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Show aflVESTOC 7T SITUATION I m -as seen at the Losinqeles Union ftock Lards I i 1 j Los Angeles Union Stock Yards, i June 1 Cattle slaughter in the ;Lnited States is going ahead on ' the largest scale in history, indi-I indi-I eating in no uncertain terms the ! fact that American cattlemen are j doing their part in supplying j vitally needed meat in the "food for Victory" program. April slaughter figures, recently made available, show that federally inspected in-spected slaughter of cattle in the United States at 965,290 in that month were the largest for April on record. The increase over a year ago amounted to 21 per cent and exceeded the five-year average ave-rage for that month by 26 per cent Slaughter of cattle for the first four mounths of 1942 exceeded exceed-ed a year ago by 21 per cent and the five-year average by 25 per cent. The April hog slaughter! was also the largest for the month on record, the total being 4,196,365. For the first four months of 1942, hog slaughter under federal inspection in-spection increased 28 per cent over the five-year average. The April slaughter . of sheep and lambs was also the largest for that month on record and during dur-ing the first four months of the year, was 10 per cent higher than the five-year average. Despite the record slaughter figures, prices are considerably higher than a year ago. This is due to the greatly increased domestic do-mestic consumer buying power being added to lease-lend purchases pur-chases for export to the United nations. The greatly increased demand for livestock is very noticeable on the Los Angeles market, which is the clearing house for 56 per cent of all the cattle slaughtered in California, 48 per cent of the sheep and lamb slaughter and 60 per cent of the hog slaughter. During, the last week in May, strictly good steers were quoted at $13.25 to $13.50, medium to good grades at $11.50 to 13.00, and common grades on down to $10 a cwt. A year ago, the extreme top on steers on the Los Angeles market mar-ket was $11.10. Range cows are now selling at $8.50 to $9.50 with best young cows up to $10 as compared1 com-pared1 with an extreme top of $8.10 on cows a year ago. Bulls which are now selling at $9.50 to $11 were quoted at $7.50 to $8.90 a year ago, and native vealers at $13 to $15 compare with an extreme ex-treme top of $13.50 a year ago. The hog top at $14.75 compares with $10.45 a year ago and top lambs at $13.25 compare with $9.75 a year ago. |