OCR Text |
Show : j to a grtat extent in the middle west I during the past quarter of a century , and the increased demand for better meats in ,the west is bound to brin.'j about considerable development in commercial feed manufacture. Cottonseed Cotton-seed products, molasses and alfalfa hay are being used very widely. There are some who are inclined to wonder just why such prices as $1.55 a pound for the grand champion steer and $5.50 a pound for the grand champion fat lamb at the fourth annual an-nual Christmas live stock are paid to the expert feeders. Such prices are purely a means of attracting attention to and encouraging better feeding a nd better breeding. It is a real hon- or to produce an animal good enough ; to be made grand champion in a big live stock show and the man who does it is well compensated, as he should be. The fat stock shows are hir;hly important in encouraging better bet-ter breeding and better feeding. A considerable increase in the num- bee of lambs on feed this winter in California is shown in a government report just issued. This has been brought about largely because of the large percentage of thin lambs car-rie car-rie d over from the range, flocks last suinmer, and because of the shortage of dry feed in the fall and winter. Imperial Valley, according to private reports, is feeding about the same number of lambs as a year ago. K:iins in California during the past lew wi'tlia brought to an end what is said to have boon the longest dry spell experienced on the Pacific coast in fifty years. -However, moisture in ii!.:.t (i'.- ti ict s ciuriO too late to assure : hanilant winter feed as the temperatures temper-atures at this season of the year generally gen-erally are too low to create the best r.rewth of feed. However, the rains n.ld confidence to the cattle and sheep business and some renewal of inquiry fo! stei-kers and feeders already is e iilent. The man who is running a cow and r;U' ranch is in fairly good shape but tli.-re are a number of factors which probably will tend to reduce the num-of num-of feeder cattle brought into California Cal-ifornia .from the southwest th3 year. The financial institutions are requiring re-quiring additional margins. Cattlemen Cattle-men operated on a pretty small margin mar-gin of .profit last year because of the high price of feeders. The latter situation, situ-ation, however,- is eased up- considerably consider-ably owing to a slackened demand from the corn belt feeders. Perhaps cut of all this situation we may better bet-ter realize the need for the storage i" a substantial part of our hay pro-il pro-il ietion and the utilization of our cc.n-c; cc.n-c; ntrates. Undoubtedly that is 'the ly way. by which we can have an :! I -year-round meat production, as ' (? is rlv-ays an uncertainty rij tc ). ran;.re conditions. Th- re seems to be every reason to believe that there will be fewf-i- cat-t!e,vtJiV( cat-t!e,vtJiV( -hrd in California this year, .heir-. rf i-ange districts and in. such frrort pasture land as the Imperial val-1 val-1 ' But, (here is a great deal of in-t- vest in feed lot finishing and, with the !iy cotton crop, it would not be surprising to see some increase in the number of cattle in commercial and privr.te feed lots. Concentrated feed fbr cattle, liogs :-!vl sheep have come, into more gen-(-;! use throughout the west during t:-,e vast few years so much that several sev-eral large concerns are now eitber ivi'tiufactuviug o r planning to manu-f.-eture commaVrial feeds. The com-: mercial feed industry has developed |