Respuesta :

because the great plains was only good for raising cattle, it was really hard to plant crops there so the only thing to do was raise cattle

Answer,

It was a cheap source of food

Explanation.

Cattle ranching was important because it gave settlers food and money.Increase in population resulted to high demand for food and cattle ranching supplies this demand.Beef and dairy products from the cattle acted as food to the European settlers.Through selling products from the cattle  they got money in return.Cattle ranching led more land under agricultural use .