NEBRASKA'S CATTLE HISTORY
As we grow into the new century it is appropriate to review and re-evaluate our roots.
In the beginning, the native grasses of the prairie dominated the heartland of the North American continent -- from what is now Canada to Mexico, and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Grasslands varied from the tall-grass prairie along the eastern river courses to the mixed-grass prairie of the mid-section and the shorter, more drought-resistant prairie of western rangelands that lay in the rain shadow of the stony mountains. Moving with the winds, the prairie of the Great Plains rippled and rolled in waves as an inland sea of grass. Oh beautiful...for spacious size.
The four-tusked, long-jawed mastodons first crossed the Bering Straight Land Bridge from Asia to North America and entered the Great Plains some 10 million years. After another five million years and during the last glacial period, it's theorized, that massive ridges of sand dunes formed over an area that would become northcentral Nebraska. The mammoths, or true elephants, migrated to North America over a million years ago, followed by giant bison with a horn-span of seven to nine feet. From that beginning, the grasses supported the lusty appetites of the herbivors, the largest of the beasts that consumed 1,000 pounds of grass per day. Perhaps intensive grazing coupled with drought conditions played a part in the extinction of the larger animals.
Thousands of years later, the first cattle began grazing the Nebraska grasslands. These cattle belonged to the soldiers at Fort Atkinson which was established in 1819. By the time of statehood, only 115,000 cattle grazed within the state's boundaries. As late as the mid-1880s, virtually undisturbed prairie still covered most of the heartland. Then, following the Civil War when confederate money was worthless in the impoverished South, Texas cattlemen put herds on the trails North to Nebraska.
Nebraska's early beef cattle industry was developed on the prairie between the Platte rivers, and along the valleys of the Republican and South Platte rivers by cattlemen such as M.C. Keith, Ed Creighton and the Coad brothers. Buffalo herds were nearly extinct and cattle were the most efficient means of converting grass to protein on land unsuitable for any other purpose.
The prairie grassland was the most abundant habitat type in North America before the homesteader and his remarkable plow appeared on the scene. Native grasses of the prairie were turned root side up and replaced with tidy squares of corn, oats, wheat and sorghum. Farmland insidiously pushed westward. Only in isolated locations, such as the Nebraska Sandhills, does a vast area of grassland remain. An area where the prairie itself has issued the final verdict as being more receptive to the cow...where the fragile ecosystem has stubbornly persisted as Nebraska's song of the prairie. During the past years, conservationists and scholars have provided valuable research and cattlemen have implemented practices to help preserve the prairie.
The most recent grazing method used by cattlemen is short-term, intensive grazing. Ironically, intensive grazing may date back to times when vast herds of buffalo, moving in a wave, devoured the prairie grasses before moving on to fresh range. Cattlemen, looking to extend their livelihood into the next century, continue to protect and conserve the health of Nebraska's cattle, range and rivers.
NEBRASKA'S CATTLE BRANDING HISTORY
Marking animals for ownership dates back 4,000 years and certainly the hot iron was the most used method of marking animals grazed on the Nebraska plains. Prior to 1899 livestock brands were recorded in the county of the owner's residence or where the majority of his livestock grazed. But new legislation rendered county recordings invalid and required stockmen to register their brands with the secretary of state.
The first brand recorded under the new Nebraska law was the joined 7HL, by Milldale Land and Cattle Co. of Gandy. E.H. "Shoey" Shoemaker's Milldale Ranch still uses the brand today. Of the 1,590 brands registered that year of 1899, Milldale's is one of a few traceable to original owners through family names. The fourth brand recorded was Hans Hansen's 77 and it remains in the same family, used today by Wes, Tom , and Eric Hansen of North Platte. It was Hans Hansen's son (and Wes's father), Henry, who was president of the Nebraska Stock Growers Association when a uniform system of brand inspection was adopted in 1938. The Association's system called for state-wide inspection at all sale rings and loading points. Prior to that time, the Association handled inspection at the terminal markets, employed range detectives, and offered rewards for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of rustlers. These early efforts were cooperative ventures with associations in Wyoming and South Dakota.
Halting rustlers was the primary reason that cattlemen established the state associations. Texas was first, but Wyoming wasn't far behind. Ranchers running cattle in western Nebraska joined the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, appreciative of the group's crack-down on cattle thieves. Wyoming cattlemen established brand inspection and were instrumental in passing laws forbidding use of unregistered brands and prohibiting the registration of brands that added circles, half-circles, bars or boxes to brands already recorded. Wyoming law also prohibited the carrying of a running iron that could be used to alter existing brands. After all, rustling might look pretty attractive to a broke, footloose cowboy with no prospects for a job.
The foundation for a Nebraska association was laid, in 1888, when a group of stockmen gathered for that purpose met in Alliance. Other regional associations were formed in Hyannis, Culbertson and in Lincoln and Custer counties, but the groups merged by 1895. It became official in 1900 when articles of incorporation were filed for the Nebraska Stock Growers Association. The Nebraskans contracted with Wyoming to have inspections made at the public markets, established a reward program and eventually hired a Pinkerton man as range detective. Over the years, however, Wyoming became less willing and more financially unable to handle inspections. The Nebraska association was forced to become more involved with inspections and theft investigations, trying to fund the growing burden through membership dues.
The first 40 years under the state brand law were difficult for the association and its inspectors. Reluctant cattlemen tried to avoid inspection, some refused to pay the ten cent fee, and many members were years behind in their membership dues. Nor was it fair for non-members to receive the same benefits of inspection as association members, but they did. Consequently, the association's protective service waxed and waned until the late 1930s and the development of a new inspection system. That "new" system under NSGA administration proved to be short-lived. The courts ruled that the state could not delegate brand inspection to a private organization, so 1941 saw brand inspection become a function of the state under the Nebraska Brand Committee. Cattle owners paid inspection fees which served as the program's only source of revenue, with no appropriation from public funds.
The Nebraska Brand Committee was established as a division of the Department of State with the secretary of state serving a chairman. In addition, four active cattlemen were appointed by the governor. The first appointees were Earl Monahan, Hyannis; Kent Haskell, Gandy; Chris Abbott, Hyannis; and Irwin Adamson, Cody. Brand laws established a 49-county brand area including the western two-thirds of the state and provided for inspection of all cattle selling or moving out of the area, and all slaughtered within it. Livestock brand recording was maintained in Lincoln, under direction of the secretary of state, from 1899 until 1975. Then legislation transferred the inspection division to the Nebraska Brand Committee headquarters in Alliance. However, the brand recording division maintained its office in Lincoln until April 1994 when it was also relocated in Alliance.
By law, the Secretary of State remains as chairman of the Nebraska Brand Committee whose current members include Jim George Cooksley, Anselmo; Linda Anderson, Lakeside; Jon D. Warren, Stapleton and Gary Darnall, Harrisburg. Employed are the executive director, five administrative staff members and three recording staff members. The field force includes 60 full time brand inspectors and approximately 60 part-time investigators, who are state deputy sheriffs, investigate missing livestock reports, known thefts, recovered strays and supervise inspectors in their respective regions. Branding remains the single best deterrent to cattle theft and the surest means of recovering missing animals. The Nebraska Brand Committee currently has nearly 37,000 brands on record, with new applications received daily. The Nebraska Brand Committee headquarters is located in Alliance. For more information contact Executive Director Steven Stanec at P.O. Drawer I, Alliance, NE 69310 (Phone 308-762-2496).