448 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



thing to be hoped for in the appointment of such a joint producers-pack- 

 ers committee. For it is the opinion of the speaker and of the officers 

 of the two organizations supporting this bureau that unless some such 

 basis for a joint activity of the two interests can be secured, there is 

 little use of undertaking it, and that from the producer's standpoint it 

 is preferable to have no such relations with the packing interests if they 

 are to be in the future, as too often in the past, merely informal discus- 

 sions or expressions of opinion, and where the producers' representatives 

 are handicapped by a lack of knowledge as to the facts and must accept 

 such statements as are made without the means of checking them up. 



Although this failure to get the desired information as to the packing 

 house end of the industry has detracted somewhat from the value of the 

 work that it was hoped to do, from the producers' point of view this was 

 by far the least important element in the situation. As throwing light 

 upon the marketing problem, the information as to the market receipts 

 and their distribution from week to week and month to month is the 

 most needed. And this has been obtained in a fairly satisfactory way and 

 has been compiled in such form as to be of the most use. 



On the basis of this information and daily price fluctuations, con- 

 tinuous graphs are maintained showing the daily fluctuations in the prices 

 of different grades of steers and of similarly named grades of carcass 

 beef. With these are included the weekly receipts of the different grades, 

 the total weekly receipts at Chicago and at the seven leading surplus mar- 

 kets. These show the relation between the wholesale beef market and the 

 cattle market and the effects of the different grades on these prices; 

 also to what extent the prices of these grades follow a fairly independent 

 course according to the receipts and to what extent they are influenced 

 by the total receipts of cattle both at Chicago and at the seven markets. 

 Also included are the prices of different by-products from v/eek to week 

 showing how these influence the prices paid for cattle. The graphs of 

 good and choice steers have been enlarged and arranged by months and 

 colored to give some notion as to what these show and how the work is 

 done. 



The tables of receipts are as follows. 



CHOICE 



92,047 Heavy 76,396 



Light 15,651 



Iowa 42,260 45.9% 



Illinois 34,614 37.6 4.4% 



Missouri 5,780 6.3 of 



Nebraska 3,154 3.4 Total 



South Dakota 1,940 2.1 14.1% 



Indiana 2,830 3.1 of 



Others 1,469 1.6 Steers 



Packers 51,703 56.2% 



Shippers . : 34,926 37.9 



Others 5,418 5.9 



