The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1926-11-25
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DEPARTMENT FOR THE AGRICULTURISTS

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producer than the dizzy alterations
Of ascent and descent.
-
Outlook for the Dairy Industry
If the markets for dairy products
finish 1926 as well as they began it,
producers are in line to receive more
dairy income than in 1925 when gross
returns were the largest in five years.
The outlook for the balance of the
year and for 1927 is favorable if the
signs and symptoms on the trade ho-
rizon are not misleading. The dairy
cow should continue to afford pro-
fitable market for corn, oats, hay and
other feeds.
Dairy production has not fully
! maintained the pace of 1925 when
the quantity of whole milk produced
was estimated at 1866, 900, 900
pounds. This was nearly two billion
pounds more than in 1924 and estab-
lished a new high record. Only par.
tial evidence is available as to dairy
production thus far in 1926. The
United States Department of Agri-
culture has made preliminary esti-
mate, indicating that creamery butter
production from January to July, in
elusive, was per cent less than in
the same period last year. Condens-
ed and evaporated milk production
, was So per cent less. Cheese pro
duction was .6 per cent more than
last year. The total change when all
items were reduced to whole milk
equivalents, was a decrease of 1. 2
per cent compared with 1925. Aug
ust production in these lines seems
to have been lighter than in August
1925, by a larger margin than was
shown in the earlier months of the
year.
The total dairy income in the first
eight months of the year is estimated
| as even greater than in the same per-
iod of 1925, when the gross returns
! were the largest since 1920.
The net farm income than can be
credited to the dairy industry has
shown even more of an increase, as
the cost of feeding has been lower
than Last year.
After this brief survey of what
has happened in the past, we are
ready to scan the horizon ahead. AT
the present time, dairy production is
not excessive, measured by the stan
dards of recent years. Feed costs
are moderate. Consumptive demand
is broad and equal to production
Foreign competition presents no i'm
mediate perils. Changes will come
in all these directions, but they will
not be sudden or violent, so that they
will give time for adjustment, and
for preserving the stability of the
dairy business.
No Menace of Over-Production
These are a number of grounds for
belief that the dairy industry is not
confronted with any grave menace
of domestic over-production. Seventy
five years of growth seem to have
brought no over-production, except
of the most temporary nature, and
conditions at the present time give no
hint that the industry is near the
edge of over-production now.
While consumption of dairy pro-
ducts tends to increase from year to
year, due to the gain in population,
shrinking earnings and unemploy-
ment on the part of the mass of
wage earners are bound to be re-
fiected in temporary decrease of de-
mand. In that case, either less milk,
butter and cheese will be used or low
er prices will be necessary-to bring
about consumption of THE same
amount.
Shifts in the United States balance
of foreign trade in butter for the
last -four years have shown an inn
port balance, Foreign conditions
have made but little impression on
the butter market since the IL cent
tariff went into effect last April. Nor
are they likely to do so unless such
severe overproduction develops
abroad as to place European prices
far below ours. Such an extreme dis
count appears unlikely. Cheese i'm
ports iare large in spite of the tariff,
but the annual totals have been rather
uniform in the last four years, not
withstanding the gradual expansion
in foreign production. With do
nestle prices for butter and cheese
maintained considerably above the
world level, it is obvious that do
nestle manufacturers would find it
difficult to buy milk to make into
condensed and evaporated milk cheap
ly~enough to sell for export in conn
petition with foreign producers. In
consequence, exports of canned milk
have heen e-r.adlIallU dwindlinp ever