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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 16
by William Naftel Sales and ServicesMarkets According to the statements of Cochrane and his associates, the ranch had not been expected to become a profit-making operation before five years had passed; however, it was not intended either that it should be completely unproductive. Part of the incentive to move into beef marketing lay in the natural desire to have at least some income to offset the necessarily large outflow of capital in the pioneer years. There was also a desire to cull the herd of substandard cattle while it was gradually being improved. Finally, it was important to establish a presence in the market quickly in the fact of an already firm grip on Canadian government contracts by I. G. Baker and Company of Fort Benton, Montana. The original market for beef had been provided by the North-West Mounted Police and to this was shortly added the Indian who, with the disappearance of the buffalo, became dependent on that treaty provision under which the Indian Department undertook to feed its wards. Initially these markets were supplied by Baker's who bought all the beef produced, which was not much, and who paid a fair price ranging from $35 to $45 per head. (None of this beef was beef of particularly good quality, the theory being that beef was beef and an Indian would not know the difference between an old bull and a prime three-year-old.1) I. G. Baker and Company paid in cash or in trade at their Calgary store, then placed their own "Figure 3" brand on the animals and turned them out on the open range until needed. All this began to change with the establishment of the Cochrane ranch in the vanguard of the ranchers. Undoubtedly the senator used his Ottawa contacts to ensure that Baker's did not long remain the sole supplier of beef. Nor would it be surprising if the government were in fact anxious to develop an alternative and Canadian source of supply. No time was wasted in getting the first contract. Despite the losses of the first winter and the effect it must have had on the availability of the stock, a contract was signed with the Mounted Police at Calgary to supply 64,000 pounds of beef for one year from 1 July 1882 at 8-3/4 cents per pound.2 The price was for beef on the hoof and for the beef only; the hides, heads and feet were sold separately to Baker's. Another contract was signed for the supply of the Indians which, from the government's point of view made quite clear the benefits of competition. Where Baker's charged 9-1/4 cents per pound to supply the Indian Reserve at Blackfoot Crossing, Cochrane charged 7-3/8 cents; at the Sarcee Reserve, Baker's got 8-3/4 cents, Cochrane 7-1/8 cents, and at the Morley Reserve, Baker's charged 9-1/4 cents and Cochrane 7-3/8 cents.3 With the advent of the CPR, a new market was opened up for the supply of the construction gangs. The appetite of the workers was such that many Alberta ranchers received their starts from sizeable CPR beef contracts. This did not last beyond the driving of the last spike, but the opening of the railway established new avenues of exploitation. In the first place, the arrival of settlers increased the local market which had formerly played a minor part; secondly, it opened the entire Atlantic community to the Alberta ranches. This second point was the cornerstone on which ranches on such a vast scale had been established, but there was some delay in taking full advantage of it after the railway went through for the bitter winter of 1886-87 had a bad effect on the availability of steers. A sharp drop in prices, however, forced the cattlemen to look about for an expanded market. In late 1887, 700 head were exported to Britain as an experiment and after paying all expenses the shippers realized $45 per head. This was the beginning of a substantial export trade which proved to be profitable for those ranchers who were willing to make the effort to meet the high standards demanded by British buyers and had the instinct to judge the sometimes capricious shifts of the international cattle trade. On the other hand, underbred and underfinished cattle always resulted in a loss to the shipper and the arrival of a consignment at the wrong time of year or when the market was glutted could again mean heavy losses. Shipment of live cattle was a problem in the first years. During the long journey from Calgary or Medicine Hat to Liverpool or Southhampton, an animal which had started out a fine specimen of beef on the hoof was likely to arrive at its destination bruised, battered and worried out of hundreds of pounds. Though in the early days the CPR's equipment for shipping stock was minimal, they did their best and the cattle were rushed through as fast as possible. Live shipment nevertheless remained necessary as refrigerators cars were still a thing of the future and consequently speed and a minimum of handling were important to ensure that the animals lost as little weight as possible. McEachran was saying as late as 1907 (at hearings of the Alberta Beef Commission) that while refrigeration would increase the value of beef cattle from 25 to 30 per cent, the difficulties in the way were almost insurmountable.4 Local prices were good, the Calgary market ranging between 6-1/2 and 9 cents per pound and in the early days (ca. 1882) reaching as much as 10 cents per pound.5 Baker continued to offer good prices, as high as $32 for two-year-olds and $40 for three-year-olds. Chicago prices held fairly steady between 5 and 6 cents and Montreal between 4 and 5 cents.6 The marketing situation remained fluid during the tenure of the Cochrane interests at Big Hill and, like many of the pioneer ranchers, the senator seems to have acted as his own sales agent. Smaller ranches, however, did not have the resources to establish markets on the eastern seaboard and overseas, and livestock agents were beginning to dominate the business of cattle marketing by the 1890s. One of the first was the ubiquitous I. G. Baker and Company which filled this function in the earliest years and they were succeeded by Patrick Burns, J. H. Wallace, Gordon and Ironsides, and J. D. McGregor, among the better known. The advent of the Cochrane and other ranches meant a change of a sort for westerners. Before the ranches, beef was just as likely to come from one of the cast-off ox teams of a bull train. Henceforth the grass-fed steer would reign and to those most concerned it must have been a pleasant change indeed.
The Subsidiaries As the first major commercial enterprise (apart from I. G. Baker and Company) with any amount of capital in the Calgary area, the Cochrane ranch moved to fill part of the vacuum caused by the lack of services in a developing area. Surprisingly enough, considering the merchant background of so many of the interested parties and the evident future of the town, no attempt was made to exploit or pursue these initial ventures and they shortly disappeared. The most obvious of these was a butcher shop which served as a retail outfit for the sale of beef to the citizens of Calgary. This enterprise was started at the beginning of ranching operations, probably as a means of bringing in some cash, though with the almost continuous shortage of cattle resulting from the failure of the herds to winter well, it must have strained the corporate resources at times to keep the shop properly supplied. Evidently it was very much a secondary operation as far as Walker was concerned and when White arrived he found the accounts in confusion and had to spend some time in straightening them out. White seems to have considered the retail operations an important part of the business inasmuch as he altered plans for a new company building under construction in Calgary to include a new butcher shop.7 Steers for the shop were kept at a camp at Nose Creek and this, plus the Calgary Mounted Police contract, took about 20 head a month.8 The Indian Department paid just over 7 cents per pound for its beef, the Mounted Police paid 8-3/4 cents and the patrons of the butcher shop paid 10 cents per pound.9 Just how long the butcher shop continued in operation has not been determined. It would seem unlikely that it survived the transfer of the cattle operations to the southern range. The other aspect of the company's operations, the sawmill, showed a good deal of foresight in view of Calgary's future. The mill was erected early in 1882 at the instigation of Walker who, since it was too far from the ranch to be of much use there, must have foreseen the need for such an operation with the construction of the CPR and the prospect of settlement. A small steam sawmill was brought out, a manager, Mr. Gilmour, appointed, and a timber concession obtained from the Department of the Interior. Walker's business sense was apparent on his requesting at his resignation that in return for his equity in the company, the sawmill be turned over to him. This was done at a mutually agreed upon valuation of $15,000.10 In a remarkably short time Walker had a contract for 750,000 ties for the CPR, was supplying lumber for Cochrane ranch buildings, and over the next few years supplied much of the timber for the early trestles erected by the CPR.
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