Show the livestock situation BY LA mcnaughton LOS ANGELES calif february 1935 there was some surprise in tile tho livestock census figures issued Febri february fary 15 by tho the Dep department artmont of agriculture tho the report states that for three january counts of cattle january li 11 1935 showed that tile tho supply was 88 per cent of the previous year while january 1 1934 showed per cent of tho the 1933 figures this is a decrease but not as touch much of a decrease casa as tho file trade expected tho total on all cattle rhoda as compared ath in ili 1934 1034 in the face of this do de crease creaso in III numbers the valuation of all cattle increased from an aver ago of 1994 1904 per head in 1933 to 2167 2107 in 1935 this shows a total valuation in 1935 of one billion two hundred and forty seven million dollars in 1934 this report of the department of agriculture shows the first time on record of 0 f the department when there hero was a decrease in every line or species of livestock in the same boar but nt at the same time every t line showed allowed an increase in gross nines value over a year ye arago ago ghego figures f on the decrease in numbers of livestock dating back to 1890 are arc not just exactly as the f figures would Ind indicate leato because breeding and feeding practices have changed tho the volume of beef from a given number of cattle la Is larger than it was fifty years ago when cattle were raised a as strictly a tange range operation and marketed as aged cattle the turnover turn over oyer was waa not so fast prime cattle now conic come to market weighing around a thousand pounds as yearlings yearnings year lings while in the old days heavy cattle came la ili five and six years old naturally with better breeding and feeding a given number of breeding cattle produce and market probably twice when the cattle business depended upon the elements and volume in the number ot of beeves as they did the number of head rather than upon concentrated production of oung animals marketable in a year instead of several years thatis that la one of alie reasons that the census of eattle should hi 1 v i el laughl i tat lu fl A I 1 1 l r 4 lit in beef amt production wallo we ve ore back to about a norma normal 1 cattle 11 p u lahlou in III tile the we vie should consider that we are on a more highly ervau tion basis and sixty millin eallie i LOW ow a five fhe year period will market a lot moro more beef animals than the same number of cattle would haye have when tho the census figures were started in 1880 I 1 another angle tn in the cattle census la ii the declining percentage of beef cattle and the increasing percentage of dairy dalry cattle going into beet beef channels that douM leaa Is caused by the concentration of idalmy cattle la in the metropolitan areas serving the centers of population which h have e been created in the past generation these cattle go for beet beef because they are used for milking so long as they last and then are turned into beet beef and replacement ment tows cows are brought in from the dairy cattle breeding sections before this practice was started dairy cattle were scattered throughout the rural MAI sections and calves were raised and the milk cow held for several years rather than a much shorter period in commercial milking requiring a high pressure po the dairy cow la Is an important factor in the beef trade and ay as long as there aro are large metropolitan consuming centers she will continue to bo be a factor this government census establishes the fact that there is not going to be a shortage of cattle most alost people in the trade are bullish on the cattle hog and sheep markets but these latest con sus su figures indicate plenty of meat food fi ani animals nials there Is a well sustained buying power on the part of tile public in tile the retail meat trade and so 90 long astvat as that is maintained or improved there is an outlet for at re prices |