Implications of Adjustments in the Beef Industry for Related Industries, 1970-1980

Abstract

The economic history of the American beef industry is in a very real sense the economic history of all America in microcosm. The patterns of specialization and division of labor, geographic adjustment to technological change, and differential time lags in economic adjustments among the various sequentially related levels of the industry can be found throughout most phases of the American economy.

The real beginning of the American beef industry was observed during the mid-1800's-basically in Texas. Following the War Between the States, the industry was expanded via the cattle drives into the Great Plains and the Intermountain West. In the beginning, the industry was simply that-an industry. So far as cattle were concerned, it was a family affair-mammas, papas, babies, and adolescents all lived together in the same operation and on the same ranges. Cattle were moved by cattle drive and later by rail directly from grass to slaughter-typically at ages in excess of three years. The large slaughter complexes that grew up around rail centers such as Omaha and Chicago were the outcome of this sort of industry organization.