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In an age of digital convenience, the American cowboy is still up before dawn – doing the hard, unseen work that puts steak on the table.
While most Americans rush to catch flights, meet deadlines and secure dinner reservations, someone else is already in the saddle. Long before the grill is lit, cattle are bought at auction, grain is planted and herds are gathered across miles of open prairie.
In the Fox Nation special, "Cattle Drive: American Cowboy," Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin heads to Mandan, North Dakota, to ride alongside modern-day cattlemen who carry on a tradition that helped build the country one sunrise at a time.
One of those cattlemen is cowboy legend Chad Berger, a third-generation rancher whose life is rooted in America's cattle culture and the responsibility of carrying that legacy forward.
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A ranch hand rounds up cattle on horseback and drives them into the pens at Adams Ranch Inc. in St. Lucie County, Fla., on July 9, 2013. (Ty Wright/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
For Berger, being a cowboy is more than a job. It's a lifestyle.
"A cowboy, to me, is a man who represents himself well and treats people well and tips your hat to the ladies," Berger told Tobin in the special.
"There's more to wearing this hat than just saying you're a cowboy."
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Cattle are shown in pens at the Cattlemen's Columbus Livestock Auction in Columbus on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images)
Berger has been working cattle since he was a boy, following in his father's footsteps with a tradition he hopes to pass along to his children and grandchildren. Today, he oversees hundreds of head of cattle across the rolling hills of North Dakota, rounding up herds and preparing them for market.
On one particular morning documented in the special, Tobin joins Berger and his crew to move roughly 450 head of cattle bound for market. Berger brought along some of his grandchildren to indulge them in the tradition so that they might someday show their children the process as well.
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This undated photo taken at an undisclosed location shows a cowboy silhouetted against the sky. (iStock)
The new special, now available for streaming on Fox Nation, follows the crew as they cross the rugged North Dakota terrain in the cool twilight hours, doing the demanding, often overlooked work that keeps America’s ranching tradition alive.
There are no red carpets, spotlights or shortcuts on the prairie – just horses, open land and generations of knowledge passed down in the saddle.
For Berger and the men and women like him, the cowboy code isn’t a relic of old Western films – it’s alive and well.
To watch more, subscribe to Fox Nation and begin streaming "Cattle Drive: American Cowboy" today.
Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.
