The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-03-18
UTAH LIVE STOCK.


The establishment of a packing plant IN Salt
Lake City, under way, will remove the heaviest
handicap which the live stock interests have had to
encounter. Heretofore it has been necessary for
owners of live stock to ship their product to the
large eastern centers there to be killed and dressed,
and the product is then returned here to the con-
sumers, at exorbitant prices. The shipping OF the
cattle entails heavy cost of transportation, be-
sides feeding and care route On arrival at des-
tinatiOn the cattle necessarily about 20 per cent
less in weight, appearance and quality than when
they started on their long journey i'll the pent-up
The buyers for the packing houses can then
get them at practically their price, especially
since the beef trust was organized. as the owners
cannot afford to reship them home. The trust,
which thus fixes the price of beef on the hoof can
fix the price of meat to the consumer with the
suit that the price of cattle has been lower than
ever before and the price of meat higher. The rail
roads, getting the benefit of the shipment of cattle
one way and of dressed meat the other naturally
have favored the large packers, and have so fixed
rates to make it Improbable to ship cattle to To-
cal markets. The agitation for fair rates on rail
roads will therefore have an important bearing on
this business.
The raising of cattle in Utah fits in very we'll
with farming. The farmer owning an irrigated
farm in valley bench usually has hill or
mountain behind his farm which he can get at
very low price per acre. and which furnishes good
feeding ground for the CATTLE Above his water line
he can raise lucern alfalfa for feeding during
winter, when necessary. His small irrigated plat
raises enough crops to more than make up for the
lost above, and thus the fattenng of cattle on
the latter is clear gain The only point is to find a
good market for the cattle when ready and the local
packing plant will do this
Already the live stock industry in Utah is more
important than most people are aware of. The ac-
tua value of the live stock is upward of twenty
million dollars, the assessed valuation being upward
of eight millions. In CATTLE Utah county leads and
in sheep Sanpete leads. At present the cattle and
sheep industries are about evenly divided as to val
ues, but the cattle industry will naturally increase
more IN proportion, for the reason that the open
ranges are gradually diminishing and sheep raising
is not so profitable on smaller areas These two
industries constitute threefourths of the entire live
stock industry of the state the. remaining one
fourth being made up of horses and mules and
swine; the latter constituting only about per cent
OF the total. 1t is hard to understand this as swine
can be sold at good profit. 1t is reasonable to ex-
pect that this branch of live stock raising should
increase rapidly, and instead of importing pork
products for the east, enough will be raised for
home consumption and shipment as well. Utah pork
Is well Known as being superior to that of most
other places. With the normal growth of this in
termountan country, the live stock interests of
I tab should, with proper handling as above out
lined. multiply rapidly, and Salt Lake City be the
distributing center for the entire intermountain
region. This would naturally stimulate and build
up industries which use the hides and offa such as
leather industries SOAP glue works, ETC. 1t would
greatly stimulate the stock yards business and make
this the buying center to which would come the
representatives of eastern packing houses, who
would then have to compete our own ground