Transporting Beef: Trails, Rails, Trucks and Ships
Trail drives, stock routes, railroads, refrigerated ships and trucks: how beef reached the table.
28 profiles
Australia
- Stockman (Australia)Australia's cattle workers moved herds thousands of kilometers on foot, and Aboriginal stockmen and stockwomen did…Australia
- opened 1910Canning Stock RouteSurveyed by Alfred Canning to bring Kimberley cattle to southern markets, the route is a long record of ambition,…Australia
- est. 1886Murranji TrackA short cut for cattle and a hazard for the people who drove them, the track linked Newcastle Waters and Top Springs…Australia
- Australian live cattle exportAustralia is the world's largest live exporter of animals for slaughter, and cattle shipped from the north are the…Australia
- est. 1800sTravelling stock routeWide verges, six-mile days and a drover's patience built a public network that moved livestock long before road trains.Australia
- est. 1870sRefrigerated shipBetween the 1870s and the First World War, ships that could keep meat frozen turned distant pastures into suppliers…Australia
International
- Livestock carrierPurpose-built or converted from container ships, these vessels carry thousands of animals per voyage and draw…International
- 1800sCattle driveThe practice of walking cattle long distances to railheads, markets or new range shaped the American cowboy and the…International
- Cattle rustlingOpen range, unfenced herds and long trail drives made stealing cattle easy, and the response built associations, brand…International
Texas
- 1874-1897Great Western Cattle TrailRunning west of the Chisholm Trail, the Western Trail became the main road north for Texas cattle once Kansas closed…Texas
- 1866Chuck wagonCharles Goodnight turned a surplus army wagon into a rolling kitchen, and the cattle trail ran on it.Texas
- 1883Fence-cutting warsWhen big ranchers strung barbed wire across grass and water, small stockmen answered with wire cutters.Texas