The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-12-02
DAIRY FARMS
INCOME GAINS,
SURVEY SHOWS
IS Per Cent Increase Noted
in Nine Month Period
This Year.

during the first nine months of
1885 compared with s842 900 900 last
year, the Sealtest System Labora-
tories, Inc, announced today in an
analysis of retail milk prices and
their effect on milk producers in
come.
This substantial increase in dairy
farmers milk checks in excess of
the gain in farm revenues as a
whole is particularly interesting in
asmuch as available data indicate
that the public has consumed about
3 per cent less milk in all forms
during the first nine months of this
year than it did in 1884, the report
states.
This decline is caused primarily
by lower butter consumption. This
being SO, the natural assumption
would be that retail prices must
have been materially higher in 1885
to bring about such a marked i'm
provement in dairy farmers in
come. This, however, is not the
case.
Operating Costs Fixed
"A comparison of retail prices of
fluid milk, butter and cheese, the
dairy products that figure most
prominently in the housewives bud
get, indicates that the average in
crease in the price of a quart of
milk for the first nine months of
this year over 1884 has been but 5
per cent.
Similarly, pound of butter has
averaged 1874 per cent higher, and a
pound of cheese 8.3 per cent higher.
When the relative Importance of
different milk products in the house
wife's budget are weighed the aver
age increase in the retail price of
dairy products is found to be about
8.8 per cent, compared with a 119
per cent for all foods, and the Is
per cent increase in dairy farmers
income mentioned above.
The percentage increase in dairy
farmers income is larger than the
corresponding increase in retail
prices. This seeming anomaly is ox-
planned when one considers that the
operating costs of milk distributing
companies and cheese and butter
are more or less fixed.
During a period of rising prices,
the major portion of the
price paid by the con-
sumner reverts directly to the pro-
Queer.
This improvement in dairy farm
ers' purchasing power is encourag-
ing. Of more significance to the
producers pocketbooks, however, are
scattered indications of increased
consumption by the general public
of milk in fluid form.
Increased Consumption Seen
"The Department of Agriculture,
in commenting on the receipts of
milk and cream at Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, points out
that in July and August milk re-
ceiptS were somewhat larger than in
the same months of the preceding
year
This would seem to indicate that
the decline in milk consumption in
these markets is about over. With
increases in city employment and
business recovery, the outlook is for
city consumption of milk
and cream. An analysis of the New
York market alone shows that for
the first nine months of this year
milk receipts were slightly larger
than in the same months of 1884.
Total consumption of fluid milk
and cream in cities declined about
6.3 per cent from $780, the peak
year, to 1884. If the consumption
trend in these three major markets
is indicative of the country as
whole, the dairy industry can look
to the future with added confidence.
"Regaining the 6.3 per cent loss in
fluid milk consumption during the
would mean a material
gain in dairy farm income because
producers receive their highest price
for milk consumed in fluid form.
more milk in bottles on
consumers doorStepS means higher
aVeraCe roricpc to dairy farmers