The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-01

OcNNNAC Ii NC4C RaSoAAAo OFC
the scales at the various central mar
kets, signs which are stin significantly
present, and in the absence of profit to-
producers of cattle of the best quality.
1t is a fact that the cattle-raisers of
Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Illi-
nois and other states, for several years
found that they could buy branded cat
tie from the ranges cheaper than they
could raise them, and as fast as they
could, they worked out of the raising
business Everybody recalls the heavy
run of cows on the markets severalf
years ago. Eastern and western breed
erS both were reducing their holdings.
The former because there wasn't any
money in breeding. and the latter be-
cause they had to eat, and wear some
thing, and it o more cattle then to
provide these requirements. INC over
much of the range west a cloud of old
debts fioated during the depression
which the proceeds derived from
straight steer sales annually couldn't
sort O dispel Cows moved freely from
the ranges towards eastern shambles,
and for years the packers took their
heads off in number that promised to
work an extinction of the cow family.
The effect of such operations after a
time was an increasing demand for
steers to mature made upon a supply
which from natural and artificial causes
was being rapidly diminished. Western
steers were wanted at better prices
than they had been bringing, and
though the beef sorts advanced some,
values were jumping on the feeding
kinds. Last year early it got to a point
where practically everybody with good
pastures and ranges east of us had
reached the conclusion that in order to
have steers to feed, or to sell to feed
ers, he would have to raise them him
self. and he had to come west, or south
vudSf for fho rrnfhorC and pOnninr moth.
ers. Additional incentives. of course.
were easier money, pastures and ranges
which had been rested. and, above all,
the extra SO which had been added to
the value of a yearling steer since the
investor had withdrawn from the
breeding business. These are the prin-
cipal causes which have worked a re-
duction of Utah's herds, according to
local observation, and, in the statement
is contained reasons for the belief in
the existence of a general shortage in
cattle.
PRICES MUST BE GOOD.
If feeders make o this winter
on % and 30-cent corn, added to from
4 and Accent cattle. why should range
men despair at getting less than this
| years prices for a lessened output nu-
m~erically? Producers ought not to eS-
pect the demand for she stuff from
eastern sources that h last year and
Il a NAN mas QcNGlODCu. AS d UldllGI u
fact, their needs in that direction are
likely to have been more than antici-
pated by the operations of spectators
last summer. AT no time during this
latest excitement has the price Of beef
justified the fancy figures paid for
stock cattle, and if the country'S hold
ings of the latter had not been short
of an adequate supply, they would not
have been recorded. Some spectators
are still loaded with last years pur-
chaSes, and others are thinking that
they have loaded the breeders east Of
us about as heavily as their means or
desires will permit, for a time, any
how. Such operators may be expected
10 proceed cautiously next season, and
if they follow that system, the demand
from the outside will be largely cur-
tailed the coming year.. 1t is not like
ly to fall under the supply, however,
in these parts, as breeders will be in
clined to hold on to cows capable of
throwing $12 calves every rear, unless
some man wants them at prices ap-
preaching '9S figures.
There will be more range for the cat
tie left on it in Utah for the next few
years If the sheepmen don't take it,
and the COW sales and proceeds of 9TH
er disposals during the past two years
have put cowmen in shape to remain
in the business and breed for the
money there will be in a natural in
crease, unless he can get clear out Of
the business at fancy figures.
The number of cattle sold and shipped
out of the state during the year was
probably in the ne~ighbOrhOod of $4,000
head, or 40 per cent less than was re-
moved the year before. Not over $4,000
| Utah cattle were used for local conA-
sumption, and the loss in Utah herds
was nominal. We started in on Jan.
1 last with 1O2, no cattle, Warren says,
which were mostly breeding COWS, and
we branded during the year fifty odd
thousand calves. We have imported
since the year began in the neighbour
hood Of 10000 cattle. and unless all
these gueSSeS are wildly made, the
COW herd of this state, for numbers,
now just about makes a Stand-Of with
its size a year ago.
SHEEPMEN'S GOOD MONEY.
The sheepmen of our live stock people
have been making the best money dur-l
ing the year. They have probably
turned off a couple of hundred thou
sand cad more than they did in 1897.
and they have got a good bit more
money for them per head. The average
advance in price is believed to have
been nearly a dollar per head over the
values of the previous year, or a gain
of considerably over a half million dol
lars on the total Of sales made. Then
wool has been selling higher. This
years clip brought prices varying from
2 to 8 cents more han the clip of 1897,
or an average of probably 4 cents per
pound. representing a gain to Utah
wOolgrowerS of almost a half million
dollars. The industry in his state is
safely a million dollars to the good on
this years sales, besides the increased
value of 1ocks which holders retain.
Prices are a little lower on mutton
sheep just now than they were a year
ago. and lambs are not bringing quite
as nue. money as feeders expected
they would sell for. The numbe of
sheep and lambs on feed this winter,
however, appears to be less than last
year, and better figures are expected
later on by the muttOnmakers thenf<N
selves. Around the various markets.
though, the outcome of this winters
operations in sheep feeding is not hope
fully regarded from a profit point OF
view to the feeder. Sheep and lambs
vent into lots for preparation at a con-
siderably increased cost last fall, and
feed was, of course, much higher than
a year ago. Mutton may follow beef up
a half dollar or such a matter per
hundred, however, and it is believed
that it will take an advance as stiff as
that to pull feeders out his winter.
But pork is low, and there seems no
end to the supply of hogs in the coun-
try. The packers are Strengthening them
in quantities far in excess of any pre-
vious years kill. without lessening the
supply appreciably. The receipts for
the year at the four principal markets
have been upwards of 1870 900 hogs,
which is an increase of about 10 per
cent over last years marketing.