Evening star., 1931-12-21
LIVE STOCK PRICES
DECLINE SHARPLY
Steers Fifty Cents
LoWer-0ther Classes
Also Sell OFF.
BY FRANK /. WELLER,
Associated Press Farm Editor.

Three weeks of heavy country selling
nave practically ruined the cattle mar
ket
Weighty steers are steady to so cents
lower, the very best kinds finishing
steady; light steers and yearlings, 75c
to $1.25 lower.
Finishers with shortfed steers and
yearlings glutted the market for the
third consecutive week, liquidating
Varmed-up and shortfed steers and
yearlings.
! Prices already were sharply on the
doWngrade. but last weeks decisive
supply sent values back beyond the
memory OF most persons in the trade.
Steers Liquidated.
Heavy steers got the best of it from
start to finish. No one was eager for
light cattle except when a load or so
graded strictly good or better There
was no outlet at all for the rank and
file, which showed an increasing num-
Der Of stale offerings.
Starting with the International Live
Stock Show, the country has been liq-
uldatng shortfed steers and yearlings.
Since that time the market has become
increasingly worse. The country has
persisted in unloading cattle, many of
them being merely in good feeder flesh.
Muddy tecdlOtG, credit stringency,
lack of faith in the future market, as
well as other factors, not the least of
which was the fact that the top on
choice offerings remained high and
seemed to miSlead finiShers with in
between steers, brought in the cattle.
The climax was a set of near-panicky
markets last week, during which much
of the crop had no reliable value. With
the first sign of supply abridgment
there was fairly reliable market on
all grades of Weighty steers and at least
a chance to get bid on light steers
and yearlings, even if these bids were
sharply lower than any time in years.
A few toppy cattle that arrived last
week standing around S675-and by
top at Chicago was Sll50 paid for the
long yearlingS as we'll as weighty steers.
But, the supply above SO was hardly
worth talking about, except to show
what shippers are still willing to pay
for finished cattle. Much more interest
centers on the predominant supply SELL
ing from SO downward to $3.50 This
range took most of the crop, the aver
age cost of slaughter steers for the
week standing around S675-and no
no means all of the plain light steers
had been sold on the closing trade.
Yearling Prices.
Meaty but common qualified steers
and yearlings sold as low as So and,
showing the pressure that plain
Weighty bullOcks were under earlier in
the week several loads scaling 900 to
l,l00 pounds turned atts3 to $3.50.
Not many yeaTlings passed $3.50 and,
by way of measuring the decline
from three weeks ago, little cattle that
sold at Sl025 at Chicago then. brought
S8.35 previously and $3.50 during the
week under review. Heavy steers have
declined meanwhile. an example being
the sale last week at SLIPS of feedlor
mates Of the s1285 bullocks three
steers are 81 to So lower than the high
time, but best light steers and yearlings,
including heifers and mixed offerings,
are 50 to 50 under that time
The demand was too narrow to make
a reliable market for stoCkers and feed
ers practically everything having to
90 into the killer channels. The few
replacement cattle that sold showed a
50-Cent decline.
The reg market "inched" downward
again under the pressure Of continued
heavy marketlngs and the weakening
influence Of narrow fresh pork outlet.
LOtSPICG Il SiIS44G ItGONtLN pLCN LOOS4Ns
prices were largely Is cents lower al
though light lights at Chicago finished
steady TO Is cents lower while pigs
under a reduced supply sold steady 20
Is cents higher. The packing SOW mar
ket fell Is to 25 cents in the course Of
the week as a suggestion that weakness
is TO come on heavy butchers as we'll.
although at present the price spread Is
unusually small.
Pork Market.
The fresh pork market has been
dragging bottom, with the tendency
downward rather than up.
The bottom literally dropped out of
an ailing sheep and lamb market.
THURSDAY S so to rs cent break came as
TIE cliTa ak OF an earlier depressed sit
uation. caused by a number OF factors,
but chiefly poor consumption Also to
a certain extent wholesalers attempted
to trim stocks because of the approach
ing holidays, which added to the con-
ge5tion IN both live and dressed
channels.