Dakota Datebook: The Open Range Doctrine Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Prairie Public

In the early days, when the eastern states were still colonies of Great Britain, farmers were bound by the doctrine of common law. Farmers who owned animals that were likely to roam, like cattle or horses, were responsible for any damage done by those animals. This made fencing necessary to keep animals in, as opposed to fencing grain or vegetable acres to keep animals out. This rule came from England and made sense in densely populated areas.

It didn’t make sense, however, for the vast expanse of the Great Plains. Consequently, states and territories began enacting laws that were more workable. In its early days, for example, Montana adopted the open range doctrine, allowing a rancher to let his animals roam, leaving it up to his neighbors to fence the animals out.

Much of the grazing land was owned by the government and used in common by many ranchers. So, it was impossible to erect fencing. In addition, fencing the limited cropland was less expensive that fencing extensive tracts of range land.

Read more at: https://news.prairiepublic.org/post/open-range-doctrine