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156-516: Ranches generally consist of large areas, but may be of nearly any size. In the western United States, many ranches are a combination of privately owned land supplemented by grazing leases on land under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management or the United States Forest Service . If the ranch includes arable or irrigated land , the ranch may also engage in a limited amount of farming , raising crops for feeding

312-423: A cow-calf man . This person is usually the owner, though in some cases, particularly where there is absentee ownership, it is the ranch manager or ranch foreman. The people who are employees of the rancher and involved in handling livestock are called a number of terms, including cowhand , ranch hand, and cowboy . People exclusively involved with handling horses are sometimes called wranglers . Ranching and

468-410: A Rancho or Estancia as "a unit of land which comprises a Hacienda, where cattle and horses are raised, and which is in the care of a Caporal who is the captain of the other cowboys." Niceto de Zamacois , in his book "Historia de Méjico" (1879), defined terms as follows: "...the men of the countryside who carry out their jobs on horseback are given the name of "Rancheros," derived from the word Rancho that

624-791: A farm (occasionally also ranch) in South African English and plaas in Afrikaans . Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management ( BLM ) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering U.S. federal lands . Headquartered in Washington, D.C. , the BLM oversees more than 247.3 million acres (1,001,000 km ) of land, or one-eighth of

780-474: A lesser extent, the southwest of Spain enjoy abundant rainfall, but the central Meseta has low rainfall, and many areas could hardly support dry arable farming in mediaeval times. Dependence solely on cereal cultivation risked periodic starvation, and livestock rearing was important in the mediaeval agricultural economy of Spain's Christian kingdoms. Old Castile was the main cereal growing area, and it supplied its own grain needs in most years, but other parts of

936-518: A month or less, reaching their winter pastures in October, and they usually began their returned north in April and May. The preparations for the journey south began in mid-September, when each owner's cabaña, which was branded with his marks, was placed in the hands of an experienced mayoral, who had to be experienced both in managing sheep and choosing good grazing. Larger cabañas were kept together on

1092-402: A more unified bureau mission and recognized the value of the remaining public lands by declaring that these lands would remain in public ownership. The law directed that these lands be managed with a view toward "multiple use" defined as "management of the public lands and their various resource values so that they are utilized in the combination that will best meet the present and future needs of

1248-499: A negative effect on Spain's political development for centuries, a view that ignores the active and passive resistance to this legislation. An alternative view is that the right of posesión was a form of rent control that guaranteed shepherd access to the pastures at stable prices. The Habsburg monarchs were inconsistent in granting exemptions from the Mesta's privileges, including posesión, in return for payment. However, in 1633, after

1404-614: A pilot project on the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range known as the Adopt-A-Horse initiative. The program took advantage of provisions in the WFRHBA to allow private "qualified" individuals to "adopt" as many horses as they wanted if they could show that they could provide adequate care for the animals. At the time, title to the horses remained permanently with the federal government. The pilot project

1560-410: A rebaño, but this practice ceased in the 18th century as smaller owners gradually ceased to engage in transhumance or were forced out by the difficulties of securing grazing. In the early centuries of the Mesta's existence, owners of flocks were obliged to defend their stock against possible attacks by Muslim raiders or armed robbers, either in person or by making a payment, but this requirement ceased in

1716-513: A regular and recurring presence on a vast amount of public lands, roads and recreation sites. They focus on the protection of natural and cultural resources, other BLM employees and visitors. Given the many locations of BLM public lands, these rangers use canines, helicopters, snowmobiles, dirt bikes and boats to perform their duties. By contrast BLM special agents are criminal investigators who plan and conduct investigations concerning possible violations of criminal and administrative provisions of

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1872-464: A restriction of the right of posesión in 1761, and then its complete abolition in 1786. Cereal growing inevitably competed with sheep rearing, and the movement of flocks from the Old Castile to Andalucía created conflict between shepherds and the farmers cultivating crops along migration routes, as well as those local owners of sheep in areas of winter pasture. During the 13th and 14th centuries,

2028-469: A seasonal basis, the cattle handlers actually lived in houses built on the pasture grounds, and cattle were ear-marked for identification, rather than being branded. The only actual "cattle drives" held on Long Island consisted of one drive in 1776, when the island's cattle were moved in a failed attempt to prevent them from being captured during the Revolutionary War , and three or four drives in

2184-416: A shanty or slum house. The person who owns and manages the operation of a ranch is usually called a rancher , but the terms cattleman , stockgrower , or stockman are also sometimes used. If this individual in charge of overall management is an employee of the actual owner, the term foreman or ranch foreman is used. A rancher who primarily raises young stock sometimes is called a cow-calf operator or

2340-412: A sharp downturn in wool sales and the related tax revenue, the rules of posesión were renewed, and pastures converted to arable were ordered to be restored to pasturage. It has been suggested that a weak monarchy and strong local resistance reduced the effect of this measure, but a survey of sheep owners in the province of Soria indicates that far more of them included rights of posesión in their wills in

2496-462: A small independent cattle farm, or to a cattle station, an area of land for cattle raising, that is dependent of a hacienda , a large cattle estate. In Spain it retained its military origin, being defined as: the group of people, typically soldiers, who eat together in a circle; a mess hall. “Rancho” in Spain is also the: “food prepared for several people who eat in a circle and from the same pot.” It

2652-473: A steep ramp, and tied by their horns to the horns of a tame, older steer (or ox ) and taken to fenced-in areas. The industry grew slowly under the reign of Kamehameha's son Liholiho ( Kamehameha II ). When Liholiho's brother, Kauikeaouli ( Kamehameha III ), visited California , then still a part of Mexico , he was impressed with the skill of the Mexican vaqueros . In 1832, he invited several to Hawaii to teach

2808-479: A year, always held in Madrid. Although great nobles and major monasteries are frequently recorded as Mesta member, these large owners were not typical of the industry. The limited available evidence from the 16th century suggests there were between 3,000 and 4,000 owners, that two-thirds of the sheep migrating annually were held in flocks of less than 100 sheep and that very few flocks exceeded 1,000 sheep. Although by

2964-529: Is applied to a small hacienda, or to a part of a large one that is divided into racherias or ranchos. Those who carry out the same tasks in the haciedas of Veracruz are given the name of "Jarochos." Thus the term Rancho in Mexican Spanish became a unit of land that makes up a hacienda where cattle is raised and where people live in farmhouses. The people that live and work in those Ranchos managing cattle and horses are called Rancheros. As settlers from

3120-583: Is more probable that Moroccan rams were imported, to crossbreed with the native stock. The captures by Castile of Toledo in 1085 and of Zaragoza by the Kingdom of Aragon in 1118 greatly increased the sizes of these Christian kingdoms and, particularly for Aragon, their populations. However, the increase in Castile's population was not commensurate with its increased size. Much of the Muslim population of

3276-536: Is no clear evidence for large scale sheep transhumance of sheep flocks before the late mediaeval period. In the early mediaeval period, as the Christian Kingdom of Castile and León expanded from their original northern territories, relatively well-watered and with good soils, to the interior plains of the Meseta Central, where scarce rainfall and poor soils made cereal agriculture difficult. In

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3432-553: Is not protected by a national park or monument designation. The BLM's May 30, 2019 statement proposed an additional 183,668 acres on "lands managed by the Canyon Country, Color Country, Green River, and West Desert districts" that would be listed for the quarterly oil and gas lease sale on September 10, 2019. In their May 2019, September lease offerings, the BLM said that they had "245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 Western states, including Alaska" and across

3588-594: Is part of the iconography of the " Wild West " as seen in Western movies and rodeos . The term ranch comes from the Spanish term rancho , itself from the term rancharse , which means “to get ready, to settle in a place, to pitch camp”, itself from the military French term se ranger (to arrange oneself, to tidy up), from the Frankish hring , which means ring or circle . It was, originally, vulgarly applied in

3744-637: Is the SIG Sauer P320 chambered in 9mm which is replacing the SIG Sauer P226 /P229 both chambered in .40 S&W. The BLM manages free-roaming horses and burros on public lands in ten western states. Though they are feral , the agency is obligated to protect them under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (WFRHBA). As the horses have few natural predators, populations have grown substantially. WFRHBA as enacted provides for

3900-540: Is the agency's largest ever purchase in the state. In 2024 the Department of the Interior has begun to advance a new rule according to which the Bureau of Land Management can distribute restoration leases and mitigation leases exactly in the same way as it distributes new leases for oil and gas drilling. The designed land will be used for nature conservation including use of indigenous knowledge. Established in 2000,

4056-472: The Department of the Interior . It took several years for this new agency to integrate and reorganize. In the end, the Bureau of Land Management became less focused on land disposal and more focused on the long term management and preservation of the land. The agency achieved its current form by combining offices in the western states and creating a corresponding office for lands both east of and alongside

4212-607: The Emirate of Granada , and they may have brought new breeds of sheep and the practice of long-distance transhumance, including the use of Berber and Arabic terms, into Spain. However, there is no definite evidence that the Marinids did bring their flocks to Spain and they arrived as a fighting force, conducting frequent raids against the Castilians, and were hardly in a position to protect any flocks they might have brought. It

4368-708: The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, the first of now 20 national monuments established on BLM lands and managed by the agency. The establishment of Grand Staircase–Escalante foreshadowed later creation of the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System in 2000. Use of the Antiquities Act authority, to the extent it effectively scuttled a coal mine to have been operated by Andalex Resources , delighted recreation and conservation enthusiasts but set up larger confrontations with state and local authorities. Under

4524-539: The Homestead Act of 1862, more settlers came west to set up farms . This created some conflict, as increasing numbers of farmers needed to fence off fields to prevent cattle and sheep from eating their crops. Barbed wire , invented in 1874, gradually made inroads in fencing off privately owned land, especially for homesteads. There was some reduction of land on the Great Plains open to grazing. The end of

4680-503: The Homestead Act of 1862 . Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states: Alaska , Arizona , California , Colorado , Idaho , Montana , Nevada , New Mexico , Oregon , Utah , Washington and Wyoming . The mission of the BLM is "to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations." Originally BLM holdings were described as "land nobody wanted" because homesteaders had passed them by. All

4836-446: The Kingdom of Castile relied on Old Castile in years of shortage. The archaeological record shows that keeping pigs, sheep and goats was widespread, but numbers were limited by the lack of food in the dry summers and cold winters, and cattle were only kept in better watered areas. Small flocks of sheep and goats could be moved to summer hill pastures near settlements, but large numbers of all animals were slaughtered in late autumn. There

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4992-788: The Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These laws provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the original Thirteen Colonies ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution . As additional lands were acquired by the United States from Spain , France and other countries, the United States Congress directed that they be explored, surveyed, and made available for settlement. During

5148-702: The Mississippi River . As a matter of course, the BLM's emphasis fell on activities in the western states as most of the mining, land sales, and federally owned areas are located west of the Mississippi. BLM personnel on the ground have typically been oriented toward local interests, while bureau management in Washington are led by presidential guidance. By means of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, Congress created

5304-603: The National Landscape Conservation System is overseen by the BLM. The National Landscape Conservation System lands constitute just about 12% of the lands managed by the BLM. Congress passed Title II of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-11) to make the system a permanent part of the public lands protection system in the United States. By designating these areas for conservation,

5460-567: The United States moved west, they brought cattle breeds developed on the east coast and in Europe along with them, and adapted their management to the drier lands of the west by borrowing key elements of the Spanish vaquero culture. However, there were cattle on the eastern seaboard. Deep Hollow Ranch , 110 miles (180 km) east of New York City in Montauk, New York , claims to be

5616-729: The United States General Land Office as part of the Department of the Treasury to oversee the disposition of these federal lands. By the early 1800s, promised bounty land claims were finally fulfilled. In the 19th century, other bounty land and homestead laws were enacted to dispose of federal land. Several different types of patents existed. These include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots. A system of local land offices spread throughout

5772-459: The cañada system, and there are groups of people who occasionally drive sheep across the modern city as a reminder of their ancient rights and cultures, although these days sheep are generally transported by rail. Although the earliest surviving charter granting royal protection and grazing and other privileges to the Mesta was issued by Alfonso X of Castile in 1273, it claimed to replace four separate older documents, and it did not so much create

5928-638: The cowboy tradition originated in Spain , out of the necessity to handle large herds of grazing animals on dry land from horseback. During the Reconquista , members of the Spanish nobility and various military orders received large land grants that the Kingdom of Castile had conquered from the Moors . These landowners were to defend the lands put into their control and could use them for earning revenue. In

6084-470: The 14th and 15th centuries, most of such communities had become dependent, first on monasteries, later on lay lords and finally on neighbouring cities and large towns whose councils were controlled by oligarchies. The early part of this process social and economic differentiation in the 11th to 13th centuries coincided with, and probably promoted, the rise of large-scale transhumance. In the 10th and 11th centuries, several large Benedictine monasteries founded in

6240-511: The 16th century to the provisional houses of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The term evolved differently throughout the Spanish speaking world : In Mexico, it evolved to mean a cattle farm, station or estate, a pasturing land or agricultural settlement where cattle are raised. Originally used to refer to a hamlet or village where cattle is raised and where the land is sowed; and to

6396-521: The 16th century, and more steeply in the early 17th century to a low point of some 1.6 million sheep in 1603 to 1633, climbing slowly for the rest of the century then more rapidly from the start of the 18th century to a maximum of around 5 million transhumant sheep a year for 1790 to 1795, before a catastrophic decline following the French invasion of 1808 and the Peninsular War . In 1832, in one of

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6552-439: The 16th century. On arrival in the winter pastures, the shepherds inspected whether the pasture lands they had previously leased were adequate. Despite being granted, in theory at least, free access to southern pastures by royal charter, from the middle of the 16th century few stockholders came south without first arranging suitable pasturage, otherwise they had to pay excessive rents for any remaining low-quality grazing, often in

6708-451: The 16th to 18th centuries, which discuss the customary practices governing this migration. However, from the 16th century, if not earlier, the pastoral transhumant cycle, involving the dates of the two migrations, the length of daily marches and frequency of rests, and the times for lambing and shearing, was designed to ensure the best conditions for the feeding, growth and reproduction of Merino sheep. The availability of fresh grass throughout

6864-502: The 17th century, regarding these rights as part of their patrimony, than did so in the 16th century, and that such rights were exchanged between such owners. Although posesión gave rise to frequent legal disputes, these demonstrate an increase in the practice as much as opposition to it. The first two Spanish Bourbon kings, under the influence of the doctrines of mercantilism current in France, renewed Mesta privileges in 1726 and extended

7020-418: The 1828 account. Some mayorales were guilty of fraud, agreeing to unreasonably high pasture rents with landowners and receiving a share of the excess. However, it was only by the institution of mayoralia , associations of owners which rented grazing and employed shepherds collectively, that owners could secure access to grazing lands. Despite Mesta regulations, the mayoralia competed with one another for

7176-458: The 1840s, and expansion both north and west from that time, through the Civil War and into the 1880s, ranching dominated western economic activity. Along with ranchers came the need for agricultural crops to feed both humans and livestock, and hence many farmers also came west along with ranchers. Many operations were "diversified", with both ranching and farming activities taking place. With

7332-415: The 18th century, the shortage of pasture made it essential for the sheep owners to have grazing leases in advance, to avoid arbitrary price rises by landowners. They therefore relied on having a salaried Mayoral or chief shepherd with sufficient power and experience to negotiate pasture leases for all the sheep in his flock, termed his cabaña : their role in earlier years may have been less prominent than in

7488-542: The 18th century, there were fewer small owners and several owners held flocks of more than 20,000 sheep, the Mesta remained largely an organisation of owners of small to moderately-sized flocks, and never simply a combination of large owners. However, it is also clear that, in the Mesta's final century of existence, many of the owners of small flocks had to abandon the annual migration, unless they were employed by large owners as shepherds, because their small flocks were no longer allowed to be grouped into larger units, as had been

7644-650: The American government so that they could keep better control of the pasture land available to their own animals. Ranching in Hawaii developed independently of that in the continental United States. In colonial times, Capt. George Vancouver gave several head of cattle to the Hawaiian king, Pai`ea Kamehameha , monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and by the early 19th century, they had multiplied considerably, to

7800-515: The American people." Since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, Republicans have often given priority to local control and to grazing, mining and petroleum production, while Democrats have more often emphasized environmental concerns even when granting mining and drilling leases. In September 1996, then President Bill Clinton used his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish

7956-574: The Aragónese conquest of the Ebro valley in the first quarter of the 12th century, sheep wintering in the valley were granted rights by the king to summer pasture in the foothills of the Pyrenees . Until the 10th century, much of the land in Old Castile and León was in the collective ownership of peasants carrying on mixed subsistence farming including small-scale, local livestock activity. However, by

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8112-503: The BLM and other statutes under the United States Code. Special agents are normally plain clothes officers who carry concealed firearms and other defensive equipment, make arrests, carry out complex criminal investigations, present cases for prosecution to local United States Attorneys and prepare investigative reports. Criminal investigators occasionally conduct internal and civil claim investigations. The current sidearm

8268-581: The Biden administration, the BLM is working on a pilot project called "outcomes-based grazing", to see if cattle grazing can help achieve conservation, agency director Tracy Stone-Manning said in an interview published in April 2022. In June 2022, the BLM finalized two acquisitions in Colorado and Wyoming, acquiring over 40,000 acres of previously inaccessible land. The acquisition in Wyoming for 35,670 acres

8424-620: The Castilian urban stockholders increased from the last decades of the 12th century, they increased the numbers of the sheep they were able to support by exploiting these new pastures. The main north–south cañadas, or Cañadas Reales , were those designated by royal charter, although their precise routes may have changed over time, as they were only marked and given a defined width when crossing cultivated land, not when crossing open or untilled land. Both near their north and south termini, numerous minor local cañadas joined into or branched off from

8580-607: The Cañadas Reales. Klein describes three principal groups of cañadas reales wholly within the kingdom of Castile-León, namely the western, or Leonesa , the central, or Segoviana , and the eastern, or Manchega groups, running through the cities of León, Segovia and Cuenca respectively. Walker splits the Segovian group, adding a fourth group passing through Soria. The Leonese cañadas terminated in Extremadura and in

8736-691: The Duero valley began medium-range transhumance and gained royal privileges of pasturage on the slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama . The Castilian expansion of the 12th century was based substantially on the civic militias of Old Castile, but in the 13th century the forces of the military orders based in the south of New Castile were more important. The orders, particularly those of Santiago and Calatrava were granted extensive rights to land in this territory. The military orders settled few peasant cultivators in their lands, although peasants grew some grain close to

8892-501: The Guadalquivir valley, and it is possible that this transhumance had crossed political boundaries between Christian and Muslim states the before local Christian reconquest. The third possible cause relates to transhumance organised by the towns of Castile and León. Southern towns, such as Toledo after its 1085 reconquest, sent their flocks to over-winter in the Guadalquivir valley, accompanied by an armed guard. In addition, there

9048-591: The Hawaiian people how to work cattle. The Hawaiian cowboy came to be called the paniolo , a Hawaiianized pronunciation of español. Even today, the traditional Hawaiian saddle and many other tools of the ranching trade have a distinctly Mexican look, and many Hawaiian ranching families still carry the surnames of vaqueros who made Hawaii their home. In Argentina and Uruguay , ranches are known as estancias and in Brazil , they are called fazendas . In much of South America , including Ecuador and Colombia ,

9204-479: The Mesta as assume its existence when granting it royal protection from the local taxes and restrictions it was encountering. The charters and privileges of the Mesta resemble those of mediaeval merchant guild , but it was actually a protective association, facilitating the business of the sheep and other livestock owners without engaging directly in their business. It did not own any sheep or pastures, buy and sell wool or control markets, and its close association with

9360-433: The Mesta included both large and small livestock owners and was controlled by them, however, from the time of Charles V , the organisation ceased to be controlled exclusively by such owners, as royal officials, who were leading nobles and ecclesiastics and not necessarily stock-owners, were appointed to its governing body. Although wool exports began in the 14th century, it was only when the export of high-quality merino wool

9516-538: The Mesta is related to the growth of transhumance after the Castilian conquest of the Taifa of Toledo . Three groups were granted royal charters including the rights to winter pasturage in the Tagus valley. The first were monasteries that owned summer pastures in the Sierra de Guadarrama , followed by the religious military orders which had acquired lands after the conquest of Toledo, in the area renamed New Castile . Later,

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9672-420: The Mesta were the alcaldes de quadrilla (also called alcaldes de mesta, two elected by each quadrilla, who were entrusted with the general administration of the laws relating to its members. There were also financial and legal officials who represented members in arranging leases and in disputes with third-parties. The assemblies of the Mesta were open to anyone who paid its membership dues, which were based in

9828-452: The Mesta's rights and tax privileges were issued seven times in the 14th century. However the frequency with which legislation was restated under relatively strong monarchs, and the absence of confirmatory legislation under weak ones, particularly for much of the 15th century, showed how extensive was resistance to the Mesta's privileges, as it required the Crown's support to enforce obedience to

9984-491: The Mesta, and lost the prestige of being royal officials. Flocks migrating south required stops for rest, feeding and watering om route and were vulnerable to excessive charges there, and to excessive rents charged at their destinations by owners of winter pastures. The shepherds had little alternative to paying or risking heavy livestock losses. The military orders also opposed the attempts of northern pastoralists to use winter grazing in their territories. The strong monarchy of

10140-457: The Mesta. Each of the four quadrillas selected a representative annually, to proceed to Extremadura and Andalucía before the annual migration and arrange the terms of grazing leases for the coming winter season. Each member was only assigned sufficient land for his flocks, and each landowner was to be treated equally. The aim was to prevent competition between Mesta members or joint action by the landowning lessors to raise rents. The 1492 ordinance

10296-618: The Muslim-controlled areas, water management, irrigation, and the introduction of drought resistant and more productive crop varieties overcame the water shortages, but these techniques were not adopted in the Christian territories until they had conquered areas where they were used. It has been claimed that, during the medieval Reconquest , the frontier lands between Christian and Muslim areas were sparsely populated, largely uncultivated and used mainly for animal grazing, and that

10452-536: The National Conservation Lands include nearly 2,400 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers , and nearly 6,000 miles of National Scenic and Historic Trails . There are more than 63,000 oil and gas wells on BLM public lands. Total energy leases generated approximately $ 5.4 billion in 2013, an amount divided among the Treasury , the states, and Native American groups. The BLM's roots go back to

10608-568: The National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund each year for five years for needed maintenance for critical facilities and infrastructure in national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, recreation areas and American Indian schools. The Act also committed $ 900 million a year in royalties from offshore oil and natural gas to permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund investments in conservation and recreation opportunities across

10764-570: The Revolutionary War, military bounty land was promised to soldiers who fought for the colonies. After the war, the Treaty of Paris of 1783 , signed by the United States, the UK , France , and Spain , ceded territory to the United States. In the 1780s, other states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-day Ohio . By this time, the United States needed revenue to function and land

10920-441: The Spanish (and later Mexican) government, part of the hacienda system, allowed large numbers of animals to roam freely over vast areas. A number of different traditions developed, often related to the original location in Spain from which a settlement originated. For example, many of the traditions of the Jalisco charros in central Mexico come from the Salamanca charros of Castile. The vaquero tradition of Northern Mexico

11076-420: The Spanish government gave it a status and extensive presence unmatched by any guild. Sheep numbers in Castile and León had increased greatly in the 12th and early 13th centuries, outgrowing the available local grazing and encouraging transhumance to more distant pastures. This transhumance was a frequent cause of dispute between the shepherds and local inhabitants, and the Cortes of 1252 enacted laws regulating

11232-609: The Trump administration, the BLM offered millions of acres of available Federal lands for 10-year leases for commercial development, potentially in oil and gas and mining, with the stated goal of "promoting American energy security". The BLM holds quarterly oil and gas lease sales. According to a June 18, 2018 article in The Atlantic , under the tenure of then- United States Secretary of the Interior , Ryan Zinke "practically gave away hundreds of thousands of acres of open land across

11388-561: The United States another "700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate" is under their management. The statement also said that these "diverse activities authorized on these lands generated $ 96 billion in sales of goods and services throughout the American economy in fiscal year 2017" while supporting over 468,000 jobs". On August 4, 2020, President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act into law, committing up to $ 1.9 billion from energy development revenues to

11544-506: The United States's total landmass. The Bureau was created by Congress during the presidency of Harry S. Truman in 1946 by combining two existing agencies: the United States General Land Office and the Grazing Service . The agency manages the federal government's nearly 700 million acres (2,800,000 km ) of subsurface mineral estate located beneath federal, state and private lands severed from their surface rights by

11700-505: The United States. The gaucho culture of Argentina , Brazil and Uruguay are among the cattle ranching traditions born during the period. However, in the 20th century, cattle raising expanded into less-suitable areas of the Pantanal . Particularly in Brazil , the 20th century marked the rapid growth of deforestation , as rain forest lands were cleared by slash and burn methods that allowed grass to grow for livestock, but also led to

11856-803: The United States. There are several herds of horses and burros roaming free on 26.9 million acres of range spread out in ten western states. It is essential to maintain a balance that keeps herd management land and animal population healthy. Some programs and partnerships include the Mustang Heritage Foundation, U.S. Border Patrol, Idaho 4H, Napa Mustang Days and Little Book Cliffs Darting Team. These partnerships help with adoption and animal population as well as education and raising awareness about wild horses and burros. In 2009, BLM opened Renewable Energy Coordination Offices in order to approve and oversee wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal projects on BLM-managed lands. The offices were located in

12012-799: The West, leasing it to energy companies for pennies on the dollar." The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in March 2019, the price per acre for leases near the Golden Spike National Historical Park , in Utah were "$ 1.50 an acre for the next two years". By September 11, 2018, the Department of Interior was offering 2.9 million acres to be leased to commercial operations including drilling for oil and gas and mining in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and other states where public land

12168-669: The ancient sheepwalks that have been described from Spain are generally relatively short and frequently run from uplands east to the Mediterranean coast, rather than from north to south. Sheep were generally only part of the mixed farming of cereals and livestock in León and Old Castile before the 12th century, less important than pigs and rarely moved outside their local area. The cañadas in León and Old Castile may have developed from an increased range of transhumance that first occurred within those provinces, and which were extended south as

12324-494: The animals, such as hay and feed grains. Ranches that cater exclusively to tourists are called guest ranches or, colloquially, " dude ranches". Most working ranches do not cater to guests, though they may allow private hunters or outfitters onto their property to hunt native wildlife. However, in recent years, a few struggling smaller operations have added some dude ranch features such as horseback rides, cattle drives, and guided hunting to bring in additional income. Ranching

12480-609: The banks of the Tagus and Guadiana rivers, those of Segovia and Soria, which were the major routes, ended in Andalucía and the Manchegan ones in La Mancha and eastern Murcia . Some authors divide these groups into nine or ten quite separate routes, but Klein noted the possibility of sheep moving between different branches of the western and central groups. There are very few records of numbers of sheep migrating annually before

12636-664: The best grazing, and the most affluent groups monopolised this to the exclusion of poorer ones. Most of the Merino flocks from the late 15th century on had their home pastures in León, Old Castile and north-eastern La Mancha, an area divided between the four quadrillas of León, Segovia, Soria and Cuenca, each of which dealt with a section of the annual transhumance. Flocks from León and Old Castile traveled between 550 and 750 kilometres to their winter pastures, while those from New Castile and La Mancha rarely travelled more than 250 kilometres. All these usually completed their migration south in

12792-497: The case in earlier centuries. There is little information on the annual migrations in the first century of the Mesta's charter, although as northern flocks were supplying the meat markets of Toledo then, this suggests that producing wool was not yet their predominant purpose. There is also nothing about how the migrations were carried out in practice in the Mesta ordinances of 1492 or its code of 1511, and only occasional documentary evidence about this from legal proceedings dating from

12948-454: The country. Also in August 2020, the BLM headquarters was relocated to Grand Junction, Colorado , by an order signed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt . The relocation was praised by Republican Western politicians but criticized by Democrats as a move to weaken the agency through the loss of experienced staffers, who opted to stay in Washington, D.C. Some ranchers were concerned about

13104-496: The depletion of the land within only a few years. Many of indigenous peoples of the rain forest opposed this form of cattle ranching and protested the forest being burnt down to set up grazing operations and farms. This conflict is still a concern in the region today. In Spain, where the origins of ranching can be traced, there are ganaderías operating on dehesa -type land, where fighting bulls are raised. However, ranch-type properties are not seen to any significant degree in

13260-509: The early 16th century. In the 16th century, the numbers of migrating sheep recorded annually ranged from 1.7 to 3.5 million, averaging around 2.5 million Merino sheep, but the numbers began to decline in the late 16th and particularly in the early 17th century, a time of warfare in the Low Countries. Klein places the start of the Mesta's decadence in the third quarter of the 16th century. During that period, only Merino sheep migrated, but

13416-508: The early successes of the adoption program, the BLM has struggled to maintain acceptable herd levels, as without natural predators, herd sizes can double every four years. As of 2014, there were more than 49,000 horses and burros on BLM-managed land, exceeding the BLM's estimated "appropriate management level" (AML) by almost 22,500. The Bureau of Land Management has implemented several programs and has developed partnerships as part of their management plan for preserving wild burros and horses in

13572-420: The end of that century they were virtually powerless against the courts and exempted towns, although the office remained in existence for another century. By the start of the 18th century, local officials had taken over control of their towns’ grazing grounds, and had enclosing them on the basis that they were so covered with undergrowth as to be useless as pasturage, whether or mot this was accurate. By this time,

13728-408: The end of the 15th century, largely because the frequency of encroachments on pasturelands and the numbers of unjustified tolls swamped the courts with far more cases than they could deal with adequately. Itinerant judicial officials, each termed an Entregador , were tasked with keeping open the cañadas and their watering and resting stations, resisting encroachments on public pastures and protecting

13884-467: The explanation he preferred. An alternative, also based on the Latin mixta is that it refers to the common ownership of the Mesta's animals by multiple parties. However, the animals were individually owned, not common property, and generally different owners' flocks were kept separate. Secondly, it might be related to the amistad or amity, which Klein regarded as unconvincing. Finally, Klein mentions

14040-406: The final years of the Mesta's existence, it was responsible for 1.1 million transhumant merino sheep, 2.0 million other fine wool sheep that were not transhumant and 4.9 million other sheep that were not transhumant and which produced only low-grade wool. The most complete account of the organisation of the migrations, given by a shepherd, was recorded in 1828, in the organisation's last decade. By

14196-508: The first ranch in the United States, having continuously operated since 1658. The ranch makes the somewhat debatable claim of having the oldest cattle operation in what today is the United States, though cattle had been run in the area since European settlers purchased land from the Indian people of the area in 1643. Although there were substantial numbers of cattle on Long Island, as well as the need to herd them to and from common grazing lands on

14352-502: The four states where energy companies had shown the greatest interest in renewable energy development: Arizona , California , Nevada , and Wyoming . Mesta The Mesta ( Spanish : Honrado Concejo de la Mesta , lit.   'Honorable Council of the Mesta ') was a powerful association protecting livestock owners and their animals in the Crown of Castile that

14508-422: The hills, often hungry and weak after the long journey north. The annual migration was made possible by using cañadas a system of long-distance pathways used by migrating flocks which occur in those Mediterranean countries that practice transhumance. In Spain, some of the paths that run north–south are known to have existed from the early Middle Ages, although claims of Roman or pre-Roman origin are doubtful, as

14664-441: The hills. The rebaños were divided between a number of pens built for shelter and for lambing, which took place in the winter pastures. Any old and infertile rams and diseased and weak ewes were culled soon after arrival to protect the quality of the wool, and of weak lambs were culled shortly after birth. The lambs were ready to travel north in the following spring, and the flocks left the southern plains from mid-April. Their wool

14820-440: The isolation of Grand Junction compared to other Western cities, having limited flights and road access. After the announcement, 87% of D.C.-based employees left, prompting former lead career BLM official Steve Ellis to state "the bureau lost a tremendous amount of expertise...[of] very seasoned people." On September 17, 2021, Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the headquarters would be moved back to Washington, D.C. Under

14976-419: The late 15th and 16th centuries, which supported the export of merino wool, was better able to protect the members of the Mesta and the emergence of the right of posesión in the 16th century, attempted to control these charges and rents and guarantee shepherds access to the pastures at fixed prices, although there was increasing pressure for new arable farmland to be brought into use in the 18th century. Under

15132-560: The late 1930s, when area cattle were herded down Montauk Highway to pasture ground near Deep Hollow Ranch. The prairie and desert lands of what today is Mexico and the western United States were well-suited to " open range " grazing. For example, American bison had been a mainstay of the diet for the Native Americans in the Great Plains for centuries. Likewise, cattle and other livestock were simply turned loose in

15288-541: The later Habsburg monarchs, there was increasing resistance to the passage of transhumant flocks. This led to the decline in smaller owners being involved in transhumance and the dominance of the Mesta by those with very large flocks, who had the money to pay for grazing along migration routes and the political influence to enforce their rights. The towns en route either tried to dissuade or divert transhumant flocks from their territory, or to extract as much as they could by leasing their pastures for flocks on their way to and from

15444-869: The law directed the BLM to ensure these places are protected for future generations, similar to national parks and wildlife refuges . Source: BLM Resources and Statistics The BLM, through its Office of Law Enforcement & Security, functions as a federal law enforcement agency of the United States Government. BLM law enforcement rangers and special agents receive their training through Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC). Full-time staffing for these positions approaches 300. Uniformed rangers enforce laws and regulations governing BLM lands and resources. As part of that mission, these BLM rangers carry firearms and defensive equipment, make arrests, execute search warrants, complete reports and testify in court. They seek to establish

15600-430: The law of posesión to Aragon. Their action was more successful than the 1633 renewal, as appeals in pasture disputes were moved to a court more favourable to the Mesta. In contrast to his predecessors, Charles III and his reforming ministers regarded posesión as a mediaeval survival that had outlived its usefulness and considered that its continuation inhibited a necessary growth in cereal cultivation. This led, firstly to

15756-493: The laws protecting its members. There is ample evidence from this period of disputes over unauthorised tolls and encroachment on the cañadas, and ploughing of pastures which might only be used for a few months a year. In theory, the Mesta had the right of pasturage and transit over all land except that in use for growing cereals, vineyards, orchards, hay meadows producing winter feed for cattle and land reserved for deer, but these mediaeval privileges had ceased to exist in reality by

15912-405: The length of transhumance journeys and the number of sheep that could be fed through the winter. The Mesta's original charter of 1273 was supplemented in 1276 and renewed in 1347 and 1371. Its internal organisation was originally governed by regulations of 1379, which have been lost. However, ordinances of 1492, supplemented by a code of 1511, regulated its operations for most of its existence. It

16068-588: The local states, and was not connected with subsistence farming. Sheep were relatively unimportant in the Islamic Caliphate of Córdoba and there is no known record of long-distance transhumance before its fall in the 1030s. The Marinids, a Zenata Berber group which held extensive sheep flocks in Morocco, intervened in Andalusia several times in the late 13th and early 14th centuries in support of

16224-537: The march, but divided into smaller units termed rebaños of about 1,000 sheep managed a shepherd with several assistants and sheepdogs. The shepherds were normally engaged for a year ending in June when the flocks were returned to their home pastures, and usually paid mainly in kind, with grain, a proportion of lambs born and cheese produced, but not in wool, and with a cash fee for each 100 sheep herded. In earlier centuries, smaller flocks called hatos were grouped to form

16380-623: The members of the Royal Council, and the leaders of each of the four quadrillas. The office of president was so powerful that, when the reformer Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes was appointed to this post in 1779 to eliminate the organisation's abuses, he went far towards dismantling the Mesta's organisation by promoting agriculture in the Sierra Morena , one of its principal winter pasturelands, despite opposition from Mesta members. The most important administrative officials of

16536-516: The military orders, and later by secular flocks, among the first being those from Burgos in the last decades of the 12th century. By the late 12th century, the military Orders were regularly driving flocks of sheep from New Castile into the previously Muslim areas of La Mancha and western Murcia, and even into areas still under Muslim control before the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa . The kings of Castile from Alfonso VIII to Ferdinand III protected

16692-437: The most controversial of the Mesta's privileges was the right of posesión , which established the Mesta's perpetual title to tenancy for all pasturess leased by its members. Its origin lay in the Mesta's code for its own internal administration, dated 1492. One clause attempted to prevent competition among the sheep owners for winter pasturage through an arrangement for the joint bargaining for pasture leases by lessees acting for

16848-513: The name mechta , used by Algerian nomads for their winter sheep encampments, as a possibility. There were very few references to Castilian mestas in the second half of the 13th and early 14th centuries, and these may apply to the guardian escorts of the transhumant sheep rather than any assembly of sheep owners. The Arabic meshta for a winter gathering of sheep may have been transferred to the meetings of animal owners held at that time, and later, to local sheep-owners' associations in Andalucía and to

17004-524: The national body, both composed of such owners. The word mestengo , (now spelled ' mesteño ') referred to animals of uncertain ownership, literally belonging to the mesta , deriving from the name of that body. In New Spain in colonial North America, feral horses came to be known as mesteños , from which is derived the English word mustang , used for the free-roaming horses of the modern Western United States. The north coast, northwest and, to

17160-506: The northern boundaries of Muslim states retreated. The expansion of the cañadas southward has been related to three causes, which may have all played their part, but here is no evidence of large scale transhumance in Extremadura, Andalucía and La Mancha when they were under Muslim rule, so the impetus must have come from the Christian north. From the reconquest of Toledo in 1085 to that of Andalucía, stock raising, particularly of sheep,

17316-454: The number and amounts of tolls that could be levied upon the flocks moving through a district. It also allowed them to use streams and customary sheepwalks (cañadas) and prevented the enclosure of previously open pasturage, foreshadowing the privileges granted to the Mesta. During the Cortes of Burgos in 1269, the king imposed the servicio de los ganados , a tax on migratory flocks and herds, and

17472-415: The number of sheep each owned, and no minimum ownership was required. However, it was estimated that only around one-tenth of its membership attended these assemblies. Although every member present had a single vote, nobles and substantial owners had the greatest influence and were often able to direct proceedings. Initially, the Mesta held three assemblies a year, but from 1500 this was reduced to two, one in

17628-399: The open range was not brought about by a reduction in land due to crop farming , but by overgrazing . Cattle stocked on the open range created a tragedy of the commons as each rancher sought increased economic benefit by grazing too many animals on public lands that "nobody" owned. However, being a non-native species, the grazing patterns of ever-increasing numbers of cattle slowly reduced

17784-527: The periodic movement of this frontier zone encouraged transhumance . However, the Christian advance into the Duero valley was undertaken by peasant mixed-farmers, who densely settled it, combining cereal crops with small livestock holdings. Only when the Reconquest progressed beyond Old Castile and entered areas of poor soils where it was difficult to grow cereals or to maintain high livestock densities did

17940-433: The point that they were wreaking havoc throughout the countryside. About 1812, John Parker, a sailor who had jumped ship and settled in the islands, received permission from Kamehameha to capture the wild cattle and develop a beef industry. The Hawaiian style of ranching originally included capturing wild cattle by driving them into pits dug in the forest floor. Once tamed somewhat by hunger and thirst, they were hauled out up

18096-509: The poor live, cultivating the small plots of land that they own or rent, sowing to the extent that each one can afford and raising their domestic, country animals, according to their strength." By the nineteenth century, the words Rancho and Estancia as used in Mexico had been consolidated to define a unit of land that made up a Hacienda or any rural area or the countryside in general. Domingo Revilla in 1844, in his text "Los Rancheros", defined

18252-400: The poor quality of the land and the limited availability of grazing favour sheep transhumance over sedentary mixed farming. Transhumance existed in other Mediterranean countries with climates and grazing that favoured transhumance which were similar to central Spain, but which were not unsettled as Spain was during the Reconquest. In the Christian lands north of the Sierra de Guadarrama ,

18408-539: The process it was found that open-range breeding of sheep and cattle (under the Mesta system) was the most suitable use for vast tracts, particularly in the parts of Spain now known as Castilla-La Mancha , Extremadura and Andalusia . When the Conquistadors came to the Americas in the 16th century, followed by settlers, they brought their cattle and cattle-raising techniques with them. Huge land grants by

18564-563: The property. Employees are generally known as stockmen/stockwomen , jackaroos/jillaroos , and ringers (rather than cowboys). Some Australian cattle stations are larger than 10,000 km, with the greatest being Anna Creek Station which measures 23,677 km in area (approximately eight times the largest US Ranch). Anna Creek is owned by S Kidman & Co . The equivalent terms in New Zealand are run and station . In South Africa , similar extensive holdings are usually known as

18720-632: The proportion of Merinos driven south in any year depended on the spring rainfall in the northern pastures and the fluctuating price of pasture in the south. After the Eighty Years' War , transhumant numbers rose again, but to a lower level than in the 16th century. This was not because of a decline in overall numbers of Merino sheep, but a reduction in long-range transhumance and a parallel increase in flocks pastured in their home areas. Non- migratory Merino flocks of southern cities such as Córdoba also expanded and competed with transhumant flocks. Perhaps

18876-467: The public rangelands by establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees. The Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Act of 1937, commonly referred as the O&;C Act, required sustained yield management of the timberlands in western Oregon. In 1946, the Grazing Service was merged with the United States General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management within

19032-458: The quality of the rangeland, in spite of the simultaneous massive slaughter of American bison that occurred. The winter of 1886–87 was one of the most severe on record, and livestock that were already stressed by reduced grazing died by the thousands. Many large cattle operations went bankrupt, and others suffered severe financial losses. Thus, after this time, ranchers also began to fence off their land and negotiated individual grazing leases with

19188-513: The recognition of the Mesta in 1273 allowed Alfonso to derive a greater portion of the resources of the sheep-herding industry more efficiently. Klein noted three possible origins for the word mesta . Firstly, it might be related to annual assemblies to dispose of strays that were called mezclados , as they were mixed with a strange flock or herd, the name ultimately deriving from the Latin Latin : mixta , lit.   'mixed',

19344-610: The removal of excess animals; the killing of lame, old, or sick animals; the private placement or adoption of excess animals; and even the killing of healthy animals if range management required it. The killing of healthy or unhealthy horses has almost never occurred. Pursuant to the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978 , the BLM has established 179 "herd management areas" (HMAs) covering 31.6 million acres (128,000 km ) acres where feral horses can be found on federal lands. In 1973, BLM began

19500-605: The rest of western Europe , where there is far less land area and sufficient rainfall allows the raising of cattle on much smaller farms. In Australia , a rangeland property is a station (originally in the sense of a place where stock were temporarily stationed). In almost all cases, these are either cattle stations or sheep stations . The largest cattle stations in the world are located in Australia's dry outback rangelands. Owners of these stations are usually known as graziers or pastoralists, especially if they reside on

19656-415: The rights of the monasteries and military orders to move their sheep to graze in the south of their kingdom, but Alfonso X realised that granting similar transhumant rights to the cities and towns of Old Castile and León would create a significant new source of income. The conquest of the Guadalquivir valley in the 13th century permitted flocks from the Duero and Tagus basins to over-winter there, extending

19812-602: The same, ranchers hold nearly 18,000 permits and leases for livestock grazing on 155 million acres (630,000 km ) of BLM public lands. The agency manages 221 wilderness areas , 29 national monuments and some 636 other protected areas as part of the National Conservation Lands (formerly known as the National Landscape Conservation System), totaling about 36 million acres (150,000 km ). In addition

19968-679: The season. The royal protection for the Mesta's flocks and herds was signified by the term Cabaña Real ( Spanish : Cabaña Real de Ganados , lit.   'royal flock or herd of livestock' that applied to these protected animals. The kings of Castile conceded many other privileges to the Mesta. The cañadas (traditional rights-of-way for sheep or sheep-walks) were legally protected in perpetuity from being built on, cultivated or blocked, and they still are protected public domain in our days. The most important cañadas were called cañadas reales , 'royal cañadas ', because they were established by royal decrees. The origin of

20124-477: The shepherds. Initially one such official patrolled each of the four main cañada systems, but their numbers were increased to six in the late 15th century, then later reduced to only three in 1650. They were initially appointed by the Crown to protect the interests of the Mesta and adjudicate in disputes it had with towns and the landowners along the transhumant routes. In 1568, the Entregadors became officers of

20280-560: The south. Although, in theory, the Mesta's legal rights were clear and the association had an impressive apparatus to enforce them, these rights were breached when routes of the cañadas were moved away to fertile pastures or restricted to below their legal width, and illegal dues were imposed. Even where the Mesta's right were restored after lengthy court proceedings, those that had infringed them usually received no financial or other penalty. Both summer and winter pastures used by transhumant sheep were supposed to remain unploughed and unsown, as

20436-530: The southern pasturelands in January or February, and the other in one of the four northern quadrilla centres in September or October. These assemblies dealt with the organisation of the next transhumance and the election of Mesta officials, and proposals were first voted on by each quadrilla, then in a general assembly, where each quadrilla had a single vote. In the 18th century, meetings were often reduced to one

20592-461: The southern territories, renamed New Castile , left for North Africa or the Emirate of Granada , and the increasing use of the heavy plough in the north of the kingdom raised cereal production and discouraged its population from southward migration into areas less suitable for mixed farming. In the 12th and 13th centuries, many sheep-herders in Old Castile and León began transhumance to more distant pastures, within or without those provinces, This

20748-420: The spring after their young were born and allowed to roam with little supervision and no fences, then rounded up in the fall, with the mature animals driven to market and the breeding stock brought close to the ranch headquarters for greater protection in the winter. The use of livestock branding allowed the cattle owned by different ranchers to be identified and sorted. Beginning with the settlement of Texas in

20904-603: The term hacienda or finca may be used. Ranchero or Rancho are also generic terms used throughout tropical Latin America . In the colonial period, from the pampas regions of South America all the way to the Minas Gerais state in Brazil, including the semi-arid pampas of Argentina and the south of Brazil, were often well-suited to ranching, and a tradition developed that largely paralleled that of Mexico and

21060-638: The territories, patenting land that was surveyed via the corresponding Office of the Surveyor General of a particular territory. This pattern gradually spread across the entire United States. The laws that spurred this system with the exception of the General Mining Law of 1872 and the Desert Land Act of 1877 have since been repealed or superseded. In the early 20th century, Congress took additional steps toward recognizing

21216-554: The towns, and many Muslim inhabitants left. At the start of the 12th century, the raising of livestock, preferably sheep, centred around pasture rights granted to clerics, initially those around the slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama but later they began "inverse transhumance" to the pastures of the Sierra Morena . It was the flocks of the monasteries that first opened up the cañadas in New Castile, but these were soon followed by

21372-487: The urban elites of Old Castile and León, who used urban grazing in the city's término ( Spanish : término , lit.   'rural area within a city's jurisdiction', including its pasturage on nearby sierras, were granted similar rights. None of these groups, nor the few lay members of the nobility that also received such grants, could base their wealth on crop-growing in the dry and underpopulated lands of New Castile, so relied on raising livestock. Initially,

21528-459: The usual livestock until the end of eleventh century were plough oxen, milk cows and pigs as well as sheep There is no evidence for large flocks of sheep before the early 1100s, and no clear evidence for any large scale transhumance of sheep flocks before the late Mediaeval period. The long-distance transhumance described from southern France, Italy and Spain was connected with the commercial exploitation of sheep, mainly for wool, and its taxation by

21684-548: The value of the assets on public lands and directed the Executive Branch to manage activities on the remaining public lands. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as coal , oil , gas , and sodium to take place on public lands. The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the United States Grazing Service to manage

21840-464: The widespread introduction of the heavy plough in Old Castile led to increased cereal production and led to the abandonment of marginal cultivation, creating more pasture. The emigration of much of the Muslim population from New Castile to Granada and North Africa also led to the abandonment of areas of dry farming there. These changes favoured stock-raising, and there was probably enough land for both pasture and arable farming at first. Laws confirming

21996-415: The year resulted in the increased fineness of their fleeces, and it was realised that transhumance was essential to create wool of a quality that sedentary sheep flocks could not match. This circumstance was used to justify the Mesta's privileges. The Mesta records indicate that, from 1436 to 1549, in excess of 2.5 million sheep took part in the annual migration. This number declined during the remainder of

22152-612: Was also defined as a family reunion to talk any particular business. While “ranchero” is defined as the: “steward of a mess”, the steward in charge of preparing the food for the “rancho” or mess-hall. In South America, specifically in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brasil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the term is applied to a modest humble rural home or dwelling, a cottage ; while in Venezuela it’s an improvised, illegal dwelling, generally poorly built or not meeting basic habitability requirements;

22308-466: Was an expansion of transhumant travel south from Segovia and Burgos at the end of the 12th century and the start of the 13th century using cañadas opened by the monasteries, possibly into what was still Muslim territory. However, the victory of Los Navas de Tolosa in 1212 opened the pastures of the Guadiana to all Castilian flocks, not just those of the monasteries and military orders. As the influence of

22464-431: Was an internal Mesta measure only, but a significant action taken by Ferdinand and Isabella in January 1501 in support of the Mesta was to create a law of posesión, which granted Mesta members the permanent tenancy of a stated pasture field, either at the rental paid under their earliest lease, or if a flocks occupied such fields for a season unchallenged or undiscovered by the landowner, for no payment. The probable intention

22620-421: Was both of the normal variety, moving from the home farm to summer pastures within the same province, and an inverse movement to winter pastures further away. Two examples of normal transhumance are first, when many Castilian cities and towns were granted royal charters in the 12th century, they gained control over large areas of upland pasturage and granted grazing rights to their citizens. and, second, after

22776-457: Was developed New Castile, at first by over thirty northern monasteries, bishoprics and churches, many with their summer pastures in the Sierra de Guadarrama, and secondly by the military orders, which received royal grants of pasturelands in the Tagus valley. Documents dated from the late 12th century show that the military Orders were regularly driving their sheep from New Castile into the previously Muslim areas of La Mancha, western Murcia and into

22932-403: Was disputed by the landowners of southern Castile, including towns, ecclesiastics, military orders and private individuals, it was upheld by the courts and confirmed in a series of laws passed in 1505. One interpretation, based on the assumption that the privilege of posesión operated strictly in accordance with these laws and could be enforced, was that it retarded the growth of agriculture and had

23088-681: Was incorporated in the 13th century and was dissolved in 1836. Although best known for its organisation of the annual migration of transhumant sheep, particularly those of the Merino breed, the flocks and herds of all species of livestock in Castile and their owners were under the oversight of the Mesta, including both the transhumant and the sedentary ones. The transhumant sheep were generally owned in Old Castile and León , where they had their summer pastures, and they migrated to and from winter pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia according to

23244-895: Was more organic, developed to adapt to the characteristics of the region from Spanish sources by cultural interaction between the Spanish elites and the native and mestizo peoples. Cattle ranching flourished in Spanish Florida during the 17th century. The word "Rancho" in Mexico developed different definitions from what it originally meant in Spain. In the book "Descripción de la Diócesis de Guadalajara de Indias" (1770), Mateo José de Arteaga defined "Ranchos" as "extensions of land where few people live with few assets and sheltering in huts." In 1778, José Alejandro Patiño , in his text "Topografía del Curato de Tlaxomulco," defined Ranchos as "In these Indian kingdoms, Ranchos are country houses of little pomp and value, where men of average means and

23400-406: Was organised into four geographical units ( Spanish : quadrillas , lit.   'groups or gangs') ( cuadrillas in modern Spanish) based around the principal pastoral cities of the northern meseta, Soria , Segovia , Cuenca and León , where most of the flocks of Merino sheep had their home pastures. Its governing council consisted a president who was, after 1500, always chosen from

23556-452: Was reconfirmed by a royal decree of 1748. In the 18th century, this uncultivated land came under great pressure as the numbers of transhumant sheep doubled, but rents for pasture were fixed and the land could not be used for crops. During the 17th century, the powers and incomes of the Entregadors were steadily eroded by the courts, and the government granted exemptions from the Entregadors' jurisdiction to towns willing to pay for them and, by

23712-546: Was shorn on their way north, and was then washed, and taken to one of the Mesta warehouses, the largest being in Segovia. The wool was later sent the fairs, especially Medina del Campo, or to the northern ports for shipment to Flanders and England. After the shearing, the journey north then resumed at a slower pace, and the last flocks reached their home pastures in May or early June. They would then be moved to their summer pastures in

23868-457: Was so successful that BLM allowed it to go nationwide in 1976. The Adopt-a-Horse program quickly became the primary method of removing excess feral horses from BLM land given the lack of other viable methods. The BLM also uses limited amounts of contraceptives in the herd, in the form of PZP vaccinations; advocates say that additional use of these vaccines would help to diminish the excess number of horses currently under BLM management. Despite

24024-420: Was sold as a source of income for the government. In order to sell the land, surveys needed to be conducted. The Land Ordinance of 1785 instructed a geographer to oversee this work as undertaken by a group of surveyors. The first years of surveying were completed by trial and error; once the territory of Ohio had been surveyed, a modern public land survey system had been developed. In 1812, Congress established

24180-520: Was stimulated in the late 15th century by a sales tax exemption for Mesta members that this trade significantly enriched the members of the Mesta. These were increasingly members of the higher nobility, who owned flocks in excess of 20,000 merino sheep, and smaller owners ceased to be involved in transhumance. The most important wool markets were held in Burgos , Medina del Campo and Segovia, but particularly Burgos. Some Madrid streets are still part of

24336-513: Was to prevent competition for grazing among Mesta members, by guaranteeing the earliest flocks to arrive were given priority for leases. However, the Mesta was able to have an interpretation of the rule of posesión accepted by the courts that was more favourable to its interests, arguing that, as its charter allowed it to represent all sheep owners, it had the right negotiate and allocate all pasturage leases in Castile to prevent disputes or competition between its members. Although this interpretation

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