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They put up fences. Cattle used to roam freely on the Great Plains. Later, farmers put up barbed wire fences in order to share the land and divide it. The fences ended the cattle drives that were an essential part of the Cattle Kingdom.
Cattle drives haven't ended, they still happen around the world, a lot more frequently than you think, actually. But back in the late 1800's in the USA and Canada the implementation of barbed wire fences, increasing population of settlers taking over land that could be or would otherwise be used to graze and raise cattle on, the railroad, the invention of the car (which turned into manufacturing large trucks to transport livestock in) and the Great Winter of 1885-86 where thousands of cattle died of starvation all came together to bring the great, one-hundred-mile-plus cattle drives from the home range to the stockyards to an end. It was no longer needed, wasn't feasible, and easier and easier methods were created to transport, rather than herd, cattle from one place to another.
One reason for the end of the western cattle bonanza was--overgrazing of the plains. (NovaNet)
The cattle boom is stupid. Who cares when it ended, it ended because people were stupid! So it doesn't matter when it ended. There were to many cattle and the open-range declined due to barbed wire. It lasted from 1849 to 1862.
barbed wire
I must assume you are asking about cattle drives since you don't ask it in your question. Kansas was the nearest rail line for the cattle drives. Kansas City had the largest stockyards for the trains going east.
I must assume you are asking about cattle drives since you don't ask it in your question. Kansas was the nearest rail line for the cattle drives. Kansas City had the largest stockyards for the trains going east.
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barb wire
The increase in population along cattle trails led to the development of settlements and ranches, causing conflicts between the cattle drives and local communities. As a result, laws were passed to regulate the movement of cattle and prevent further conflicts, ultimately leading to the decline of cattle drives.
The expansion of railways was the direct cause of this.
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.
The growth of towns and farms took up most of the grazing land along the routes of the drives, and the expansion of the railroads meant cattle could be shipped directly to the slaughterhouse.
Cattle drives still exist as they did in the late 1800s, but not over the same extensive distances. The growth of towns and farms and extensive use of barbed wire blocked many of the traditional routes, and much of the open grazing land became private property. The advent of the railroads meant that it became cheaper in many cases to ship cattle by rail, so the drives were from the ranches to the local stockyards, where the cattle cars would be loaded.
Cattle drive came to an end because of the invention of the barbed wire and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Thousands of cattle also perished due to an outbreak of Texas Fever and the Great Winter of 1887-88, which also contributed to the end of the famous cattle drives of the Old West.
The first railroads built in Texas were used to transport cattle from the open range to the Chicago markets. With their completion the age of cattle drives and cowboys came to an end.
It was how the cattle was taken from the open ranges in cattle regions like Texas to the cow towns like Abilene where the drives would meet the railroads. From there the cattle would be loaded on rolling frieght and shipped to either the markets in the cities, or after the invention of the refrigerated rail car, shipped to meatpacking plants in Chicago or Green Bay, where they were butchered. with the advent of barbed wire and the opening of the Great Plains to farming cattle drives became less common. These factors combined with a glut (too many cows = falling prices) on the cattle market led to the end of the "open range cattle drives"