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Show THE MARKETING DFjLiVESTOCK By W. E. Carroll, Animal Husbarfdman, Utah Agricultural Collega I'robaly the weakest point in the livestock business of the country is the marketing. Tliis Is true whether Mewed from the standpoint of the regions re-gions near the large markets, or whether methods of marketing from the western ranges are considered. The evils in the two sections, however, are not the same. Most of (u livestock that reach the market from the near by territory are marketed as fat stock. They are within with-in easy reach and many of them can be put on the market with i.4 to 48 hours. Feeders naturally study the market very closely and aim to ship t q time when the price seems meat encouraging. Of course, after the mimals are finished it never pays to (amble too long for a better market. The phsychology of the market un-ler un-ler such conditions Is well understood Dy the packers and other larger buyers. buy-ers. When they know the feed yards ire full and yet the stuff is slow coming com-ing in, so that prices remain high, what happens? They know by oft repeated experiment the result of wiring wir-ing an advance of twenty-five cents to their scouts. The country literally lumps for the bait. Everything that resembPls in the least a finished animal ani-mal finds its way to market in the aext two or three days. As a result the market is flooded; the bottom drops out, the unsold stuff is at the mercy of the buyers, because of the j expense of, and the poor conditions tor continued feeding, and what is the net result? The first few cars get the benefit of the advanced price, but tho bulk of the sales are made at a lower figure than ruled before the bait was cast. The fluctuation in market prices of S livestock from one day to the next ia j often sufficient to mean almost bank ruptcy or a fortune to a large feeder ' working on a narrow margin of ready rash. Such conditions should not exist. In fact, the Federal Government now has i committee working on this very prob. i lem to see If there is not some means of rendering the livestock market more stable. The marketing problems Immed-ately Immed-ately confronting the range sections ire greatly different from those mentioned men-tioned above. The distmce from market mar-ket Is usually much greater, and daily fluctuations, therefore, are of less Importance. Im-portance. The cattle buyer is the curse of the business as now practiced. A bunch of cattle, for example, may change hands two or three times between their range owners and the final mar. ket These changes are never made for j nothing As a matter of fact, soma cattle r uyers clear up as much money during a few weeks when the cattle ' are on the move as the owners do i during the two or three years they have t een growing their steers. These men cannot be blamed, for their 'business is conducted in a per- fectly open and straight forward man ner. They have seen the possibility of corralling this amount of money on ; Its way to market and have proceeded to ply their trade. The original producer of the livestock live-stock Is the persnn open to criticism. There is no renson why a group of stockmen cannot market their nnimal3 1 as easily and to as good advantnge as the regular buyer who resells. A HW'o experience may be necessary, but by getting in touch with some reliable commission firm there are few ris';s i to run even at the outset. After the ' first shipmont or two and a little study of conditions, what has heretofore been profit for the cattle buyer will be re-j re-j talnetl by the producer as added in come. As n resu't of closer contact with the market the owners would sonn leorn th? value of grading their ani-ivals. ani-ivals. Even if the pernloiou-s custom of sellinr to a middle man is continued contin-ued n stockman will find it profitable to grado anv class of livestock before 1 inking a buyer to look them over. ('oiijilions may not be favorable for bolter classification than separating tlio yearlings, twos and threes. If possible pos-sible e.vh age should be divided, putting put-ting the Icest animals in one bunch, leaving the culls to themselves where they will not drag the price of the (rood ones down to their level. Anyone Any-one kr-ows bow much better a uniform hunch of nnlmnis looks than a hit or miss collection of all colors nnd descriptions. des-criptions. Experience has fully demonstrate.1 dem-onstrate.1 that any class of animals properly graded will actually sell for mora money tnnn the same aninia's thrown togotaer in one heterogenous mass. Another condition that could, with profit to the proditcer, be remedied, is the practice of selling by the head. A j buyer must soli by weight and when j he offers $55.00 for two-year-olds hei must be sure that the good, bad, and Indifferent stuff that will be thrown at im will weigh out somewhat better than $55.00. Suitable scales could be put In at be usisol pGints of delivery at a very moderate expense. This would eliminate elimin-ate the guess work part of the bargain bar-gain and make the matter more satisfactory satis-factory and equitable to all concerned. More attention to details of this kind will be time well spent, as the balance sheet of the year's business when figured up will show. - |