referred to as rough—meaning mountains, rimrock, canyons that produce sparse, scattered vegetation—are more adaptable to beef production by the use of steers to graze such lands because steers can cover more ground to rustle for a living and gain weight than cows can and at the same time nurse a calf. This explains why there are vast semi-arid regions of the Western and Southwestern United States that are far more adaptable to steer beef-cattle operations than to those for cows and calves. At times of drouth or other adversity it is much easier to drive, ship, and relocate herds of steers than it is to move cows and calves.

A big steer in the early days of trail driving to Northern markets from the Southwest could make the trip on foot much faster than all other classes of cattle. He grazed along the way and maintained his flesh, and if he was driven across good grass country, might even gain weight on the trail drive. This is why “steer drives” are often referred to by cattlemen and historians of the past. The steer was the only class of cattle that could produce

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