The Production and Marketing of Wyoming Beef Cattle

Abstract

Tr -^ HE production and marketing of Wyoming beef cattle illustrate many of the broader characteristics of the cattle industry in western United States. Wyoming has within its borders arid and semi-arid interior basins, high rugged mountains with upland pastures, and the broadly rolling to undulating expanse of the Great Plains. In some sectors, vegetation and water conditions restrict range utilization to sheep, but most districts can be grazed by both sheep and cattle. The two principal methods of handling cattle during severe winter weather are illustrated in Wyoming: (1) wintering cattle upon wild and tame irrigated and subirrigated hay which was cut and stacked during the summer, and (2) winter grazing of stock in areas of light and drifted snow with supplemental feeding of cottonseed cake or some other protein concentrate. In a number of other respects, too, Wyoming reflects the grazing problems of the West. Like most other western states, it has a vast grazing area included in National Forests, Indian reservations, and unappropriated public domain. Most of this range can be utilized only seasonally, and is exclusively used by individuals with a Federal grazing permit. Stock production in such areas is said to be indirectly subsidized, since the grazing fee involved is commonly far below the fee for grazing on leased private land. Transhumance is widespread except on the Great Plains. Wyoming also illustrates a relatively recent trend of producing both sheep and cattle simultaneously on the same ranch. From the viewpoint of marketing, Wyoming illustrates the preponderance of Herefords shipped from the western range, the correlation of time of marketing with decrease in the carrying capacity of the range, the four major means by which cattle are sold, the relative importance of rail and truck as modes of shipment, and the growing significance of the West Coast states as a market.