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Show TiJivestocle pmiCHTwff ' w Los Angeles, California, Febru. ary 22, 1941 J. A. McNaughton, vice-president and general manager man-ager of the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards, says: Heavy rains in California have given the state the heaviest moisture in some time, wiiih precipitation for the of oil points. The rains are not an unmixed un-mixed blessing of course, but moisture is of such .economic value to the far western country that there is little complaint. Frequent Fre-quent rains and shortage of sunshine sun-shine undoubtedly result in late grass maturity, and therefore it is probable that California's j grass-fat cattlej and baby lambs will be marketed later than usual. ( In view of the probability of a late movement' of spring lambs ! and grass cattle, it seems likely that feedlots will have to be depended de-pended upon until well into the spring. There are more cattle than usual on feed in the far western states and the spreading out of the marketing season wilj undoubtedly be helpful in effecting effect-ing a continued stable market. It is still somewhat early to determine de-termine what .effect the heavy rains wil have upon California's field crops and especially on the barley acreage. In many important impor-tant barley growing sections, the ground has been too wet to work and the crop has not been planted. It seems likely that the state's acreage will be reduced to quite a degree. Favorable prices for hogs are attracting more interest- in pork production in California. At recent re-cent sales, there was a broad demand de-mand from farmers who ree possibilities pos-sibilities of greater profits in raising hogs than in some other agricultural pursuits. The hog market nas been fairly stable during dur-ing recent weeks, with the best hogs selling up around a cents a pound on the Los Angeles market. Even at this price, which is well above a year ago, nork is a relatively rela-tively economical food because of the large percentage of edible product in the hog. All through the far western country, there appears to he a more, general appreciation ()f livestock live-stock agriculture. This is reflected reflect-ed in Ihe increased amount of dry-lot feeding by farmers, improved im-proved demand for breeding hogs, development of irrigated pastures. The irrigated sections of the wesfern country have long needed a properly balanced program which would include livestock feeding and pasturing, but the economic resullH of ihe loss of ex. port markets have gone far toward to-ward centering more interest in livestock, h'.'ingemi n for the most I ! part benefit from farm feeding " j of livesl ock, as il' gives them a j market nearer home for their I feeder stock, and aids materially in bringing about improved quality. 1 |