That would be the 17th century.
After the Mexicans left as Texas became independent they left a lot of cattle behind. The Texan farmers in turn created their own ranches based on the Mexican ones and appropriated the cattle. At first they were only used for skins as beef was not in demand but after the beef became popular food some ranchers became quite wealthy. The invention of barbed wire also represented the breakthrough in ranching as large ares of land could be fenced off with small expenses.
