604 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



LIVE STOCK MARKETS OF YEAR 1912. 



(Compiled from Market Papers and from Reports to Board of Agriculture.) 



Live stock prices for the year 1912 ruled higher than for the 

 preceding year. The advance was doubtless due in part to a 

 shortage of live stock, not only in Missouri but in other states. 



CATTLE. 



The St. Louis market is one of the few which shows increased 

 cattle receipts for the year. Receipts for 1912 were 1,199,900 head, 

 compared with 1,071,985 in 1911. Cattle receipts at Kansas City 

 were 1,943,390 head in 1912; 2,124,772 in 1911. St. Joseph re- 

 ceived 450,935 head of cattle in 1912; 466,535 in 1911. 



The Daily National Live Stock Reporter, National Stockyards, 

 East St. Louis, 111., reviews the 1912 cattle trade, in. part, as fol- 

 lows: 



"The beef steer trade during the year 1912 was a world beater 

 when high values, record-smashing tops, and radical fluctuations 

 are taken into consideration, and of course these points are the ones 

 that deal directly with the market situation. Never in the history 

 of the steer trade has the range between common and prime steers 

 been so large, and never before in the history of the St. Louis 

 market did beef steers reach such a high level. 



"One of the principal features of the past year's beef steer 

 trade is the wide range in prices. This may partly be accounted for 

 by the diflference in quality, yet practically the same diff'erence in 

 quality has been evident during every year. The bulk of the 

 steers of course do not show this range, but when we see prime 

 steers selling at $10.80 and $10.40, and on the same day steers 

 going to the killers at $5.50 and $6.00, this wide range in values 

 is very apparent. There is one solution, and this is the fact that 

 while prime beef went the highest in history, the common steers 

 were not making a proportionate big headway. Four head of steers 

 sold at $11.00 per hundredweight and carloads sold at $10.80 per 

 hundredweight, these prices were the highest of the year and the 

 highest level that beeves have ever reached at this point. In 1911 

 the carload top was $9.40, paid for yearling beeves. We can plainly 

 see the difference in the high points of the two years. The average 

 top for the year 1912 was $9.10 with an average bulk $7.10 to $8.32. 

 In 1911 the average top was $8.23 and the average bulk of prices 

 was $5.42 to $6.97, or about $1.55 under the 1912 average. We 



