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Show .krSituatiorbJ 1 We continue to get altogether too many poorly finished and common kinds of cattle. It is surprising that this condition should continue in view of the relatively cheap feeds of all kinds which can.be best .cashed in feeding to livestock. Instances are available where barley is being sold at as low as $15.00 per ton. At present pres-ent prices of beef and pork,' it will yield about double the price of grain at the present time. In the me.antime, we are bringing in grain-finished cattle cat-tle from the middlwest to rmtct the requirements of better beef. ! While price levels have gone down substantially substan-tially during the last week ort common com-mon and half-f:it kinds, the hotter quality is holding reasonably firtn. Four loads, S-ll pounds, grain-fed Wyoming steers, brought $11.65 p-er cwt. on Tuesday's market. 1400 of " the common and hajf-finishod kindi". on hand can only be sold at a price because they are not what the trade wants. The lamb business is showing a little lit-tle more firmness within the last two weeks but there is no reason to believe be-lieve that we -are going- to have much improvement in price levels. ' They didn't come down all at once and they can't be expected to come back all :it once. This, however, is no excuse for anybody going out of busyness who has the feed and facilities. Present price levels .are indexing . a number of peoplq to pick up some iv feeder Iambs and also breeding stock. Present prices ought to induce the owners to keep back at least their breeding stuff, but the trouble is we get panicky when prices come down and think we must unload. This unloading un-loading is usually done to the benefit of the other f ellow. If they are good for him, they are good for you, so let's not get the impression that we ! are going out of business. It is too important to our food supply. Hog prices are still on a profitable profit-able basis, around $11.00 per cwt The bulk of the hogs for the coast trade however, continues to come from the middlewest, nearly 2000 miles of transportation, with the accompanying shrink and death loss, to say nothing of the freight charges. So far as supply is concerned, there is nothing on the horizon to indicate anything like a price slump but we must be mindful of the fact that all classes of foods are relatively cheap. Notwithstanding the increased purchasing pur-chasing power of the workingnaan's dollar, he is getting less dollars, hence his purchasing power is less. Under normal conditions, we can assume with reasonable certainty that where the supply decreases, price increases; but what is a sufficient supply under normal conditions may be too much now. It is well to keep in mind that the price of feed is on a low basis and it is worth a lot more money converted convert-ed into meat foods on the ranch than if sold on the present market. I |