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Show fytp&MiWTwgfo f c- Los Angles, December 24, 1934 As might he expected as a result ofj drouth and shortage of feed, the! number of cattle on feed in the United States shows a big decrease i this winter as compared with last! year and for any previous years ofj recent date. It is said that cattle sup- plies in the country are the smallest j in 35 years. i In the far western states, the de- i crease in cattle feeding amounts to around 11 per cent from a year ago and 18 per cent from two years ago. Cattle feedng has become general in only recent years in the western range country. The official government govern-ment crop report estimates around G0,000 cattle on feed in the seven western states, as compared with 68,000 a year ago, 75,000 two years ago but only 17,000 five years ago. Cattle feeding has been materially reduced in the sections of Colorado and Texas that ordinarily market cattle cat-tle on the Pacific coast markets. A substantial increase is shown in cattle feeding in the Los Angeles area, where it is estimated 28,600 or nearly half of all. the cattle on feed in the seven western states. This is double the number on feed a year previous and compares with 22,700 two years ago and only 9,100 five years ago. A big decrease is cited in Imperial county, present numbers being estimated at 9,000 against 20,-000 20,-000 a year ago. This decrease was caused by the 1934 drouth, shutting off irrigation water and prevented the usual fall seeding of alfalfa and barley pastures. Increses are reported in cattle feeding in the San Francisco, Stockton Stock-ton and Sacramento valley section. A reduction of around 25 per cent is estimated in Nevada; winter feeding feed-ing for spring markets, Arizona reports re-ports a 10 per cent decrease. Utah's feeding operations are far below normal feeding, largely due to a light sugar beet crop and a less plentiful supply of hay and other feeds. A material reduction in lamb feeding feed-ing in all of the western states is reported, re-ported, the California number being estimated at 125,000 against 145,000 a year ago, but is larger than the 1 114,000 on feed five years ago. Drastic Dras-tic reductions in lamb feeding are reported re-ported in Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington with a slight deci'ease in Arizona. A survey of Colorado lamb feeders indicates around 1,100,000 head on feed, this number being about 145,000 less than a year ago. There has been a huge flow of replacement re-placement cattle into California from other states, due to excellent range and pasture conditions for the season to date. However, it is not considered consider-ed likely that marketing of grass-fat , i cattle will be much above normal from this state as a great many stocker cattle are going out that would not ordinarily reach the markets mar-kets until 1930 or even later. |