Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1902 — Farmers Not Too Well Paid. [ARTICLE]

Farmers Not Too Well Paid.

“Whether there is a ’beef trust’ that makes the price high to the oonsumer Ido not know, hot I do know that the priee of live fat oattle is not chargeable to any ’beef trust’ and that the farmer and oattle feeder who make the beef are not getting too much for their product,’’ said Oapt. W. A. Rankin, of Onarga, yesterday. Oapt. Rankin farms 4,000 acres of Misouri land, and fattens oattle for the Ohioago market. “Beef oattle are high because theyare scarce and because there was a short corn crop last year. Here are some figures on the cost of making beef which you can depend on: A good steer from western ranges, which I bay for feeding, will oost me 5 cents a pound, and he should weigh 1,000 pounds—or |SO. “To make a good steer of him, I mast keep him five months, and feed him seventy-five bushels of corn at 60 cents, or $45 worth. The five months of pasture will oost $5. Insurance, for there is a risk in handling oattle, will be $1 at least. I say nothing of care or interest on money invested, letting that be offset by what the hogs pick np after the steer. To get him to market, the transportation, commission, yardage and feed, will cose at least $4.50. That brings the total oost of my steer up to $105.50. If very successful in handling him I shall have put on him 500 pounds in the five months, making his weight when sold 1,500 pounds. The top price for fat steers yesterday was 7} cents a pound. My 1,500-pound steer, therefore, would have brought me yesterday $108.75, or $3.25 more than I had paid oat on him. There’s not mnch money for the former and cattle feeder in that. “Why do I fatten steers then ? Because I cannot afford to let my farm run down, which it would if I did not keep cattle, and because I hope for a good corn crop, cheap feed in the future, and then a chance to make a little profit. In 1882, just after a short corn crop, good steers went to $9 50 a hundredweight, and there was no beef trust then. It is unfair to the farmer to give out the impression that he is getting too much for his cattle.”—Chicago Record-Herald.