ABSTRACT
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service and National Agricultural Statistics Service, the total number of cattle slaughtered under federal inspection in 2015 in the United States was nearly 28.7 million. Prior to the development of the US Interstate Highway System, long-distance transportation of live cattle often occurred on hoof or by rail. As the infrastructure developed to support the movement of goods by truck, straight-trucks and tractor-trailers became the predominant modes of cattle transportation to slaughter. A wide variety of handling facilities can be observed at the farms, ranches, terminal markets, and collection points throughout North America. At smaller farms and ranches, it is commonplace to observe the use of purpose-built cattle trailers that may be attached at the rear bumper or within the cargo bed of pickup trucks for moving cattle directly to slaughter or to a terminal market or collection point.
