Why should the law favor cattle ranchers (who can cheaply protect their property by branding) over other owners of property worth low thousands of dollars?
Theft of up to $20,000, assuming no priors, is limited to a penalty of 2 years (I've elided a bunch of details, click through to read them, skim for the relevant portions, but I'm pretty sure stealing $10,000 cash would result in a prison sentence of 2 years...).
Maybe because it's harder for cattle ranchers to actually protect their property.
It's not like cows are locked up and alarmed like televisions in a store. Possibly the extra penalty is supposed to act as extra deterrent where enforcement is less feasible. (Well.. either that or some sort of rural vote skew or good-ole boy thing... I wouldn't rule anything out.)
Here's (probably) the relevant laws:
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/SOTWDocs/PE/htm/PE.31....
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm
Theft of up to $20,000, assuming no priors, is limited to a penalty of 2 years (I've elided a bunch of details, click through to read them, skim for the relevant portions, but I'm pretty sure stealing $10,000 cash would result in a prison sentence of 2 years...).