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Show Los Angeles, April 27. The source of livestock supply of the Coast markets has been changed this year owing to the severe drouth in California Cali-fornia and other western states last year, forcing large numbers of cattle: eastward, with the inevitable result 1 that we are now required to go East for a large part of our beef supplies, formerly furnished locally in California Cali-fornia and adjoining states. Talking to some of the "bell wethers" weth-ers" of Texas and New Mexico who are shipping regularly to this market, mark-et, it looks like the Panhandle in particular par-ticular has gone into feed lot finishing finish-ing of their beef in a big way. The plains country enables tilling and cultivation cul-tivation at low cost, there seems to be an abundance of water, and the country can produce good feeds at the minimum cost. Livestock has always been necessary neces-sary to successful farming, for example ex-ample in the state of Iowa, livestock and livestock products furnish around 85 per cent of the total farm income and from 38c to 40c of the average farm dollar is derived from pork production. pro-duction. Feed lot finishing is somewhat new in that section, probably urged by present coditions and in recognition of the fact that they can get the most out of their grain and forage by feeding it to livestock. The territory ter-ritory around Deming, New Mexico is also going into the feed lot business, busi-ness, utilizing their grain and forage for that purpose and we have had some splendid beef on the market from that section as well as the Panhandle Pan-handle and Southwest Texas. Arizona has already made rapid strides in feed lot finishing and there is no doubt that today people are getting the benefit of the best quality of beef at the lowest prices in the memory of the present generation. One of my friends was speaking of running hogs behind the cattle. That is of course good business where corn is used and there is undoubtedly un-doubtedly something to be gained in that respect. How far it may be practiced prac-ticed throughout the West and Southwest South-west depends entirely on the kind of feed used. In the case of ground feed it is unlikely that there is sufficient suf-ficient gain to make it worth while although al-though some claim to the contrary. These men who are coming over to Los Angeles to study the marketing conditions are taking home to their people the story that within a radius of 100 miles there is a consumer demand de-mand represented by about three million mil-lion people who consume more than half a million cattle and calves, more than a million sheep and lambs, and about eight hundred thousand hogs, each year. This puts Los Angeles in fourth place as a meat consuming center, and the importance of Los Angeles as a consuming center and supply base is rapidly reaching all of the western and southwestern producing pro-ducing sections and those who have followed our livestock market recognize recog-nize that it reflects the best prices obtainable, all classes of livestock considered. |