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Grasslands that are properly managed through grazing are healthier and can remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than grasslands that are allowed to overgrow.
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History
Until around 1750, cattle had two purposes - producing milk, and producing strength, mainly to pull farm implements. Then the first efforts to breed cattle to produce better beef began. The first purebred herd registry book for beef cattle was established in Britain in 1822 (for the Shorthorn breed, then called Durhams). Purebred cattle were soon being imported into Eastern Canada.
While eastern North America had the largest population centers and therefore the largest markets for beef, western North America had the grasslands required to raise large numbers of cattle. The first specialized beef cattle ranches in Western Canada and the U.S. were founded beginning in 1865, after the vast bison herds that had roamed the plains were disappearing. Grass was now available for cattle, and the railways that were being built further and further West provided the means to ship cattle to eastern population centers.
The large expanses of grazing land attracted foreign investment and the West was soon stocked with cattle. A severe winter in 1906-07 with extremely high death losses brought this era to an abrupt end. The West then opened up to homesteading. Most farmers owned only a few head of cattle. Much of the pastureland on homesteads was required to feed the horses that provided both power to pull farm implements for planting and harvesting grain crops, and transportation for the farm family.
By the end of the 1930s, tractor power began to replace animal power. This freed up pastureland for cattle raising and enabled increased grain production. This resulted in the increased availability of feed grains, particularly barley. Beef cattle became an important part of mixed grain farms and Canadian cattle numbers in the West increased from three million to nine million between 1940 and 1975.
Climate, availability of coarse feed grains and improved marketing and transportation alternatives led to the growth of the western feedlot industry in the early 1970s. The feedlot sector depends on the cow-calf sector to provide the young cattle it grain-finishes for high quality beef.
By the late 1990s, Canada's beef industry was the largest single commodity source of farm cash receipts. Farm cash receipts from the sale of cattle and calves in 2005 totaled $6.3 billion, or 17 per cent of total farm cash receipts.
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