The final project for my Introduction to Cartography class, I used two different mapping techniques to demonstrate a decline in cattle populations – and in theory, the cattle industry across the United States.  I used the dot-density maps above to show where local cattle populations have shifted over a 32-year period.  On a more localized scale, the choropleth map demonstrates the rate that cattle population has declined over the same period of time.  Note how the cattle population in the Mississippi Valley and the Midwest has significantly declined while the southern Great Plains and the Central Valley of California has held steady in the industry.