Introduction to Livestock Ranching

Livestock ranching is an important agricultural process that has a significant impact on economies all over the world. In this article, we will examine what livestock ranching is, where it is most predominant, why it is so vital to a region’s economy, the challenges that it currently faces, and how it relates to the AP® Human Geography exam’s multiple-choice and free-response question (FRQ) sections.

What is Livestock Ranching?

Before we define the full term, let’s break it down into its component words to see what exactly it is using simpler terms. Livestock refers to animals that are considered an asset. This can be that they are used to produce commodities such as food and clothing. Livestock animals include poultry, cattle, and fish. Ranching is the act of running a ranch, which is essentially an extensive farm for the sole purpose of raising livestock and crops. Ranches are usually owned by a single family, and the raising and harvesting of livestock and crops constitute its livelihood.

Therefore, we can bring the two definitions together to define livestock ranching as the breeding of animals, for the purpose of food or clothing production. The meat and milk from certain animals, such as cows, is used for food production while the skin of other animals, such as sheep wool, is used for clothing production.

Livestock Ranching and its Implications

The first evidence of livestock ranching was observed between 8,000 to 10,000 years ago during nomadic times (Nomadic Herding) and continues to be a primary source of food today. It became especially popular in the 19th century in Western Europe, the northeastern United States, and other areas of predominantly European settlement. Now, it is found all over the world, especially in South America, the western United States, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand’s South Island, and South Africa.

Livestock ranching is, and has historically been, more prominent in wealthier countries as meat is often viewed as a luxury due to the complexity of the production process, as opposed to harvesting vegetables which is a much simpler and more straightforward process. This is why livestock ranching was most prominent in areas of European settlement and have only now become widespread in other parts of the world as they gain more wealth.

As countries are developing, their meat consumption rises sharply due to the newfound wealth in the economy. Therefore, we can conjecture that meat consumption in a particular country or region is a reliable indicator of wealth in that geographical area. If you read stories from older time periods, you will notice that people transacted and bartered with livestock. In effect, the more livestock someone owns, the wealthier someone is. This explains why developing countries such as China have had a sharp rise in meat consumption over the past 40 years due to its rapid economic growth while consumption in developed countries, although still increasing, has seen slower growth.

Another reason why livestock ranching has become more widespread is due to the improved transportation infrastructure. Now, even the most remote areas in the world have access to the most concentrated (urban) markets due to the enhanced transport over land and sea. Other technologies such as refrigeration and meat canning have helped to ease the process as well, making it more feasible for ranchers to partake in livestock ranching and accessibility for consumers to purchase fresh goods that result from livestock ranching.

There are differing viewpoints as livestock ranching becomes more popular as countries become wealthier and can begin to afford consuming more meat on a regular basis. Many applaud this as evidence that the standard of living in the world is increasing, and people are beginning to live more comfortably with more purchasing power, allowing them to indulge in meat and expensive food of that sort. However, there are those who disagree.

Neo-Malthusians, who embody a more modern version of the Malthusian school of thought created by Thomas Malthus, say that although the world overall is getting wealthier, there are still areas that are incredibly impoverished. As the demand for meat increases, more of the existing facilities will be reallocated for meat production rather than crops or food grains, the main constituents of the diets for the poor. Instead of using existing grains to feed poor people, they will be used to feed livestock to raise them to be suitable for consumption.

Also, ranching, because it was originally a nomadic practice, requires vast space. In that area, the animals graze and feed extensively on the existing agriculture and grass, deteriorating the land. Once the area is degraded, the rancher must move somewhere else to conduct his or her farming activity, where another extensive patch of land is required that is due to deteriorating promptly as well.

In each deteriorated piece of land, use for any other activity such as agriculture for the poor is gone due to its barren nature, so that land is essentially wasted until it can recover, which can take centuries. More developed countries have implemented technology to slow the deterioration process or quicken the revitalization process. However, this technology has not made its way to developing countries yet, where livestock demand is rapidly rising. Neo-Malthusians cite this as yet another reason why the growth of livestock ranching is a problem.

Livestock Ranching and the AP® Human Geography Exam

So now that you know what livestock ranching is, where it came from, why it is important, and where it came from, let’s get back to the real reason why you’re here. We’re going to go over livestock ranching in the context of the AP® Human Geography Exam. We are going to cover what you need to know both for the multiple choice and FRQ sections of the AP® Human Geography exam.

In the AP® Human Geography curriculum, livestock ranching falls under the section on Agriculture, Food Production, and Rural Land Use. More specifically, students are to understand that major agricultural regions reflect physical geography and economic forces. Within this, the relevant learning objective for livestock ranching is to analyze the economic forces that influence agricultural practices.

What all of that means is that you must understand what livestock ranching is, its economic importance, its relationship with physical geography, and its implications, all of which have been covered in the above sections. Livestock ranching is a good indicator of economic prosperity in a nation and provides food and clothing, two of the largest, if not the two biggest, commodities in the global marketplace. However, it consumes large amounts of physical space and resources, and it is currently growing at an unsustainable pace, especially in the developing world. This takes away from land for crop farming, which is essential to the diets of the poorest people.

It is crucial that you understand livestock ranching and its implications because it is such an integral part of our lives. It is literally the food that we consume and the clothes that we wear. As such, you can expect plenty of questions on both the AP® Human Geography multiple choice and FRQs about it.

Outside of understanding the simple concept of it, make sure you have an understanding of the geographic regions in which livestock ranching is prominent (mentioned above in this article). That could be a trick question that CollegeBoard throws at you because they may give you a map with different color codes or patterns and ask you to describe the activity occurring in that region or ask which pattern represents livestock ranching.

As an example, we can look at question 2 from the 2004 AP® Human Geography FRQ on livestock ranching:

The restructuring of agriculture in the late twentieth century has had important implications for rural land use and the distribution of poultry (chicken and turkey) production in the United States.

A. List TWO factors that have increased the demand for poultry.

B. Briefly describe TWO characteristics of the present economic organization of poultry production in the United States.

C. Describe TWO features of the present geographic distribution of poultry production in the United States.

For part A, you can talk about how population increases in the world, in addition to a more globalized economy that encourages exporting and importing, increases the demand for poultry. You can also discuss how an increase in the standard of living in many developing countries has increased demand for poultry imports as well.

To answer part B, you can discuss how the poultry industry has become more modern and that livestock ranching has become more scalable due to technological advances, as well as how many farms have specialized in poultry production.

For part C, you can discuss how livestock ranches are concentrated in particular areas in the United States and how these areas are usually close to transportation corridors.

Note that these answers aren’t exhaustive and only relate to what we’ve explicitly discussed in this article. There are plenty of other acceptable answers for this question, outlined in the scoring guidelines here.

Wrapping Up Livestock Ranching

Livestock ranching is an important activity because it provides food and clothing. However, it is also an activity that takes up lots of space and degrades the land it uses. Large-scale livestock ranching was initially limited to areas of European settlement, but is now spreading to other parts of the world. Make sure you have a good understanding of it because you will definitely be asked at least one multiple choice question on the AP® Human Geography exam. In terms of the FRQ, there is a possibility that you may get a full question dedicated to it.

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