PRINCIPLES OF VALUE AND PRICE 455 



143- INCREASING COSTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF BEEP 

 BY J. S. COTTON AND W. F. WARD 



The cattle-feeding business has changed greatly during recent 

 years. Formerly steers from four to six years of age were fed in large 

 numbers upon commercial feeds at yards near granaries or mills, or 

 on large farms where only the roughage was grown. At the present 

 time in the corn belt cattle are usually fed in small herds upon farms 

 as a means of marketing farm products by converting them into beef, 

 while the manure produced is utilized as a by-product for maintaining 

 fertility. The cattle are marketed at eighteen months to three years 

 of age. 



A number of factors united to cause these changes. For instance, 

 there has been a gradual increase in the value of farm products and 

 the cost of farm operations. In the seven leading cattle-feeding states 

 the prices of various feeds on December i of the years 1899 to 1901 

 and 1909 to 1911 have been taken, and during this ten-year period it 

 was found that the price of corn had advanced 29 per cent and hay 

 45 per cent, while such supplemental concentrates as linseed-oil meal 

 and cottonseed meal had increased in about the same proportion. 

 The price of labor has advanced 31 per cent, and feeder steers have 

 advanced 36 per cent since 1904. 



This advanced price of feeder cattle is due to the decline in their 

 supply, and several reasons are responsible for this falling off. Corn 

 belt farmers found it unprofitable to continue the production of 

 "native" steers at present prices of farm products, and so have 

 turned to dairying or other types of farming. Likewise the supply 

 of western range cattle was greatly curtailed by the exploitation 

 of dry-land farming, which resulted in the best lands of the open 

 range being taken up for grain-growing purposes. This shrinkage 

 of the herds culminated in the excessive liquidation due to the 

 drought of 1911-12. In the third place, we should realize that the 

 increased demand for veal in this country has caused the slaughter 

 not only of the surplus dairy calves, but of thousands of beef calves 

 as well. 



Lastly, the value of land has increased 103 per cent during the 

 decade 1900 to 1910. This increase in land value makes a much 

 larger capitalization upon which interest must be charged. All these 



1 Adapted from Farmers' Bulletin 588, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 PP. i-S- 



