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I know that there were federal regulations governing the transportation of cattle though don't know specifically what they are/were or when came about. What I do recall about it trying to think back more than a half century when I lived with my granddaddy who was a general stores foreman at a major SP yard (Tucson) was that most cattle trains coming through were 'unit trains'. On the 'shortline' spurs, say from Benson to Patagonia in southeastern Arizona, they would send up the mixed daily and whenever there were cattle to load out empties in it and so cut the cattle cars into a boxcar or two and maybe a coach 'way back when'. However, upon arrival in Benson at the mainline juntion the cattle would be held off-car in a trackside corral until shortly before a cattle train would be coming through. At that point then be reloaded and cut into that for their continuing journey... presumabley to the packing houses in the Vernon packing house district of Los Angeles, CA. The purpose of off-loading the cattle on the order of every 8 hours of rolling was more than to just feed and water them but to also REST them. The cattlemen (in a generic sense including all involved in the industry) had found that if they didn't do that, then the constant jostling of the cattle over time would exhaust them and cause them to lose weight excessively. So if they were going to proceed to any destination at a great distance (say the 500 miles from Tucson to L.A., or more, for example), they could be counted on to be off-loaded at least twice, possibly more times, during that journey. As a model railroader building my first 'big' HO almost double-garage-sized layout--all steam era that I grew up with, one of the things I intend to have on it is some of the cattle ranching/processing industry. So, as the 'ranches' will be out in the 'countryside', that is how I intend to treat with them--like as if picking up from Patagonia on the shortline (although Patagonia per se isn't on this pike--but the same principal) incorporated into a mixed-train 'daily', then spotting and off-loading on the main until a 'unit train' can come along and fetch them into it to continue on to the 'big city' destination. And, as previously mentioned, it doesn't matter so much how the empty cattle cars get back to the 'providers'. Well, that's my take on it. :)
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