OCR Text |
Show MLivestock: .JfcLSituatioiiJ jANMJCIJ ' Those )n the meat trade in the mid-1 die west cannot help but be impress-ed impress-ed with the fact that thousands of "distressed" animals are being hurried hur-ried to slaughter all over the coun-try. coun-try. I have just returned from a trip through the middle west; and at all J of the markets, and found tht a great percentage er' the hogs being marketed, are thin and immature. At one of the large corn belt mar-kets, mar-kets, hundreds of trucks come in daily with odd head of farm animals. Many farmers are converting thin dairy cows into cash due to lack of feed and water. These animals are the kind that seldom enter into commercial commer-cial meat channels, being "family" dairy cows. The markers alsa are receiving literally thousands of thin and immature imma-ture beef animals that are difficult to move into retail trade channels after af-ter being slaughtered. It is very apparent ap-parent that despite the huge volume of thin cattle now being purchased by federal drouth relief agencies, there are other thousands of animals that are being forced; to slaughter that do not comp within the scope of the federal fed-eral buying campaign. All of these things go to show how necessary and important the federal drouth relief measures are. Many thousands of cattle are dying' of thirst and starvation in the. western drouth area, even b,fcf8Fe federal agents have th opportunity to make inspection. Many other animals are so poor that federal forces find them unsuitable for shipment even for canned meat and such animals are often shot and buried on the ranch. It seemed very possible that Nebraska Neb-raska and Kansas might have a fair corn crop with additional rains. Recent Re-cent rains have brought out the crop better than seemed possible earlier in the season. Other quick growing forage plants aso are making good growth an.6. will provide much needed roughage for livestock. There will be plenty of corn for fall and winter j feeding, even though the 1934 corn crop may turn out very poorly, the result of a heavy carry-over of eorn 1 from last year's abundant crops, i AH in all, the situation in the mid- j die. h quite hopeful and I found that farmers generally view the fu-l ture with a fair degree of optimism. Those who are fortunate enough to have plentiful supplies of feed and! water are looking towards a relatively rela-tively satisfactory price situation in the future. Wholesale riddance of thousands of beef and dairy cattle fR the drouth program, shar curtailment curtail-ment in the pig crop and likelihood of em.ciguncy buying of starving sheep all of those things can hardly help but point to a future bullish situ-, situ-, aUon in the livestock price structure. |