Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 235 



stituting the chuck and breast cuts are low in price because they lack 

 thickness, the quantity of flesh elements being relatively small. The 

 leg and loin of the lamb include 52 per cent of the carcass weight and 

 67 per cent of the total value; and the leg, loin, and short rack include 

 66 per cent of the weight and 87 per cent of the value. 



Packing House By-Products from Sheep 



A greater proportion of the sheep's value to the packer lies in its 

 by-products than is true of the steer or the hog. Edward N. Went- 

 worth of Armour's Livestock Bureau states^ that from November 1, 

 1918, to November 1, 1919, Armour and Company killed 2,326,277 

 sheep and lambs at its various plants in the United States, and that 

 the return from these averaged $12.02 per head. Of this amount, $8.34 

 was received for the carcass, and the remaining $3.68 represented the 

 value of the by-products. Of the latter amount, $2.95 was derived 

 from the pelt, and the remaining 73 cents was derived from all other 

 by-products. Expressed in percentages, the carcass represented 69.4 

 per cent of the total value, the pelt 24.5 per cent, and all other by- 

 products 6.1 per cent. It should be noted that nearly one-fourth of 

 the total value was represented by the pelt. 



The value of the pelt. — Information has been given out from var- 

 ious sources that buyers of sheep for the packers prefer animals wearing 

 light pelts. It has been said that the slaughtering departments of 

 packing houses without exception dispose of sheep pelts at a fixed price 

 per pelt, consigning them to the wool-pullery department of their own 

 plant, or to some independent pullery. Buyers have been reported to 

 prefer light- wooled lots in order to obtain high dressing percentages; 

 it has been said that buyers have no particular interest in the welfare 

 of their own pulleries, or in other firms that buy the pelts for pulling. 

 Farmers have been advised that the highest market price is obtained 

 for sheep and lambs that are light in pelt and which consequently dress 

 high. 



Can it be possible that the packer, with all his genius for the 

 utilization of by-products, is overlooking such an important item as 

 wool? If the shank bones of cattle may be profitably converted into 

 buttons and other articles, is it not inconsistent and unbusinesslike 

 to discount well-wooled lots of sheep? With wool worth 25 to 50 cents 

 per pound, is it not strange that the buyer should refuse to bid higher 

 on a well-wooled band of sheep than upon a lot with light fleeces, other 

 things being equal, especially as the fleece is obtained at the live- 

 weight price of the animal, namely 10 to 20 cents per pound? In hand- 



1 Monthly Letter to Animal Husbandmen, The Source and Use of Packing 

 House By-Products, Armour and Company, Chicago, Aug. 1, 1920. 



