Man I wish my books on this weren't on my folk's ranch 700 miles away in Kansas. I'll give this my best shot without the direct quotes and citations.

Pre-US Civil War most beef was more or less locally raised and sent to the local butcher or slaughtered by the farmer or rancher directly for use for feeding their own family or the neighbors. There wasn't demand enough for large herds. The Great Plains was just opening up around the time the Civil War broke out and the economies of larger herds were just starting to be realized. Even then most of the traffic centered around getting the cattle to the Mississippi/Misouri River system and then loading either the live animals or sometimes the processed (mostly dried) beef for shipment up or down river. Rails systems were still fairly uncommon west of the Mississippi at the time. There were a mix of selling methods at the time. Some depots would have auctions on certain days of the month were cattle could be purchased for slaughter. In some cases ranchers would simply sell to a local who would then auction or perhaps work with an agent or contractor who would procure cattle for delivery at specific days.

After the Civil War we enter into the classic Era of the Cattle Drives and the famous Trails. There are several factors that made driving the cattle to market a necessity. First most of the large herds at the time were in Texas as the range land in Kansas, Nebraska, and further North and West were still fairly undeveloped/unexplored at the time. The other reason for that is the lack of ability to properly manage and market those herds during wartime. Then there was the lack of being able to effectively market/sell that extra stock, most of the South had few rail line miles than the North prior to the Civil War and saw much of the rail services disrupted during the War. Rail lines did wend their way through Nebraska (Union Pacific) and eventually through the now classic "cow towns" of Kansas. These lines could connect and ship live cattle to stock yards in Kansas City, Omaha, and Chicago where they could be slaughtered and used to feed those growing cities. From there the processed beef could even be sent by special rail cars further East even to New York.

Driving cattle required a fair amount of capital as one had to pay Cowboys enough to reliably get the job done and in numbers to actually make it worth your while. Big Ranchers (or ranchers who had some early successful drives), could afford to more or less run their own operation from home ranges to the rail head and back. Smaller Ranchers or local farmers would often sell their stock to the larger rancher who would in turn drive them on a trail to make a better profit. The other option would be for those various ranchers to band together to do a yearly drive to the markets.

The various cow towns would have brokers who worked on behalf of the big slaughter houses to arrange and buy live cattle as they were driven into the pens in the cow town. They would know that they needed so many animals at a certain price and could telegraph back with the main office if demands change.

Prices per head would vary depending on the demand back East, the number of cattle in the area or being driven into the area, the quality of said stock, and sometimes by relationships between the brokers and the ranchers. Over all of this loomed the Rail Roads. They scheduled the trains and the rail cars that hauled the cattle and they would get their amount per mile per head as well. A rivalry would occasionally develop between cattle towns over pricing or facilities options available.

So now a brief word about pricing. Generally during this era prices were by the head and not by weight as most depots were dealing with surges of cattle did not have means to effectively weigh them in time for shipping. The $ per head did matter quite a bit to the Ranchers as they generally paid their Cowboys a set fee for the drive so they had to calculate what they could expect for a price at the end of the trail with how many Cowboys they would need to move the herd with minimal losses of cattle. Too many Cowboys and the profit margin is minimal, too few and the drive could fall apart or the cattle could be lost.

So for the most part Cowboys were expected to supply their own horse, tack, and saddle, along with equipment and training, sometimes a second mount. The Rancher would supply the animals and the food with payment coming at the end of a successful drive. Some of the Cowboys might be neighboring ranchers who have some cattle in the dive, in which case their payment would either be reduced (if they marketed their cattle at the end of the trail) or increased (if they sold their cattle before the drive to the rancher). I found both types of marketing for the small rancher and found that sort of fascinating that there were so many arrangements that they could make, however a majority of the classic Cowboys worked on an agreed upon price for the drive.

Skilled/Trusted Cowboys could demand a premium. Some would work together and be part time rustlers/thieves and sometimes cowboys to make money. Most of the time the money was good enough to prevent such gangs from turning rustler. Often it would be a long empty ride back to Texas to look for another drive, particularly since it that would mean going through or around Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Some less than reputable cowboys would attempt to steal a portion of a herd and drive it to a cowtown in the hoped of making a bit of extra money on the side. These were sort of proto-outlaw-gangs that managed to work at being good cowboys that made money finishing drives and make extra money being good thieves on the return trips.

As the trails started closing down due to more and better rail lines and farms/fencing, local auctions and markets began to spring up. Larger Ranchers would still often buy younger cattle from neighbors to help fill out contracts to larger buyers. Auction houses would run a fixed schedule and ranchers would bring in their stock for purchase from agents from slaughter houses.

Thank You so much! Very informative!