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Show livestock! MpJmjcnrmJ ' V Los Angeles Union Stock Yards, April 1 According to present indications, California packing plants will utilize about all of the spring lamlbs available in the state for delivery up until the middle of April, vith prtespects that there will be increased ship-: ments east after that time. By March 25th, only 9,300 lambs had been shipped east, California ranges are generally in good condition con-dition and recent' rains in the San Joaquin valley and northern part cf California insure maintenance of green feed until the close of the spring lamb marketing season. Southern California ranges are still green, but need additional , moisture. j Here at the Los Angeles Union Stock yards, the best grade cf i ! sprinst lambs have been selling at' 9.75 per cwt. and weighing from 80 to 90 pounds. These lambs '. are grading in the higher brack-' ets, as feed was early and so far ! has been good, throughout south-1 ern California particularly. ; IPrices of spring lambs this year j are atwut 75 cents per cwt. higher than during the corresponding j season in 1939 and in 1938. In both of those years, $9.00 per cwt. j was about the top quotation for! March spring lambs. Our sheep-1 men his year are in a compara-' tively strong position. j Western sheepmen are becom-1 ing more efficient in their opera-. tiens as time goes on, which is , necessitated hy increased taxes,: higher rent for ranges, and gen-j : erally heavier costs of operation. ; j At a field day, March. 29, at the j ' University of California College i of Agriculture at Davis, sheepmen met to talk over their problems and hear experts on various phases of lamb and wool production. produc-tion. Methods of increasing the lamb cr:p percentage and reduc-! reduc-! ing the number of dry ewes were discussed. There were talks on selecting sheep for wool uniformity, uniform-ity, creep-feeding lambs to obtain a higher percentage of fat lambs, handling lambs on ladino clwer pasture, and treatment of internal inter-nal parasites. On April 27, sheepmen in the southern part of California will meet at Pomona for a similar session. ses-sion. The wide interest among sheepmen in these events, and the genuine eagerness on their part to improve their methods of operation opera-tion is paralleled among cattlemen cattle-men and hog raisers. The modern stockman is a business man who is fully acquainted with his costs of operation and is ever striving to improve the efficiency of his production. i.f |