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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1976
Farmer bears brunt
Consumer meat prices
j Sugar prices
clown “ •
Associated Press World sugar consumption is ex- a
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — New gov
ernment figures show that consumer
beef prices are at a 16-month low,
down more than 14 per cent from
what they were a year ago, and that
farmers have borne the brunt of the
decline.
The Agriculture Department said
Tuesday that retail beef prices in
July averaged slightly more than
$1.38 a pound. That was the lowest.
on an all-cut basis since beef was
about $1.34 a pound in April 1975. In
July of last year they soared to a rec
ord of $1.61 a pound.
Beef supplies have been huge this
spring and summer as farmers and
ranchers stepped up grain-fed cattle
production and continued to thin out
herds. As a result, market prices for
live animals have been depressed.
Last month, US DA said, the farm
value of beef sold in stores was 74.2
cents a pound, a drop of nearly 30
per cent from July of last year. How
ever, the middleman share for
transporting, processing and selling
beef was 64 cents a pound, an in
crease of nearly 16 per cent.
The farm value is not what farmers
get for live animals since it takes
nearly 2.3 pounds of steer on the
hoof to make one pound of super
market beef. It is, however, their
share of what consumers pay for beef
at stores.
While retail beef prices continued
their decline last month, pork prices
rose slightly from June to July, av
eraging about $1.42 a pound. That
1.1 per cent less than a year
share of 55.9 cents was up almost 31
per cent from July 1975, according to
the department.
earlier and substantially below the
record of nearly $1.59 a pound for
retail pork last October.
Preliminary figures for early Au
gust showed that retail beef prices
have continued to decline and that
pork also has started to drop.
The farm value of pork in July —
86.2 cents — was down nearly 15 per
cent from a year ago, while the
“marketing spread” or middleman
Over-all last month, the market
ing spread of farm-produced foods
widened 1.2 per cent, with the in
creases for beef and pork leading the
way. In contrast, the spread be
tween what farmers get and con
sumers pay for poultry and oilseed
products narrowed last month.
That left farmers in July getting an
average of 40 cents of each $1 con
sumers spent on food, down from a
share of 40.4 cents in June and 43.3
cents in July of last year, officials
said.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — World sugar
inventories are building rapidly and
“recently have exerted downward
pressures” on prices according to the
Agriculture Department.
Current estimates put world sugar
production in 1976-77 at a record of
92.6 million to 95.6 million short
tons of2,000 pounds each, compared
with the previous high of 89.6 mil
lion tons last season, a department’s
Outlook and Situation Board said
Tuesday.
World sugar consumption is ex
pected to rise two million to three
million tons from last season’s 89 mil
lion tons. Thus, a sizeable increase in
leftover supplies is indicated by the
end of the 1976-77 year, officials
said. The world reserve at the end of
last season was 18 million tons, an
increase of about 500,000 tons and
the first gain in five years.
Since the New York price of raw
sugar peaked at $16.60 per one
hundred pounds on July 6, it has
dropped sharply to $9.88 on Aug. 23
and could average below $12pe|
hundred pounds. The New]
price for the period January!
July averaged $15.35 perl
hundred pounds, comparedif
$22.47 for the entire 1975 (
year.
“U.S. and world pricesareli
to remain at low levels until 18j
crop prospects are clearer andij
markets assess the pricelevelsr
seem consistent with prosj
supplies and anticipated derr
the report said.
Proposed meat rules protester
Texas dairy situation looks bright
With Texas dairy cows producing
more milk, milk bringing a favorable
price, and the milk-fed price ratio
continuing to drop, dairymen can
generally look toward the remainder
of 1976 with happy anticipation.
That assessment comes from Dr.
Randall Stelly, economist with the
Texas Agricultural Extension Serv
ice and the Texas Agricultural Ex
periment Station.
A number of factors suggest a fa
vorable outlook for Texas dairymen
in the coming months:
1. The continued tight supply-
demand balance is likely to result in
fairly strong seasonal rises in farm
prices during the second half of the
year.
2. Although feed prices have in
creased from mid-spring levels, they
are not likely to maintain recent
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levels if normal weather prevails.
3. Milk-feed price relationships
this summer and fall likely will favor
continued heavy concentrate feed
ing, even if feed prices are somewhat
higher than now expected.
4. There was a large supply of re
placement stock on dairy farms at the
beginning of 1976.
5. The value of dairy cows has in
creased steadily since August 1975 to
an average of $479 per head in June,
up $66 from last June.
6. Prices paid for production items
thus far in 1976 have risen more
slowly than last year but have aver
aged about one-tenth higher than a
year ago.
7. The general economy continues
to improve, thus strengthening the
demand for dairy products.
Under these conditions, milk out
put likely will continue to exceed
year-earlier levels throughout the
remainder of the year, said Stelly.
As* far as the key milk producing
counties in the state are concerned,
Hopkins and Erath counties are the
two top producers, accounting for
one-fourth of all the milk produced
in Texas. Hopkins County produced
about 16 per cent of the June milk
output while Erath County pro
duced about 9 per cent. Ten counties
accounted for almost half of all the
milk produced in Texas during'June.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A consumer
group said Tuesday that proposed
new government meat rules will let
processors put bits of bone in hot
dogs, garbage scraps in canned beef
stew and simmered fat in a variety of
prepared food products.
The new meat regulations are
being considered by the Agriculture
Department, which contends that
the changes will enable processors to
reclaim significant amounts of pro
tein and thereby help consumers
with their meat budgets.
But the Public Citizens’ Health
Research Group said the proposals
“should be seen for what they are —
rides for turning garbage into money
— and rejected.”
Processors currently are allowed
to salvage meat from bones and fat
under temporary rules announced
last spring. The proposed regu
lations, if adopted, will put them on a
permanent footing.
A senior department official, de
nying an earlier request for cancella
tion of the temporary rules, said
there is no evidence to suggest a
threat to the nation’s fo<xlsq||j
from the use of ground bone inffl
or the practice of renderingt®
TTrofHi
extract protein. ■
The plan has been simiJB
since last spring after the dt®
ment announced it and setAugP®
a deadline for public commenT
No rain, heat hurting corn
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Corn and
soybean crops, key ingredients of
livestock feed and valuable as ex
ports have continued to deteriorate
Foreign animal diseases conference topic
Texas Animal Health Commission
Director H. Q. Sibley will report on
the status of Texas livestock as he
helps kick off a Sept. 1-2 symposium
at Texas A&M University on foreign
animal diseases.
sions on Newcastle disease, foot-
and-mouth disease, swine vesicular
disease, regulation from a cattle
man’s viewpoint, hog cholera and
Venezuelan equine encepha-
lomylitis (VEE), among others.
Cosponsoring the program are
Texas A&M’s Institute of Tropical
Veterinary Medicine and the USDA
Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Services, emergency veterinary
branch.
because of heat and rainless skies in
some major producing areas, accord
ing to the Agriculture Department.
As of Aug. 22, the department said
Tuesday in a weekly weather review,
the crops were under dry weather
stress in much of the Western corn
belt. Nationally, most of the corn
“remained in fair to good” shape, the
report said.
NO MORE PLOWBOYS L
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)-ll
possible to farm without ^
ing over the soil?
Some soil experts feel pH
ing is unnecessary and wasWj!
and expect to prove it. lnl|
test, researchers at the
sity of Nebraska School offST
culture, with a grant fromil"
lips Petroleum Co., start
this fall on an experime
system in which eve
from planting to harvesting
be done without tilling theil
Embrey’s Jewelif
Sibley, the state’s leading ob
server of livestock maladies, is
among a score of speakers at the pro
gram. His presentation is 9:15 a.m.
Sept. 1 in Rudder Tower.
Nearly 200 veterinarians, public
health officials, researchers and in
dustry representatives will hear ses-
Overall, the symposium will re
view foreign ailments that threaten
America’s livestock industry.
In addition to specific illnesses,
speakers will examine vectors, out
break response, lab diagnosis of trop
ical maladies and the role of wildlife
in exotic disease outbreaks.
Representatives from both will
speak, along with other authorities
from Texas A&M, the Food and
Drug Administration, Arizona State
University, the Southeastern
Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study
at the University of Georgia and the
Callahan Ranch at Encinal.
“Iowa corn suffered most severely
in the West, Central and Northern
third of the state, with barren stalks
and poorly filled ears, the report
said.
“Elsewhere, the Iowa crop is in
good to excellent condition.”
Soybeans in the dry areas also
needed rain to help fill developing
pods, officials said.
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In the market for a dinosaur footprint?
Montshire museum auctioning old exhibits
mi
Looking for that inspirational decoration
for your study area?
Try the BRAZOS VALLEY ART GALLERY3^
3211-A Texas Ave. S., Bryan (713/822-7795)
Our 10% off SALE ends August 31
Gallery Hrs.: Tues., Wed., Fri., Sat.: 9-6; Thurs.: 9-8:30; Closed Sun. 6
Associated Press
HANOVER, N.H.—Want to im
press friends with a relatively new
gnu, say about 5 years old? A 200-
million-year-old dinosaur footprint?
How about a kudu or a crocodile?
It’s a chance of a lifetime to replace
that $65 art book on Japanese toys or
medieval typefaces on the coffee
table with a real conversation piece.
You might even replace the coffee
table with a slab of petrified mud
about four by six feet, three to four
inches thick that is an imprint of a
dinosaur footprint left 200 million
years ago at Turner’s Falls, Mass.
These marvels will be auctioned
off at the Montshire Museum of Sci
ence in Hanover on Saturday. About
$5 may buy a rattlesnake skin and
$600 a stuffed grizzly bear.
The museum was set up two years
ago to exhibit natural science speci
mens from northern New England.
Most of the exhibits were dona
tions from nearby Dartmouth Col
lege’s natural science collection.
Some items are 400 million years
old.
However, Robert Chaffee, the
museum director, says of the 60,000
exhibits, “That’s too much. We can’t
find the place to store that stuff ”
For instance, Chaffee feels the
museum needs only six of the 81
dinosaur footprint slabs, and the
ursus horriblus, a grizzly shot in
Montana 100 years ago, isn’t your
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bear.
So, the museum has decided to
get rid of the specimens that do not
qualify or are redundant, and raise
some money by selling the stuffed
and mounted animals and artifacts.
A special feature of the auction is
that it will be open to the public.
Normally, museums either sell to
other museums or schools privately
or barter with each other for their
exhibits.
The Montshire has hired a profes
sional New England country au
ctioneer who will sell the goods to
anyone willing to bid for them.
Each item will have a dollar val
ue. Anything bid over that value will
be tax-deductible as a donation to
the museum.
Chaffee points out that many of
the items are unavailable these days
because of modern laws against
mounting game animals.
This will thus be a rare opportu
nity for seekers of curia to buy stuf
fed gnus, ostriches, ostrich eggs,
kudu horns, mounted baboons or a
square-lipped rhinoceros, a rarity
indeed because there are no more
than 200 of them alive in all of Africa.
Chaffee says it is hard to put a
price tag on the dinosaur footprints
because “I haven’t classified them
yet. The price will depend on their
condition.”
The most expensive item, he says,
is the Montana grizzly.
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“I’m willing to deal before the auc
tion,” Chaffee says. “I’d love to swap
it for a good black bear.”
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