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Show OPTIMISM SEEN IN HOGJNDUSTRY Los Angeles, June 1. Pork consumption con-sumption in Southern California shows a substantial increase over any previous period, the slaughter for the month of April indicating a gain cf 23,672 head over same period last year. The yearly slaughter for 19S1 shows an increase over any previous period of 80.SS2. In spite of price conditions there is an element of optimism op-timism in the future of the hog industry, in-dustry, founded on tl.e idea that when values are on an extremely low basis, the time is at nrnd to go into the business. There is every reason in the light of past history and with confidence in the future to believe that the pork industry will carry on. There are certain influences connected with the hog marketing that are not beneficial to the grower, and it is only a matter of time until that situation will have been remedied. Only a few years back we were sending our barley abroad and we have almost completely ignored the importance of building up an outlet for our grain by conversion into pork and other lines of meat food. We are now in the position where that policy is compulsory, as we all know what the foreign situation is. Every civilized civ-ilized nation raises barley. Under our standards of living we cannot hope to compete with many of these nations, but we can hope to build up an outlet through the medium of livestock live-stock at least sufficient to supply our needs for meat food. The importation into the state of hogs and pork products is an enormous enor-mous item running into many millions mil-lions of dollars. It would be helpful if the people of this section could take advantage of the marketing opportunity op-portunity that is keeping the Eastern farmer going. There is no reason why we should pay tribute to the farmers far-mers east of the Rocky Mountains in order to get a thing that we are so amply able to produce, and even at the low prices of hogs there is some advantage by converting our grain into pork. There may be times in the future when the gram will offer a higher price, but we should start now to build up at least a secondary if not a primary use of our grain in livestock live-stock fattening so as to have an optional op-tional marketing medium. In the middle west we are informed that 85 per cent of the corn crop is converted into meat food. Without hogs neither the farms nor the product pro-duct would be worth much. Barley is a splendid substitute for corn. Seemingly, Seem-ingly, we should get down to the same system of farming with hogs as an essential part of the operation not only as an added outlet for our grain but there is a great deal of waste around the farm that can be salvaged through hogs, and the saving sav-ing thus realized is many times the difference between profitable and unprofitable un-profitable operations. We have found throughout tnis de-. de-. pression that the farmer who had a diversified set-up with livestock and particularly hogs, has been able to supply himself with the necessities of life and to market the surplus for cash; and while we are talking about the hog industry let's not overlook the fact that livestock is the one asset as-set that has kept the farmer going because it is so easily convertible into in-to cash. One of my friends was recently called upon by the bank to cut down his line. The farmer exhibited to the banker what collaterals he had include in-clude some hogs that were about ready for market. It didn't take the banker long to put his finger on that item. The time is at hand for the farmer to fortify himself by taking advantage of present low prices to build up- a breeding herd, and while as we have already found, price levels lev-els are extremely low, we must keep in mind that labor and supplies are also low; and while not sufficiently low to offset the decreased price of hogs, yet the farmer who selects good breeding stuff and gets himself in shape for the future has an excellent opportunity of going forward on a profitable basis; but the hog business is just like any other business in and outers never succeed. The main thing about any line of production is to have a market where relative values may be had with every opportunity to get a direct reflection re-flection of supply and demand b." honest and business-like methods. The only way to make a market is to have a steady flow of supplies. The buying element is here. The fellow who sells direct is simply spreading the purchasing power to the detriment detri-ment of the growers. This is the time for men of foresight and intestinal intest-inal fortitude to avail themselves of a real opportunity to pi o vide for a foundation for the future and one as a steady business offering the greatest great-est assurance of successful operation, calculated to avoid a repetition of what many are going hru now. n . |