30 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN November 2025 aurorapharmaceuticalinc Follow us! ad022503 Aurora Pharmaceutical, Inc. ©2025 Quality You Trust. Value You Love. Scan to learn more www.aurorapharmceutical.com sourced from the Midwest as well as some from the Northwest. However, there was a purebred fad at the time, particularly in the Midwest, for dual-purpose or milking type Shorthorns, particularly ones that traced to the Bates herd in England. These big, high-maintenance, late-maturing cattle were the wrong type to cross on the hot-weather-adapted Longhorns, while beef Shorthorns would have done an outstanding job. All the mismanagement, overstocking and poor breeding decisions came to roost after a drought during the summer of 1886, and a record severe winter in 1886-87. This was foretold in the post commander’s Annual Report of 1886 at Fort McKinney, Wyo., near present-day Buffalo, “The country is full of Texas cattle and there is not a blade of grass within 15 miles of the Post.” According to Sanders, bad went to worst: “The winter of 1886-87 was one of the worst ever experienced on the Western ranges. It brought widespread disaster and an almost complete collapse of the cattle business as then conducted on the open range.” Two of the hardest hit ranches were the huge Swan Ranch in Wyoming and Bay State Cattle Company, which lost 100,000 head of their 150,000 head “book count.” However, when the Bay State herd was moved to Wyoming in the summer of 1887 due to the Herd Law, only 20,000 head were found, indicating the book count was wildly inflated. From this point on, management improved, winter feeding became customary and breeding the proper cattle for the environment became the norm. An extremely hard lesson was learned in an extremely hard way. In the end, the unparalleled disaster of 1886-1887 put the beef industry on a course of the better managed, sustainable businesses that we enjoy today. ~NC~ Dual-purpose Shorthorn bull (c. 1875). Credit: R.J. Dawes and R.L. Hough. GREAT PLAINS CATTLE AND GRASS GOLD RUSH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28
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