Drovers Vol. 150, No. 1
This month marks the 150th anniversary of Drovers, a source of livestock news, markets and business information dedicated to America’s cattle and beef industry. With this issue, Vol. 150, No. 1, we celebrate the dramatic changes that transformed our industry into a modern, reliable source of high-quality protein for consumers around the world.
Beef cattle are drastically different today than they were when Harvey Goodall launched his daily price sheet covering transactions at Chicago’s Union Stock Yards in 1873. Goodall named his publication The Chicago Daily Drovers Journal, a compilation of news and livestock prices he gathered from commission men throughout the yards. He must have witnessed a wide variety of stock flowing through those yards on their way to one of Chicago’s famous meat packers.
Through the use of selection techniques, America’s cattlemen rebuilt the longhorn bovines of Goodall’s era into a modern, efficient animal providing vastly more higher-quality beef. For instance, today’s beef industry produces roughly five billion more pounds of beef than it did in 1975 with 40 million fewer cattle. That’s the result of modern management and selection tools such as artificial insemination, EPDs and DNA testing, to name just a few.
Change, of course, has not been limited to cattle. Today, American ranchers face an assortment of challenges that Goodall and the stockmen of his day would never have imagined. Cattle producers must now navigate an array of expectations for land stewardship, animal welfare, food safety and even sustainability. In general, ranchers have accepted such challenges and continue striving for continuous improvements for cattle and the products they ultimately provide modern consumers.
Drovers 150th anniversary also would not be possible without the willingness and acceptance of changes to publishing and how information is delivered and consumed. Literally generations of Drovers editors and publishers have successfully embraced the evolution of information gathering and dissemination from its slow, cumbersome beginnings with Goodall, to our modern magazine and digital platforms of today.
As we celebrate the changes, we also celebrate the one constant driving our industry – people. Today’s ranchers and stockmen are filled with the same passion as their ancestors to care for their land, their animals and their families. Likewise, the people at Farm Journal and Drovers share the same passion for delivering valuable and useful information to farmers and ranchers that inspired Harvey Goodall.
