The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-15
SLUMP IN BUTTER
Drop of Twenty Cents Per
Pound by Retailers.
Rate of Exchange With Den
mark Affects Price.
LOSS OF $1,000 Per CAR
Dairymen and Creamerymen
Loose Stored Product.
Thirty Million Pounds Sold
Here by Denmark.
LOSS OF $1,000 PER CAR

The rate of foreign exchange with
Denmark is the reason that the farm
ers of Kansas are getting only 40 cents
per pound for their butter fat at the
present time. and that retailers are
selling butter at some 20 cents a pound
less than they were a few weeks ago,
in the opinion of J. F. Haskell of the
Beatrice Creamery company's station
in Topeka.
lose $4,000 Per Car.
4Dairymen and creamerymen who
bought butter and stored it lost July
are letting loose of their stored butter
at a loss of some $4,000 a car. The
men who bought up the butter at
good stiff price at that time. failed TO
take into account two factors. On July
! the butter stored in the United
States was thirty million pounds short
of the amount which had been stored
on the same date in 1919. At the pres
ent time, there is more butter stored
than there was at this date last year.
The rains of July and August of this
year, which kept the pastures in fine
condition stimulated the domestic pro-
duction of butter to a great extent.
There was more butter made than the
storage men had expected to see.
Denmark Sold Butter Here
And then. on account of the foreign
exchange, Denmark. one of the heavi-
est butter exporters of the world.
found that they could sell their butter
TO better advantage in the United
States than on any other market. and
proceeded to dump" some thirty mil
lion pounds. Holland and other but
ter producing countries. recently in
Guiding New Zealand, discovered the
same fact and followed the same
course. The butter market, compare
lively was glutted. Last year the
United States was exporting butter,
and at the same time this year was
importing it heavily.
Storage Men Lose.
The loss which is being swallowed
by the storage men on the stored but
ter amounts in some cases to 10 cents
and more pound.
The prices on fresh butter have nat
orally been driven down by the over
supply The butter market broke
sharply in October and then recovered.
But it has been on a steady decline
during the past few weeks again.
The price of butter fat produced on
the farms has also gone down. In
fact It has gone down more sharply
than the price received from the re-
tallers by the manufacturers, Mr.. Has
keil says. This is true because the
cost of manufa curing, of which the
labor cost is a large percentage. has
not gone down with the drop in but
ter fat Manufacturing costs have
stayed up. and the retailer. IN COnSe-
ouencc. pays more for the butter than
is proportionate to the sum the farmer
receives for his butter fat
Does Not Affect Production.
This has not curtailed production
on the farms, Mr.. Haskell believes, for
the simple reason that while the price
OF the butter fat has been going Gown,
SO has the price of feed-the dairy
mans raw material. For this reason,
while farmers have been operating on
n smaller margin of profit than be-
fore. they have not yet had to take an
actual loss on their butterfat, and have
not quit producing it,
The price Of butter fat now. about
40 cents a pound. is some 1 8 cents be-
low what it was two months ago.
Cheaper Than Kansas City.
"Topeka is betting butter cheaper
than Kansas City is getting it," Mr.
Haskell says. This is true ac-
count of tho lower cost of distribution
and because the retailers of Topeka
sell at a smaller margin than do those
OF Kansas City. With less territory to
cover, thc distribution isn't so eXpen-
sive here On the same system. the
cost of butter in Chicago is greater
than in Kansas City. As a general
rule, the smallerNthe town, the cheap
or butter is. And the freight to Chi
caso have very little TO do with it.