Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-09-04
i. s. BUREAU SEEKS
To AID CATTLE MEN
BY R;! RAISING PRICES
BY FREDERIC j. HASKI,N


WASHINGTON, d. c., Sept. O.
When you sit down at the dinner
table opposite porterhouse steak or
a slab of roast beef, or even a com
monplace order Of beef stew now
adays you are face TO face with a
symbol of a national probl9m-the
beef cattle situation to be exact
The housewife and the hotel
steward are paying rather large
money for beef The cattle grower
is getting very little money for his
live stock, so little in fact tha>
stockmen are asking anXiously,
Where do we so from here?'
Answers to this question are
vague and uncertain, and almost no
two agree, on details at least. One
expert who studies agriculture from
statistical tables and at close range
as well, finds evidence that less
beef will be raised and eaten in this
country in the future.
Just as the cotton boil Weevil
drove many cotton growers of the
south to stock raising, so, he thinks,
period of depression in live stock
prices may drive some beef cattle
men to dairying or to other lines o.
agriculture.
Most experts. however, would not
agree with this forecast. In IL west
ern states there are $50 900, 900 acres
of land, or more than a million
square miles, that the United States
department. of agriculture says car
probably never be utilized except in
ranging sheep and cattle" This
land covers more than one-third OF
the United States. Even reclama
ton projects and development Of
crops that willy grow best IN the
semi-arid conditions will not alter
the general situation much in this
great area.
The departments conclusion is
that this condition establishes the
production of range live stock as
one of the basic agricultural indus
tries of the west.
Growers Lose Money
Just now the growers are getting
so little per pound for their beef
cially are doing as we'll as they eX-
pect Yet in time like this they
can not dispose of their land and
And it is no longer possible to
turn cattle loose to feed themselves
in a period of depression as cattle
men did in Civil war days. Then,
unbranded steers swarmed over I'M
fenced ranges and COW sold for
a dollar.
Now, the cattle man is tied up by
heavy investments and his eXpen-
sive and carefully-raised stock could
deteriorate to cheap inferior cat
tie in a few generations if left
alone. He would rather hold out and
hope for the best.
Cattle raising has evolved a long
way from the simple and exciting
game of capturing and branding
wild steers and then leaving them
more or less to take care of them
selves until market time. The cat
tie business has progressed from
that stage to a highly complex and
interdependent industry.
Calves are bred and raised on
the western ranges and before Lhe|
are two years old are shipped to
central points and sold to feeders
who make a business of fattening
them for market About one-fourth
of the great corn crop of the MO
die west is fed to beef cattle. Corn
makes firm flesh and white, rather
than yellow fat, and corn-fed beef
is becoming an American tradition.
AT present the crux of the beef
situation is that the corn crop IS
not large and corn is selling for
considerably more than a dollar a
buShel, a. huge price compared to
that of several years ago.
More corn growers who ordinarily
fatten cattle for market would rather
sell their grain than feed it to cattle,
considering that beef on the hoof is
selling at such low figures. The west
ern rangers have a plentiful supply
of calves on their hands this season,
but there is almost a shortage of
well-fattened took.
u. S. Bureau Tries to Help
The department of agriculture and
live stock and farm organizations are
trying to help TIE stockman. The
steps being taken are not sensation
al and they do not promise immediate
relief, but they do promise better
times in the long run. Government
cattle experts believe that the stock
growers best chance, within his own
control, for increasing his margin of
profit lies in reducing the cost of pro-
duction. Much of the governments
research and demonstration work has
this aim of economical production in
view.