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Show Livestockmen's outlook bleak cholesterol, increased consciousness of weight, and changing life styles appear to be changing preference patterns. "Pork, poultry and fish are making inroads on restaurant menus and in the offerings of fast food chains," Purcell said. "Perhaps most importantly, im-portantly, the consumer-level consumer-level price relationships continue to hurt beef and, over time, promt consumers con-sumers to look more seriously at alternatives." The economists agree that the apparent decline of beef demand could be reversed but the probabilities do not favor such a reversal. Demand for beef is not growing with increasing incomes like it did 10 to 15 years ago, they ' said. For the immediate future, the panel says the cattlemen's prospects are encouraging, but for the second half of this year, "the jury is still out." SALT LAKE CITY -Food shoppers' signals created by their reactions at the meat counter and sent to cattle producers on the ranges in Utah and other states, have apparently ap-parently been ignored, the head of Utah's largest farm and ranch organization cautioned recently. As a result, cattlemen have been building up their herds when the signals indicated a reduction. The livestock producers now face a bleak outlook for improved im-proved prices, according to Frank O. Nishiguchi, president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. Latest statistics show that cattlemen continue to be "bullish about their industry." Total cattle numbers increased for the fourth consecutive year in spite of indications in-dications that supply was outstripping demand, the farm leader said. He explained that several top livestock economists who met recently to consider the cattle market for coming months have renuewed a warning they issued six months ago: aggressive expansion of national beef cattle numbers could ' be a financial gamble. ; Economists par-; par-; ticipating in the fourth of a series of cattle cycle forums sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation were Glenn Grimes, professor of agricultural economics, University of Missouri; Dr. Wayne D. Purcell, professor of agricultural, Menlo Park, Calif; and Dr. Edward Uvacek Jr., livestock marketing economist and associate professor, Texas A&M University. While total cattle numbers increased only by one percent in Jan. 1, 1982, U.S. Department of Agriculture inventory, the number of heifers held for beef cow replacements increased by eight percent over the previous year in spite of a slightly smaller total calf crop in 1982. "The national increase in total cattle numbers tells us that cattlemen, as a group, are still actively building up their herds," Dr. Uvacek said. "Even though depressed prices of that last two years have dampened cattlemen's cat-tlemen's spirits, the hope for better prices still looms on the horizon." Purcell said the current depressed cattle market prices can be blamed in part on the changes in consumer demand, pointing out that an increase in-crease in disposable income does not necessarily mean an increase in the consumption con-sumption of beef. He said concern about |