The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1918-10-17
CkIRY PROBLEMS
ARE COMPLEX
Consumers Are CounSeIIed Not
To Decrease Use Of Milk Nor
Complain of Prices.

UNLESS means are quickly found to
remedy conditions existing in the dairy
industry as well as in other classes
of livestock. serious menace to both
industries-which are alled-may be
forecast"
This is the statement of Assistant
Federal Food Administrator, W. X.
Newell.
with the dairymen selling their
businesses as fast as they are able to
find purchasers said Mr.. Newell,
with an increasing volume of sales OF
heavy calves, both male and female,
and with already a worlds shortage
Of beef, the outlook for future supplies
is not as rosy as one might wish.
1T has been charged in some
quarters that the price of milk and
other products Of the dairy have been
elevated TO such an extent at all
Pacific northwest points that the dairy
interests should be making a profit and
well satisfied with their lot.
Taking only the retail price as a
basis-that which most vitality affects
the consumer-the price Of milk today
in Portland is 15c per quart
Even with normal prices milk Is
generally sold retail at 10 cents a
quart here, therefore the advance is
not nearly as marked as in many
other lines of foodstuffs.
The dairyman tod.y is paying more
than double the wages of normal years
for his hired help. He is paying more
than double for his requirements of
hay and a very considerable advance
over the normal for his bran and
shorts.
THE cost OF milk cans and other
dairy utentils is practically double the
normal. The cost of bottles has scared
to such heights as to make one dizzy
to think of it. The cost of producing
milk today is therefore more than
double that Of normal periods even
without considering the fact that this
has been very abnormal season and
the production of milk and cream per
COW is far below the normal.
Laws enacted during the last few
years force the dairyman to add to his
costs as matter of cleanliness. The
public is no longer willing to tolerate
the quality Of milk generally marketed
a few years ago. All of this costs
money and the dairyman has been
paying it while the full charges have
not been passed back to the consumer.
at has oftimes been said that man
very seldom quits a business where
liberal profits are available. The fact
that so many dairymen are quitting
that they are not making adequate
that they are not making adequate
profits--if any at all.
"The killing of dairy calves during
the present season has broken all
records simply because the country
producer could not afford to feed them
to maturity. Suggestion has been
made in some quarters that the kill.
ing of female calves be prohibited by
law This would indeed solve the prob
lem providing some means were found
to feed and keep the animals.
Dairy experts have for years
preached the gospel Of getting rid Of
the star boarder'-the COW that does
not pay her expense That is the
situation just now. Few are paying
their board and there is no improve
ment of the situation in prospect.
Similar conditions may be. spoken
of in regard to the future of the beef
supply. Owing to the shortage and ex-
treme price Of feed more lightweight
and unfinished cattle have been
marketed il the stockyards Of the
country during the dast two seasons
than ever before known. The country
cannot afford to feed its cattle even at
the present price of beef and the
journey to market is therefore a neces.
sity. In fact the government has re-
Gently requested that the public pur-
chase beef from light weight animals
because the stock must be marketed.
This means that many thousands of
animals that are today coming to
market weighing around 900 to 1000
pounds, would have showed a weight
of at least third mpre if allowed to
fatten properly. This means an
enormous loss in the meat supply for
the future-a loss that the country
can i'll afford to contemplate"