The Hope pioneer., 1919-03-06
SHOWS WHO GETS
THE MONEY

Wuen you Duv peel steak tnat
costs SO cents u pound, the natural
thought is, who gets the money!"
Distribution Of the dollar received
from meat and meat products and
something of the retailers causes
for the prices he must charge in
order to realize living profit, are
shown in the 1919 Year Book issued
by Swift &Company.
The Swift dollar as illustrated
gives graphic description of the
money which the packer received
in 1918 from sales of beef. pork,
and mutton, and their by-products.
From the amount left for profit it
fis stated that federal taxes and in
terest on borrowed money are not
deducted
''lt will be seen from the diagram,
says the Year Book, that during
1918 Swift & Company paid out
for live animals SIS per cent of all
money received from the sale of
meats and by-products, that 1897
per cent went for expenses of packing,
freight to distributing points all over
the United States, operation of
branch houses, and even delivery
to the retailer, and that the profit
was 2.03 per cent. Swift & Company
would be glad to know of any other
system or method Of organization of
the packing industry which can result
in higher price to livestock raisers
and lower price in the sale of meats.
ITO analyze our cattle figures still
further, we present the following
figures which give the average a.
mount paid per head of cattle during
1918 as we'll as the receipts, expenses
and profit.
Average per Head
| Paid for live cattle. .....$ 92.70
Received for meat. .$S1.45
Received for by-products.
Gl.Oo
| Total receits :. .1O3.51
Amount remaining for expense and
profit -. 1881
! Expenses. ....... 9.79
Profit (interest not included) .1.O2
1t will be seen from these figures
that the amount received for meat
from the steer is less than the amount
paid for the live animal. The by
products make up the difference and
result in total receipts which are
enough to cover expenses and yield a
profit. The total expense of 1919
consisted Of 1882 for killing dressing
etc., $2.57 for freight, and $3.50 for
selling expenses. The profit amount
ed to about one-third of a cent per
pound Of dressed meat, or, since only
a little over half the animal comes,
forth as meat after the dressing oper-
alton, to about one-eight of cent per
pound of live animal. Even out of
this one-eight of cent, there should
rightfully be deducted charge for
interest on borrowed money.
! "These figures mean that if Swift
& Company had paid 13 cents more
per hundredweight for cattle there
would have been no profit at all-not
even enough to pay interest on the
money that we had to borrow in
order to carry on our beef operations.
The Year Book says that during
twenty-one weeks of the fifty-two in
the year, Swift G Company either
made no profit at all or suffered an
actual loss .on sales of beef, hides,
and by-products. During two weeks
the loss was over one dollar per hun
dred pounds.
'The retailer is the final step in
the marketing ctain," the Year Book
as the packers, are frequently mis-
understood. In the first place, he has
to charge relatively high prices for
porterhouse and sirloin, because he
gets lower prices for the stewing and
boiling cuts.
"These figures must be used with
great caution, because they represent
only an average quality of meat.
During December, 1918, Swift & Com
pany's average selling price of beef
carcasses was all the way from about
16 cents pound to over % cents a
pound; porterhouse steaks from car
casses at these various prices would
retail from 35 cents a pound to go
cents pound, or even more. The
methods of cutting also vary in differ
ent localities and for different grades
and weights of animals. Retail pric-
es also vary with the quality and
character of service rendered to Gus
toners in the shape of deliveries,
L charge accounts, etc."