Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-10-15
BEEFSTEAK SOON TO BE
A RARE TABLED ELICACY
Livestock Men Say Prohibitive Price of Beef is OnIy Start On
Long Journey Upward-Catte Production Not Keeping
Pace With Increase Of Nations PopuIation-Packer Make
MarmaIade.

reasons, u 1t has actually happened
within the last month that Chicago
-toniinlssion men, playing fair witr
Ihelr dawkeye customers, have advised
tnem to ship their cattle to Kansas
City because prices there We're better
than prices in Chicago. And Denver
mas been paying more for grass steers
mar the animals would be worth to
the trade In either Chicago or Kansas
SitV. Another circumstance, unusual
put not so striking, is that hogs have
commanded better prices at times in
fort worth, Tex, than in Chicago.
Six Principal Markets.
In the six principal markets of the
west-Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha,
81. Louis. st. Joseph and Sioux City
there Is a shortage Of approximately
46O,0OO head Of cattle since January /,
compared with the receipts for the
same period in 1913. Arrivals at every
market have slumped, and the killing
centers beyond the Mississippi have
suffered more than those west of the
river. Kansas City is short about 160,-
o0o head. The decrease is attributed
largely to the drought in the southwest
last summer. Kansas City traders are
quite sure corn fed cattle will COM
mand $11 a hundredweight in their To-
cal market before the end Of Septem-
Der.
Stock men say the department of
agriculture bases its forecast of relief
on false premises, taking 1t for granted.
apparently. that the experience of 1919
VIII be repeated: Relief then came
Ing purposes. but the difficulty now is
more fundamental, according to private
opinion. in that the cattle are lack
ing decidedly in numbers. A Denver
authority. disputing the Washington
Eoptlmists. predicts that cattle scarcity
Will roach an ooy,to c<o~o $780,
Corn is about 6 cents a bushel higher
now that 1t was at this season last
year. Dry pastures in some parts have
resulted In the sending of half fat steers
to market. Fattening on corr at pres
n In an expensive process, and there
does not seem to be any prospect that
corn prices will drop materially.
Values Spurred.
Current values for beef cattle have
spurred producers all over the country
to save their calves and mature them
into the heavy steer class. While that
policy makes veal scarce and costly.
IT Is welcomed as the right preliminary
campaign to re~-establish the old FASH
Toned cattle business. The conserva-
ton Of calves-male and female-wiu
not, in thev view of careful observers. be-
more influential than in keeping prices
somewhere near the present level. Re-
cent remarkable advance in the market
Nalue OF western lands is given as an
other reason why the future of the cat
tie industry does not appear rosy from
the consumers standpoint.
Some cattle men of the northwest
say the government could do a vast
deal to restore the old conditions and
to stimulate production of beef and
mutton if it would make the broad ex-
panse of federal land available for
grazing purposes. They contend that
the Washington authorities are too
much obsessed by dry farming and
irrigation ideas and too little i'm
pressed with what they could contrib
ute, if they would, toward a rehabili-
tation OF the cattle business.
Mr.. Meeker, of Armour & Co. saws
the people are now learning, as the
packers nave commended, that the price
of meats is a purely economic cues
ton, governed solely by the law of sup
ply and demand. Producers answer
that If that had been the exact truth in
the hey-dey Of the beef trust" the
cattle industry would be on a much
more satisfactory basis today than it is.
Now there is a common fear, shared
by packers. producers, shippers and
commission men, that the beef steak is
to be denied the American people.