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Show Due to circumstances beyond the control of the District Recruiting Officer, it became necessary to close several Recruiting Sub-stations In the Utah Recruiting District. The local Recruiting Station in the National Na-tional Ouard Armory was closed on Monday, July 7. Cpl. Joseph M. Beeston who left for Salt Lake City Monday wishes to express his thanks and appreciation for the kindness and assistance which he has received while operating the sub-station at Cedar City. It is his hope that in the not distant future fu-ture the sub-station may be reopen- Increasing Feed Costs Causing Serious Livestock Problem Increasing costs of hay and concentrates con-centrates are giving livestock feeders no little concern. Aside from th hog market, livestock prices have changed very little during the first half of 1941, but during the same period, the cost of all feeds has advanced sharply, as much as SO per cent and even more. No. 1 bright westren barley was selling the first week in January at Los Angeles at $1.10 a cwt., while the price quoted at the end of June was $1.60 a cwt. U. S. No. 1 alfalfa in January was quoted at $15 to $16 a ton, while the same grade is now quoted at $18 to $19 a ton. Cottonseed Cotton-seed meal which was quoted in January at $31 a ton is now quoted at $38 in Los Angeles. Hog prices have advanced sharply sharp-ly this year, the top quotation late last week of around $11.75 a cwt. comparing with $8.40 In January, and around $6.60 a year ago. Fed steers which were selling early In January at $9.90 to $10 a cwt. are now quoted at $10 to $11 a cwt., a slight gain in comparison with Increased In-creased cost of feeding. The general run of range cows which were bringing bring-ing $6.50 to $8 a cwt. In January are now selling at $6.50 to $7.75, yet again costs of production have Increased materially. The problem faced by livestock feeders is to attempt to work out lower feeding costs by making more efficient use of the more costly feeds. Some feeders are answering this problem by putting in feed grinding and mixing machines. Trw full value of alfalfa hay, for example, ex-ample, may be obtained by chopping chop-ping it, and its value as a feed may be increased by mixing molasses with It. There are fewer steers on feed in southern California than a year ago. This is due partly to the relatively rela-tively high cost of feedstuffs, and also because of the relatively narrow nar-row margin between the cost of feeder cattle and fat cattle. Cattle feeders who a year ago were able to show a profit on a "spread" or gain of 2 cents a pound between cost of feeds and the selling price of fed steers now feel that a spread of 2Vt to 3 cents a pound is necessary. neces-sary. Cattlemen are more than ever concerned with getting the last dollar dol-lar possible out of their stock, and are using the competitive bidding on the central markets as a means to this end. June cattle receipts at the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards were about 8,000 head larger than In June last year, and most of this increase represents the change from selling at home to selling at the stock yards. |