The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-31

Inc livestock interests OF Utah have
prospered through another year TO a
degree better than even with the pros
perity Of the country at large, and at
this, the dawn of a new year. the signs
are so favorable that our stockmen look
10 the future hopefully and with great
er confidence that they have held in
4. years.
One OF the special features during the
years operations in livestock has been
the improvement which has come to
producers. Transactions have pecu-
harly favored the man who has raised
the stock, fed it and bought it from
these people to put il before the con-
sumner. It has been a poor year for
Spectators and middlemen have been
more largely out of it, as far as the
live product is concerned, than has
been the case before in several years.
The statement applies to cattle and
sheep exclusively, and to the former
more than to the latter, and ii is eX-
planned best perhaps by the absence Of
margin between market values ard the
producers idea of the worth of MS
product.
In the case of cattle the former have
been high throughout the yea. with
the quality and condition features reg
ulating figures, while the grower has
unwaveringly demanded the highest
eastern quotations. and never less than
the previous years fl 7ures, regardless
of the condition or quality of his cat
tie. The effect has been % cur6au
home selling of the horned kind of
stock, unless it was in shape to meet
the requirements of eastern markets
or range conditions compelled its re-
moval through sales or in breeders
hands, and in he former case the
prices realized have been fully as good
as the figures Of 1898.
Good Prices for Cattle.
Fat rattle arc nov rrnSing IaCre
money than they have sold for Since
1882, the year of banner prices, and
fancy punches of this sort are sellire
on eastern markets at 81 AMI So a hu:i-
dred higher than the same cattle would
have brought a few years ago. OF
course, these sales cover transac..oGs
in holiday cattle almost entirely, but
the margin between finished" cattle
and the feeder kinds is so great IS
To excite the indulgence OF ali sorts
of guessing on the part OF western
growers. Three years ago the hight
types Of feeding steers were selling On
all the markets for within % D 20
cents a hundred of the best prices fin
iShed steers would bring. while corn
was to be had at feed lots for about the
money it brings today. Contrast this
with a difference in feeder and fat cat
tie values now prevalent at 50 to SO a
hundred, and the producers demand
fer last years prices are better for his
steers. will be understood. In the
meantime all statistics indicate a re-
ductiOn in the numerical supply of cat
tie. sheep and hogs in the United
States, d greater home consumption of
meats and a vastly increased exporta-
ton of both live animals and animal
products.
bought steers at from $3.50 to $3.50 4
hundred and sold them from 1915 to
S4.25, the average weSterner figures
that a mint wouldn't be in it with the !
profits he has coined lately, when his |
cattle cost him around $3.50 ard The |
selling figures now are running up TO |
81
The belief that the feeders were max I
ing all kinds of money was sr:org !
enough to put a bow in the necks of |
Utah breeders who were on Easy |
street from a grass point of view, and |
many sales were not made in The eX-
pectation that buyers would be around !
later; but the latter were stiff-necked |
also to the END. and the state and coun- |
try west and northwest of US is there
fore carrying over quite as many cattle
as have gone into winter quarters in
this region in recent years.
Feeders Made Money.
1t is probable that the feeders in the
corn states have done better during
fore. but it is extremely improbable
that they have made The profits with
which western people generally credit
them. Instances are quoted almost
daily in the market papers of inGi-
yidual cases where the feeder had OBJ
tanned 81 per hundred more for his
cattle than he paid for them, in a6di-
ton TO which he secured = gain OF zoe
TO 400 pounds on each animal in weight,
and it is likely that many operators
these figures indicate.
1t is beyond a doubt, however, that
the money made was made by the reo-
made il good before thay put it on ire
against the many, when the eastern
holdings of cattle is considered. Dur
ing '97 and IS cattle were showed into
the corn states and about the river
selling places in such numbers as to
ply of the country previously unknown
in the history of the business. While
the cattle were scattered over their
people who bred them, they ate free
grass, they We're paid for. and if their
owners knew their number they kept
the information to themselves.
punched in the states east of US the
cost of carrying these cattle enormous
" multiplied, both grass and grain
represented money, then there was
transportation. and big loans were
made on the truck before IL lert