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Show LIVESTOCK SITUATION A holiday is just a holiday for the average salaried worker and few stop to think what effect our national holidays holi-days have upon trade in general-However, general-However, every holiday is costly to the live stock and meat industry, for in these days of automobiles and entertainment, en-tertainment, a holiday means that the average American housewife takes a day off right along with the rest of the folks, wheh means that there is a tremendous reduuetion in the amount of meat sold by the retail butchers. Take the Thanksgiving Day holiday period, which we have just experienced. experi-enced. On every live stock market in the country there was reduced buying buy-ing power because of this particular holiday; poultry is the most favored portion of the big holiday dinner. After the choicest morsels are devoured de-voured the Thanksgiving feast, there are the less desirable parts on the following' day and soup or hash on Saturday. This means that in the average American home there are three days when there is little or no beef, pork or lamb consumed. For the live stock producer it means that he loses three days' buying power from the meat packer or distributor. dis-tributor. It means three days .of very light business for the 'meat distributor dis-tributor often entailing heavy losses. The retail meat dealer is not so hard hit, as he makes up his lost volume in the standard meats by poultry- If there happens to be an average supply of live stock on the markets, or an average supply of meats in the packer's coolers, prices are depressed and tremendous losses are suffered in the aggregate. The same condition holds true during dur-ing the Christmas holiday period-, although al-though there is a tendency on the part of many families to eat -the choicest and primest beef, pork and mutton available during that period. Even with this appetite increasing year by year, demand for the medium grades of beef, for instance, is lessened, and medium quality beef makes up the bulk of our supply. Meat eating is also greatly reduced during the Lenten season, although fasting is not so general- as it- was some years ago, due to the feeling on the part of the church, heads that those who labor should eat meat . at least once a day Easter Sunday is another day of general fasting and while, the "big demand for lamb and fancy hams is a welcome condition for the sheep and hog producers, again the beef producer is hard hit. ., . . . Holidays will continue and probably probab-ly we will have more of them as the country feels it has more reason for thanksgiving and celebration. However, How-ever, it behooves the meat and live stock interests to "watch their step" in preventing markets from being over-supplied during these holiday periods. The wise producer or feeder will always take these factors into ' consideration and arrange his market- ; ing time so aB not to suffer from the effects of our American customs, j o I |