Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-26
LIVE STOCK PRICES
IN UNEVEN TREND
Choice Steers and Yearlings
Are Higher-Lower Grades
Sell OF.
BY FRANK I. WELLER,
Associated Press Farm Editor.

BY combination of extremes and
paradoxes, the live stock market has
worked itself into a position where ale
most anything can happen.
Very scarce choice steers and year
lings are plunging through the roof
while the lower grades and grassers
bump along in the cellar; hogs have
lost about all of their advance from the
bottom and again fat lambs have done
an about face from the seasons high
point to the low.
The lid blew off dry-lot steers and
yearlngs at Chicago for an advance Of
fully so cents-in instances IS cents
and before buyers could clamp It back
the top had gone to &11 on weighty
steers and $loa5 on yearlings, the best
prices since last March. All weights
OF value to sell at $3.50 upward were
carried along with the toppy kinds,
the runaway market on grainfeds lift
ing in-betweens far out of line with
their actual worth in beef.
Shipper Market.
1t was purely shipper market,
kosher demand inspiring the upturn
Eastern orders exceeded the supply of
available cattle. Shippers bought the
upper crust and filled out with the best
OF the lower grades
While wSlghty steers were out In
front, yearlings made the big advance
Kinds selling now at $I0.25 TO $10.75
could be bought two weeks ago for
1925 TO $40.
There had to be a setback somewhere
and 1t fell chiefly on shortfeds lacking
weight. Everything selling below e
tumbled into such churned Up market
as To confuse buyers and sellers alike.
A spread OF IS per 100 pounds de-
Veloped between strictly market toppers
and plain shortfeds as granted cattle
strobe forward and grassers held steady
or worked lower Common grassers
selling around $4.75 reflect even q wider
spread as compared with toppy fed
offerings bringing SLOTS to ell.
the average cost Of steers and year.
lings, exclusive of straight grassers, is
around $S.75 at Chicago, compared with
1888 in May and $3.50 q month ago.
It suggests an out of line relationship
with hogs which average around $500
and lambs around So. In addition the
wholesale price of choice beef loins Ia
around 80 cents, while pork loins and
lambs OF comparable quality are turn
ing around is cents.
Hogs and Lambs.
However, hogs and lambs are run
ming freely, while cattle slaughter In
September and so far In October a
the shortest in years.
It Is question how much longer the
present market on good cattle viii last
With the spread SO wide IL Is next 70
impossible to determine even the APP
proximate value Of in-between grades.
The advance is attracting q liberal sup
ply Of 80 to 100 day fed cattle.
Generous marketing OF hogs and un-
seasonally warm. weather, which sent
loins almost to the 10 whine Of the year,
established last February, cut live
prices all around the market circuit.
Chicago was 10 to IS cents lower than
week ago, Kansas City, Is to 20 cents
lower; Omaha, at one time near the
low point of the season, and East St.
Louis, Is to Is cents lower.
Packing sows were about steady, with
the pork provisions market holding up
quite well and lard prices gaining
ground.
Slaughter Market.
The slaughter lamb market became
more cratic going down than 1t did
during the rise Q week ago. Prices fell
IS cents to 81 before the situation re-
adjusted itself. 1t was q squeeze from
the top downward, packers making al
most daily attempts to lower initial
costs, which in turn resulted In very
narrow price spread There was con-
siderable difference in. the quality and
weight of lambs, which sold only IS
cents apart at Chicago, where an over
supply of natives rather than Westerns
caused the damage.
The wholesale price Of steer meat
worked so cents to $50 lower, lamb
was semi-demoralized, with prices 81
to So lower, while veal, at 81 to SO
lower, and pork loins, 81 to $3.50 lower,
were Frustrated.