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Show tAyrSituatioaJ w Ix9 Anpeles, California, November Novem-ber 29, T.I37 Despite near record receipts of cattle last week at the Los Angeles Union Stock yards, 1 the market is holding steady and ; prices of all grades and classes of, caitle and calves are about in line ; with two weeks ago. The answer to this situation is that people are consuming a larger quantity of bef than ever before, and that California range and feedlot operators opera-tors are buying approximately 40 per cent of the receipts as replacements. replace-ments. It is apparent at this time that tne year's total slaughter of cattle cat-tle in the Los Angeles area will exceed ex-ceed the 1936 record total of more than 657,000 cattle and calves. During two months of 1937, packers pack-ers in the metropolitan Los i Angeles area have slaughtered . more than 47,000 cattle and indi- cations are that the November total will be the largest of the year. And this means that the total consumption of beef in this area is the greatest in all history, because beef is relatively cheaper as a meat food than almost any other commodity. Of course, the real answer to the growth of metropolitan Los Angeles as a meat slaughtering and distributing center is the fact that population is increasing each year. The 1937 industrial development undoubtedly undoubted-ly will prove to have been by far the greatest ever recorded and thousands of new workers are on industrial payrolls. Generous rainfall in central and northern California have brought early green feed and replacements are being made on a large scale. So far, rainfall has been very light in southern California as far north as Merced in the San Joaquin valley and up to Salinas on the coast. Hog prices slumped badly on eastern markets during the last few days and these declines are reflected re-flected in a 50 to 75 cent decline on the Los Angeles market. For the first time in more than a year, best hogs sold below S8.00 a hundred hun-dred weight on certain middle western markets at the close of last week. On the Los Angeles market at the close of the week, best grain-fed hogs were selling at $9.00 to $9.60 a hundredweight. I Packers have been losing a great I deal of money on hog products, according to all trade reprts, and their determinatin to stop losses in pork departments may be partly the reason for sharp declines this fall. On the other hand, there has been strong consumer resistance to relatively high pork prices, and a tendency to turn to other foods. |