OCR Text |
Show i Income From Crops Last Year Increased 10 Per Cent Over '43 Grains Jump 32 Per Cent; Meats in Smallest Upturn. Continued strong demand for farm products, both foreign and domestic, is reported by the U. S. department of agriculture. At the same time it is announced that total receipts for farm marketings for the period January Jan-uary through November, 1944, amounted to about 18,430 million dollars, dol-lars, a 6 per cent increase over the 1943 receipts of 17,312 million dol-' lars. Income from crops was about 10 per cent greater than 1943, government govern-ment figures show, while receipts from livestock and livestock products prod-ucts went up only 4 per cent over last year. Greatest gain of any of the commodity groups was made by food grains, which increased 32 per cent over the same period in 1943. It is expected that the demand for many farm products, at ceiling prices, may continue to exceed supplies, sup-plies, since consumer expenditures probably will not decline as much as national income. After fighting ends in Europe, reductions in the output of war goods may bring about a drop in national income due to reduced re-duced employment, particularly . overtime, in the industries making such goods. Crop acreages for 1945, suggested by the War Food administration, call for a slight increase over 1944 plantings, plant-ings, with a small additional production produc-tion or marketing of most livestock and livestock products, except poultry poul-try and eggs. Largest proportionate increases over the 1944 acreage sug- gested on individual crops include! 52 per cent more acres of flaxseed, I 47 per cent more sugar beets, 38 ! per cent more cover crop seeds, 16 per cent more tobacco (other than flue-cured and burley), 11 per cent more sugar-cane (except for syrup), 8 per cent more rye, and 8 per cent more hay seeds. Suggested decreases de-creases in acreage include 39 per cent fewer dry beans, 9 per cent less of truck crops grown for the , fresh market, and 6 per cent less rice and sorghums (except those for syrup). Prices Remain Stable. Prices for agricultural commodities, commodi-ties, on the average, have remained re-mained stable for more than a year, j it is pointed out by USDA, the max-1 imum variation in the index ot prices received by farmers being ; only 2 per cent. A continuation of this stability is anticipated for several sev-eral months. Lower prices for truck crops and minor grains were found ' to have been more than offset by ; higher prices for wheat, corn, cotton, cot-ton, hay and oilseeds. In most cases, ! according to the reports, these high-; er prices reflect the increase in gov- j ernment price support levels from 1943 to 1944. Livestock and livestock products show a drop in the index of about 2 per cent since October, 1943, when it reached the highest point during this war. These changes in prices, according ac-cording to agricultural economists, reflect basic supply and demand conditions but do not reflect changes in farmers income due to increases in production payments, which are not included in computing the index, j Meat prices, the USDA report con-1 con-1 tinues, probably will continue at or near ceiling levels in most of 1945. It is expected that prices received by dairy farmers will decline less ! than seasonally during the months ' between December, 1944, and March, I 1945, probably averaging about the same as a year earlier. Dairy farmers farm-ers may anticipate the highest level ; of returns ever reported for that period, pe-riod, because of a higher rate of dairy production payment during the next few months. This would result re-sult in milk and butterfat-feed price 1 ratios being more favorable than other important lives took-feed price ratios. |