Part 3

The big question is, What of the year 1920? While nothing positive can be predicted, better conditions is a practical certainty. The domestic consumption of beef is increasing to a gratifying degree; the arranging of international credits and the opening of foreign markets is a matter of comparatively short time. European need for pork products will be urgent and excessive for a considerable time, and this will not only take care of our surplus hogs, but will react favorably upon the market for cattle and sheep.

Standard Breeds of Beef Cattle

ABERDEEN-ANGUS

Early maturing; transmits polled character; high dressing percentage; high proportion valuable cuts.

SHORTHORN

Greatest weight for age; dress out well at slaughter; quiet disposition; strong milking tendencies.

GALLOWAY

Prepotent; adapted to rugged regions; high carcass value; valuable hide.

POLLED SHORTHORN

Characteristics similar to Shorthorn except polled; some strains dual purpose.

HEREFORD

Best grazing breed; matures early; fattens rapidly; good weight for age.

RED POLLED

Strictly dual purpose; fair grazers; early maturing.

The Livestock Situation

RIGHT now is a good time to stick to the middle of the highway of common sense. As shown in earlier chapters, the conditions adverse to the business can be only temporary, and even the losses incurred may be turned to profit in the end, if the livestock men shall learn the lesson of economy and efficiency of production and more complete co-operation among themselves and with the packing industry.

Recent experiences will impel some producers to curtail or discontinue their operations temporarily, but others will take their places and quantity of production will be maintained while quality will be increased.

High-priced land, grain and labor will compel stockmen to grade up their herds, to discriminate more closely in the purchase of feeding stock, to improve feeding methods and to keep exact records of costs. For at the higher level of costs and values all around, as compared with prewar times, both the risks and rewards of the business will be greater.

As co-operative activities are extended among producers, it may be found advisable for livestock associations to employ expert buyers at the various markets whose duty shall be the filling of orders for association members, for the choice of feeders cannot be safely based on personal fancy. The only true guide is unbiased judgment as to what the market demands in the finished product and what type of feeding cattle will yield the result.

An experienced buyer of keen judgment, constantly in touch with the market, should prove as valuable to producers as the expert buyer of fat cattle is to the packer.

Such expert selection of feeders would take the guesswork out of the first and most important step in feeding.

Generally speaking, the consumers’ demand is constantly for better meats from comparatively young animals. Taking the situation the country over with present prices of feed stuffs considered, it has been found that beef cattle make most money for the producer if not held past the age of two years. But there is no hard-and-fast rule for the guidance of every individual producer; the heavy, well-finished cattle always bring high prices. Only by keeping an accurate feeding record can the producer decide for himself what policy is most advantageous in his case, or determine when his steers stop making sufficient gains to compensate him for the feed required.

Armour’s 1919 Livestock Purchases

RISING prices of farm land and feed have changed entirely the character of livestock received on the market as compared to twenty years ago. The period following the war shows all conditions more or less accentuated, and one can trace very definitely the tendency to market animals younger and to feed to lesser ripeness than prevailed in the earlier years of the last decade. In 1919 Armour and Company purchased 12,235,451 head of livestock, while in 1918 they purchased 11,398,131. Yet the animals bought last year weighed actually fewer pounds, in spite of their greater numbers, than those received the year preceding; the former weight being 3,740,347,223 pounds and the latter 3,939,278,534 pounds. Furthermore, the animals of 1919 cost over nineteen million dollars more. The following table presents these facts on a percentage basis:

Increased number animals 1919 over 1918 7.3% Decrease in total weight animal purchases 5.0% Increase in cost of animals 3.7% Increased price per pound live weight 1.2¢

Probably the fundamental factor in bringing about these conditions, which are distinctly unfavorable from a quality trade standpoint, is the feeder’s expectation of declining prices. This attitude has driven all the animals to market almost as soon as they were in merchantable form. The late winter months of 1919-20 saw an opposite tendency among hog feeders, but this was not sufficiently marked to check the general trend.

Another factor in stimulating this hurried marketing has been the belief that more money could be made by selling the grain crop than by feeding it. This has given short rations to many animals that would have made suitable market records if handled properly, but it has enabled farmers to cash in their grain and meat crops while prices were relatively high.

In terms of permanent agriculture it would have been better to leave a greater share of this cash invested in a further development of livestock, but the war order against feeding wheat placed the situation in some western states beyond the control of the average stockman. As a general practice in production this incomplete utilization of livestock must be deplored, although one cannot criticize the tendency under the special market conditions of 1919 and early 1920.