Typical oi 85 outlook meetings held last month, this group at Eureka, Woodford county, listens attentively to the speaker. 



these will become less favorable in 

 1946 as food supplies become more 

 plentiful and demands slackens. 



At the Douglas-Champaign county 

 meeting Dr. L. J. Norton, acting head 

 of the department of agricultural eco- 

 nomics, University of Illinois, foresaw 

 "enough uncertainty to require caution 

 in Ipng-term commitments," but he left 

 to the feeders themselves to decide 

 whether a freely predicted weakness in 

 market prices will come within six, 

 nine or 12 months, the usual cattle 

 feeding period. 



He felt, however, that the prices of 

 the better grades of feeder cattle 

 should continue to be strong in the 

 fall and winter of 1945-46 but may 

 weaken in the spring of 1946 as civilian 

 meat supplies become more plentiful. 



Marketing of grass cattle will be 

 large this fall and prices are expected 

 to decline from the late summer levels. 

 From the standpoint of numbers, the 

 cattle industry is in a less sound posi 

 tion than other livestock enterprises to 

 meet the uncertainties of the postwar 

 period and cattle men look for heavier 

 liquidation. ■' .' 



Hog prices are likely to remain near 

 the ceilings most of the coming winter 

 but may weaken in the spring and early 

 summer of 1946. University extension 

 speakers also advised Illinois farmers 

 to try to market their 1945 fall pig crop 

 as early as possible in the spring of 

 1946. 



Most favorably situated to meet post- 

 war readjustment, it was stated, were 

 sheep raisers with their stock numbers 

 at the lowest level since 1928, but 

 stocks of domestically produced wool 

 are large and are still accumulating. 

 Lower wool prices are to be expected 

 when the government discontinues its 

 wool-purchasing program. Total stocks 

 of all apparel wool in this country on 

 January 1, 1945 amounted to 635 mil- 

 lion pounds, which is equal to approx- 

 imately a year's pre-war mill consump- 

 tion. 



Because of the 3^ percent reduction 

 in the 1945 lamb crop and the heavy 

 marketings of Texas and California 

 lambs, the supply of feeder lambs will 

 be smaller than in 1944. The severe 

 drought in parts of the southwest may 



cause lambs from this area to be light 

 in weight. 



Although the demand for dairy- 

 products will continue to be strong 

 through 1945 and early 1946, returns 

 to the dairyman may be lower in 1946, 

 extension specialists said. Relief ship- 

 ments to foreign countries will be 

 great for several months, but military 

 purchases will decline and more of the 

 total milk production will go into man- 

 ufactured products. 



Prices of eggs will likely remain 

 strong in the fall of 1945 but are ex- 

 pected to weaken in the spring months 

 of 1946 as egg production increases 

 seasonally and meat supplies become 

 more plentiful. 



At the McLean county meeting, Farm 

 Adviser O. L. Welsh summed up the 

 opinion expressed by many of the 

 farmers who attended the outlook 

 meetings when he commented that he 

 was not at all pessimistic about the out- 

 look for the next several months al- 

 though he expected it would call for 

 more careful planning and a bit of 

 readjustment. '", :■ > 



RECOMMENDS 

 RETAINING CONTROLS 



Farmers should support a continu- 

 ation of price and wage controls until 

 scarce goods become more abundant. 

 Dean H. P. Rusk, of the University of 

 Illinois college of agriculture declared 

 at a Cost of Living conference in 

 Springfield, Sept. 19. 



Dean Rusk presented agriculture's 

 side of the question at the conference 

 sponsored by the labor and agricul- 

 tural advisory committees of the Office 

 of Price Administration at Springfield. 



During subsequent discussion periods 

 in which representatives of civic, labor, 



agricultural, women's, government and 

 educational organizations took part, O. 

 D. Brissenden, organization director 

 of the Illinois Agricultural Association, 

 re-emphasized the position of the lAA 

 on the question of the cost of living 

 by citing the resolution on price con- 

 trols adopted by the organization at 

 its 1944 convention, which reads as 

 follows : 



"We recommend the continuation 

 of price controls and rationing until 

 scarce goods become available in suffi- 

 cient quantities to prevent demand 

 from exerting inflationary pressure on 

 price ceilings. 



"These controls should be flexible 



enough to meet changing conditions 

 and they should be abandoned as sup- 

 plies in relation to demand reach pro- 

 portions that remove the dangers of 

 inflationary prices." 



After a review of some of the short- 

 comings of price control. Dean Rusk 

 said: "On the whole, however, we 

 must admit that, while price controls 

 did not work perfectly and no doubt 

 limited gross agricultural income, they 

 did undoubtedly have a very favorable 

 effect on the overall national economy; 

 and agriculture has just as big a stake 

 in a sound national economy as does 

 industry, labor or any other segment 

 of our society." 



OCTOBER. 1945 



