It hindered the efforts of raising cattle on the open range, to the point where it made it impossible without inviting range wars with farmers and other ranchers who no longer free-ranged their cattle. Cowboys had to find new and more difficult ways to herd their cattle to the stockyards that were often over 50 to 100 miles away.
The quick easy answer is..The open plains were cut up by "Barbed Wire" Barbed wire put an end to the great Cattle drives of the old West and to a certain extent The Cowboy.
Barbed-wire. When farmers started putting up barbed-wire fences, cattle drives couldn't get to the feilds forthe cows to graze.
1) Barbed wire 2) Rail heads were closer to the ranches 3) Not enough grass to feed cattle
The invention of barbed wire ended the open range
Barbed wire.
it affected the barbed wire because the cattle drive was having lots of problems with the barbed wires
Yes it did. Barbed wire closed the open range. People were fencing off their land preventing cattle from getting by easily. Ranchers had to take long ways around the enclosed areas. And by 1887 and 1888 a harsh winter came in and cattle could not get around the fencing making them freeze to death in the middle of the night. It was a sad part of history, but people still use barbed wire today.
Barbed wire.
Barbed wire
The big cattle drives in the United States primarily took place from the late 1860s to the early 1890s, lasting about 20 to 25 years. These drives were driven by the demand for beef following the Civil War and the expansion of railroads into cattle-rich areas. The era of the cattle drives effectively ended with the advent of barbed wire and changes in ranching practices.
I don't think it was the cattle trails themselves that changed the industry, it was more or less the building of the railroads, more pioneers taking over the land, and barbed wire that changed the cattle industry as a whole.
Cattle drives soon ended in the late 1800's to the early 1900's because of fierce winter storms, barbed wire, drought, overgrazing, and the near extinction of the population of Longhorns originating from Spain and developed in the wilds of southwestern America.