What Cattle Feeders 



Think of the New AAA 



y^N the delicate economic balance 



01 of 1938, actions of one group of 

 sjj producers quickly influence the 

 welfare of other groups. That is why, 

 early in February while Congress was 

 grooming the surplus crop control bill 

 for passage, Illinois cattle feeders were 

 eagerly studying the proposed act. 



From the declaration of policy of the 

 AAA of 1938 they learned: "It is . . . 

 the policy of Congress to . . . regulate 

 interstate and foreign commerce in cot- 

 ton, wheat, com, tobacco and rice to the 

 extent necessary to provide an orderly, 

 adequate, and balanced flow of such com- 

 modities in . . . commerce through storage 

 of reserve supplies, loans, marketing 

 quotas, assisting farmers to obtain . . . 

 parity prices for such commodities and 

 parity of income. . ." 



How will the orderly, adequate, and 

 balanced flow affect cattle feeders who 

 buy corn.' And what will stabilized corn 

 prices mean to cattle feeders over a long 

 period ? 



Carl M. Johnson, DeKalb county feed- 

 er, briefly summarized the general feel- 

 ing of feeders with this comment: 

 "Stabilized prices will keep the "in and 

 outers' out. They're the ones that ruin 

 us." 



Carl farms 460 acres of which 194 

 were in com in 1937. He feeds all the 

 grain he raises each year to approximately 



CAHL JOHNSON 



"In and outers will be euL" Loitt Pot- 

 ter, leit. takes a polite peek at Carl'i 

 recerda. 



By LARRY POTTER 



125 steers and 80 purebred Polled Short- 

 horn cows. 



Crop yields on the Johnson farm, the 

 result of crop rotation plus 400 loads of 

 feed lot manure each year, are unusually 

 high. Carl's entry in the Illinois ten-acre 

 corn growing contest produced 106 

 bushels per acre which is an index of 

 the fertility of the entire farm. 



On February 1, Carl bought 70 head 

 of 700 pound "whitefaces " through the 

 Chicago Producers Commission Associa- 

 tion. He plans to feed them until early 

 summer. He is a booster for the H. M. 

 Conway market service published by the 

 National Livestock Marketing Associa- 

 tion and shapes his feeding plans accord- 

 ing to Conway's market analysis. 



Lee Mosher, who lives a mile or two 

 south of Carl, looks at the probable 

 effect of stable corn prices in much the 

 same way that Carl does. Says he, "The 

 new act will help. Cheap corn always 

 makes cheap beef and that's not good 

 for feeders." 



Lee believes that there are not too 

 many cattle on feed, and that the sud- 

 den drop in prices from August to 

 December was brought about by fear. 



"There were too many inexperienced 

 feeders in the game who grew 'jittery' 

 and shipped before their cattle were 

 ready to sell. In my 30 years of feeding 

 I have seen other times when 'in and 

 outers' were in and got out too quickly 

 for the good of the industry. 



"If we were well enough organized 

 to control the flow of beef to market, 

 the drop would never have taken place," 

 is Mosher's opinion. 



The drop caught Lee with 50 head 

 of feeders in his yards. He had bought 

 the cattle in three bunches, most of them 

 when the top was around $19. 50 and 

 the average was about $14. The first 

 bunch, bought August 5, cost $9-60 per 

 hundredweight; the second truckload 

 cost $8.85 on August 25 and the last 

 bunch came into the feedlot at $10 on 

 September 18. 



The 50 head were sorted in October 

 and a few choice ones were sold at 

 $13. They averaged 1000 pounds each. 

 A truckload of "rough ends not worth 

 feeding" longer, weighing 1200 pounds, 

 were marketed in December at $8.90. 

 The last to go weighed 1330 pounds 

 and were sold, February 7, for $8.50. 



The gain on the last two truckloads. 



"Inexperienced 

 and got out" 



LEE MOSHEB 



ieedera grew 



littefT" 



fed largely on 1937 com, cost eight 

 cents per pound. Mosher takes it all 

 with a smile. To him it is part of the 

 game. His guiding philosophy in all 

 cattle deals, "see a chance for profit — 

 take it," didn't apply at any time. 



Mosher is a tenant farmer. He rents 

 280 acres in two farms. He has lived 

 on one for 20 years, the other he has 

 farmed for 23 years. To comply with 

 soil conservation requirements he reduced 

 his corn acreage from 140 to 125 acres. 

 He always feeds more corn than he raises. 



Another Dekalb county feeder is E. 

 E. Gallagher who owns his 200 acre 

 farm. While he believes as Johnson and 

 Mosher do about stabilized corn prices 

 keeping grain farmers out of comjjetition 

 with feeders, Gallagher goes a step 

 farther. 



"Feeders need three and four cent 

 margins with fairly cheap corn to make a 

 fair profit feeding cattle. Twelve cent 

 cattle and 75 cent corn would be about 

 right. We can only hope to break even 

 with 60 cent corn. On the other hand, 

 80 cent corn doesn't give much oppor- 

 tunity for profit when cattle are cheap." 



(Continued on page 8) 



MARCH. 1938 





