OCR Text |
Show The dairy industry has made a place for itself, of course, in supplying supply-ing a very essential food stuff to the consuming public in the form of milk, cream, butter and the other i products coming from the dairy, j However, the dairy industry is now j playing a most important part'in the ! beef cattle market at practically all of the central consuming centers, as the dairy cows find a ready outlet in the beef channels when they are no longer considered profitable pro-! pro-! ducers in the dairies. For instance, j California is usually considered an j essentially citrus producing state but i last year the dairy industry produc-' produc-' ed over ten million dollars more than the citrus industry, producing eighty .million dollars for the year. In 1927 the total consumption of meats declined three hundred and seventy-three million pounds, the decline de-cline being practically confined to the consumption of beef. In the face of this decline in beef consumption there was an increase of three hundred hund-red and fifty-two million pounds in the pork utilized. This shows, of course, that the increase in pork just about one half offset the deficit in beef consumed. Lamb and mutton consumption was practically steady for the year, showing that the beef consumer, due to higher price levels turned to pork which was comparatively compara-tively cheap on the market during that period. It is interesting to note that there was a decrease of three and one-half pounds in 1927 in the: per capita consumption of all meats throughout the United States which declined from one hundred and forty-two forty-two pounds per capita in 1926 to one hundred and thirty-nine pounds in 1927. In 1920 there were 3,311 industries in the Los Angeles metropolitan area with a production of approximately approxi-mately eight .million dollars and at this time there are 6,000 industries with an output of commodities valued at a billion and a half dollars. All of this represents, of course, a payroll pay-roll for workers who are consumers of meat foods which means a market mar-ket for the live stock producer in the entire territory lying west of the Rocky Mountains. The south Pacific Coast outlet for meat food products has changed from a seasonal demand to a year-round requirement for these supplies and this has placed the live stock producer in the entire western territory in a very favorable position, giving him as it does, a choice of either going East with his commodity or choosing a Western market if it is more favorable. The recent decline in cattle prices should not cause any apprehension on the part of feeders or conservative conserva-tive operators as it is the natural reaction from the price levels in recent re-cent months which appeared out of line with the prices realized on other food stuffs which are competitive with beef. There has seldom been a time when there was as great a spread between the prices of pork and beef as has occured within the last few months. Naturally, the re- j tail buyer has turned to pork, lessening lessen-ing the demand for beef and consequently conse-quently equalizing the beef price level with other food stuffs. The law of supply and demand is inex-horable inex-horable and will not allow price levels to strike too high or too low j a medium for any length of time. ' The tendency of the pork market is upward and this should help the beef market. Live stock in any nation has proven itself for many generations as being an essential part of a well balanced agriculture. A report from Winnipeg, Winni-peg, Canada states that the live stock valuation on the prairie provinces pro-vinces has increased nearly one hundred million dollars in the past year. |