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Show I.LivestDCkJ! tSitUatiOELj; m Los Angeles, March 25, li35 The fact that the United States last year went through what was probably the most serious drouth condition in all history is being brought home to the consumer. All sorts of stories are being broadcast in respect to the shortage short-age of meat and the resultant relatively higher prices than pre-' vailed up until January 1. But the fact of the matter is that 1934 1 drouth is mainly responsible fori the meat shortage and it was only through desperate methods that the stockmen of the largest livestock live-stock producing states were able to save a portion of their flocks and herds. The result is that from the ruinously ruin-ously low prices of the past three years, livestock prices have made rapid advances and are now gen- erally back to the 1931 levels butj still far below the peak prices ofi 1928 and 1929. Those livestock' producers and feeders who are fortunate enough to have something some-thing to sell are getting good prices and are, in a measure, recovering re-covering a portion of the losses suffered when prices were extremely ex-tremely low. The fact of the matter mat-ter is that there isn't enough meat ! to go around and those who feel that meat is t'ie essential part of the meal, as most Americans do feel, must arrange their budgets to pay a relatively higher price during the next year or so. It is too bad that there is foolish talk of "boycotting" meat because when anyone "boycotts" meat, he is hitting at the very foundation ofj American agriculture and the mast essential industry of the nation. na-tion. News from the great producing 1 sections of the middle west is not encouraging. The terrific dust storms reported during the past two weeks are taking the "top soil" from some of our most pro-ductiv pro-ductiv land. And when the top soil is gone, possibilities of normal production on that land are erased. Instead of a land of burdensome surpluses of food for humans and j feedstuffs for animals, we are in great 'danger of being forced to conserve what we have on one hand and make the remaining land produce better and larger crops than hertofore. It would be well for the retail meat dealers who are in daily contact con-tact with consumers to have a better understanding of the problems pro-blems the livestock industry are facing. It is a self evident and often proven act that meat prices T , will never go very far beyond the ability of the public to buy. Supply Sup-ply and demand will continue to establish prices. The livestock producer is going to continue to sell to the highest bidder and the consumer, as always, will attempt to buy as cheaply as possible. |
