PROGRESSIVE BEEF CATTLE RAISING 



be marketed in July or August of the following year. 

 Sufficient winter shelter will be required for these calves 

 to keep them from using too much of their feed to provide 

 heat. This system of feeding and finishing will do well 

 on high priced land, but is of little value in the range and 

 semi-range states where the system of production is too 

 extensive. 



The relative effect of supply and 

 The Effect of demand on cattle prices on the hoof 

 Supply and is shown in the chart facing page 56. 



Demand on The two upper curves are not on the 



Hoof Prices same scale, one square on the curve 



for market receipts representing 50,000 

 animals while one square for Armour's purchases repre- 

 sents only 4,000 animals. To make the curves directly 

 comparable the heights in the first curve should be multi- 

 plied 12.5 times. In the case of the two lower curves, 

 however, the general parallelism is quite marked. The 

 fluctuation of hoof prices is not as great as that in dressed 

 beef, because the price of byproducts does not vary with 

 the price of beef but remains relatively constant. On 

 the other hand it will be observed that the purchases of 

 Armour and Company bear only an indirect relation to 

 the price of dressed beef. In general, purchases were low 

 when prices were high and vice versa, but there are 

 almost as many exceptions as illustrations. This is simply 

 another way of saying that prices went up when Armour 

 and Company did not have the beef to supply, while with 

 increased supplies, prices dropped. 



If the points along the dressed beef curve and the live 

 cattle curve are compared for divergence in direction, 

 periods in which supply overrode demand to a slight 

 degree will be noted. In September, 1917, and Septem- 

 ber, 1918, dressed beef prices rose while hoof prices 

 dropped, but it will be noted that in each case the number 

 of cattle on the market materially increased in the first 



Page Fifty-seven 



