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Show iPvestocl jXigh - ; ' A. . (Los Angeles Union Stock Yards, April 8 With pork and lard production pro-duction reaching an eight-year peak this year, and prices dropping drop-ping tc a several-ear low, it is inevitable that production will be curtailed. Here at the Los Angeles Union Stock yards, where a sub j stantial premium over eastern, prices is paid, best hogs are bringing bring-ing only. $6.00 per cwt. not enough to give growers a return cn feeding operations, even with barley, the principal feed grain, at prices lower than at harvest time last year. . '.United States January and February Feb-ruary slaughter totaled 9,633,005 head under federal inspection. During the same period last year, federal inspected kill amounted to only 6,933,580 head; and in 1935, it was 5,455,859 head. Storage holdings, especially in the case of lard, have swelled to large proportions. pro-portions. . The national stock of lard in March was' 258,029,000 pounds an all-time record. This is 106 per cent larger than a year ago, and 103 per cent above the previous five-year average. Pork stocks at present amount to 646,-225,000 646,-225,000 pounds, which is the largest larg-est since June, 1937, and 11 per cent greater than a year ago. This is despite an excellent pork-product selling campaign carried on by the Institute of American Meat packers and the National Live Stock and Meat board. An indication of reduction going on among swine herds throughout the country is found in accumulating accumulat-ing receipts of sows and unfinished" unfinish-ed" light pigs at the central markets. mar-kets. Demand for feeder pigs is negligible. Prospective summer supplies are heavy, and an increasingly increas-ingly heavy sow movement is anticipated. ' It seems, inevitable that production will be curtailed, the fact of tha .matter being that a good many hog raisers are cutting cut-ting down their operations at the present time. Although it is inevitable that the hog market will improve, there is little hope of a higher market in the near future. Every slight advance in the .middlewest-ern .middlewest-ern and eastern markets, on which our prices are based, brings in-Creased in-Creased receipts. |