The Daily Inter Lake from Kalispell, Montana • 12

armers By IRA STEVENS University of Wyoming or many years Montana and Wyoming farmers and ranchers have been interested in the sub ject of livestock shrinkage The bulk of the cattle and sheep pro duced in these states are moved out to slaughtering plants or feed lots in other areas It is a well known fact that shrinkage of live animals is associated with their movement Generally the greater the distance and time involved in lhe movement the greater will be the shrinkage Witli Montana and Wyoming situated midway between lhe West Coast and the population centers of the East and also at a considerable distance from the Corn Belt feeding areas shrinkage is more of a problem to our own producers than to those in other sections of the country Shrinkage is of special interest to the producer whether range man farmer or commercial feed lot operator It becomes a basic consideration whenever he is faced with a decision concerning sale of his product Whether to sell at home or to ship to market will depend to a great extent on an estimation of shrinkage the ani mals will undergo between the two places The buyer whether he is a spec ulator who is buying for resale an order buyer who wants to keep satisfied customers a feedlot op erator or a packer buyer is ex tremely interested in shrinkage be cause it may mean the difference between profit and loss on the transaction Consumers are inter ested because insofar as shrinkage represents a loss of tissue it is an economic loss that must be borne by society EXTENSIVE STUDY About two years ago the Uni versity of Wyoming began a study of the subject of cattle shrinkage along with research workers In some of the other Western states We gathered Information wherever it was vailable: 1 Producers who had scales ap proved by Wyoming Department of Agriculture 2 Large feedlot operators In several of the men who had kept records of shrinkages of incoming and outgoing shipments over a period of years 3 A large packing company sup plied many records in one state 4 Records from State Experi ment Stations 5 Range Experiment Sta tions at Miles City Mont In addition we talked with deal ers ranchers and some bankers several of whom had a wealth of experience Altogether records are on hands covering over 5000 ship ments representing nearly half a million head of cattle These rec ords have been punched into cards and are being summarized at the present time Some of the analysis has been completed but much of it remains to be done TWO VIEWS There has been much discussion i on a definition of livestock shrink age and its importance in the mar keting process Thinking on the subject ranges between two ex tremes In the first instance are those who feel that shrinkage def initely is a marketing cost They! would compute it by multiplying1 the pounds lost in transit by the selling price at the market At the other extreme is the group that argues that shrinkage cannot be considered a marketing cost In fact it is not a cost at all Cattle lose weight in transit they admit but only because dur ing that period feed and water are not available Upon arrival at des tination the animals take on a fill and gain back most of the weight that was lost Even cost of the feed cannot be charged against mar keting because the feed eaten to gain back the lost weight was only equivalent to feed that was saved because they did not eat during transit The advocates of this thinking recognize that at times a certain producer selling in the country might not receive an equitable price on his livestock because of a cautious over estimate of their potential shrinkage To this particular man it might be admitted that perhaps shrinkage is Water Well DRILLING MODERN EQUIPMENT TWO MACHINES IN OPERATION if I Estimates on Request I Dial 4054 HOMER McCLARTY Over 50 Years in the lathead Area 945 Eighth Ave West Kalispell Mont Ranchers ight Shrinkage Problem Board Revises Poultry Importation Rules reduction in tissue weight Al 12 THE INTER LAKE Tuesday ebruary 21 1956 VETERINARIAN SUPPLIES Supplies Vaccines Medications parisitologist DR NAYLORS PEIZER BEEBE which 136 Main Street Phone 5777 rom PLANTING TIME a STEDJE BROS Inc Can Take Care of All Your Machinery Needs! To Harvest Time of your Harvest 4 Costs 1 1 Just one man and AM hi 4 A with the OMC Self Propelled Center Delivery WINDROWER SEE IT Grind Your AT Own eeds THE for SEED PROIT SHOWI I EEDING OR PROIT See These Machines at The Ninth Annual eed Irrigation and ertilizer Show eb 22 23 24 birds beyond according to participating in the National Poul try Improvement Plan the Nation al Turkey Improvement Plan or to those who are under the super vision of the disease control au thority of their state grain I WAY OMC This is not theory It is a fact proved by Agri cultural Colleges in count less tests and by thou sands of feeders farm ers ranchers and dairy men in their daily opera tions Grinling the feed for live stock helps the animals to put on size and weight much faster and at less cost to you in feed time and labor To help the Montana poultry in dustry obtain as nearly disease free hatching eggs chicks and poults as possible the Montana Livestock Sanitary Board has revised the poultry Importation regulation ac cording to Dr Safford assis tant state veterinarian The pullorum typhoid standards regarding the origin of hatching eggs chicks and poults have been raised from to typhiod clean" All Mon tana hatcheries are under the lat ter classification so now all shlp ped in hatching eggs chicks and poults must be of equal standards CONTROLLED VERTICAL AIR COLUMN SPECIAL HEAVY STEEL SCREENS steers had returned to their orig inal shipping weight to the time they were gaining at the rate of 15 lbs daily was 45 cents per pound and the cost after they at tained that rate of gain was 25 cents then the cost in question or 20 cents This cost would be would be 45 cents minus 25 cents computed by multiplying 20 cents by the number of pounds the steers had put on while establish ing themselves on the l5 pound daily gain basis We have been talking about three separate items: 1 Excretory shrink or elimina tion of belly fill 2 Tissue shrink 54 Jr INTERRUPTION COST There is another cost comes about as a result of the mar keting process It may not prop erly be called a shrinkage cost but is directly related to it I have chosen to call it since it comes about as a result of change in environmental conditions when cattle are moved from range to feedlot or farm pasture This cost applies only to Stocker and feeder cattle but is probably lhe greatest single item of expense involved in their mar keting To illustrate the situation we might consider the case of yearling steers on their native range gain ing a normal 15 pounds per day At the marketing season their nor mal routine is interrupted They are gathered sorted weighed that from the standpoint of total amount tissue shrink is much smaller than excretory shrink and probably it is not very important in cases of livestock moved rela tively short distances When the stock have moved long distances and have been off feed and water for extended periods of course tissue shrink becomes relatively much more important We feel that no cost should be attached to that part of shrinkage that is clearly of an excretory na ture However since all shipments include some tissue shrink and since loss of tissues constitutes an economic loss then shrinkage per se should be considered a cost Its amount would be related to the distance the stock were moved and the time they were off feed and water becoming relatively more important as the fasting pe riod becomes long Medical Hazard WATERBURY Conn (UP) Mrs Sarah Hubbard felt worse aft er leaving a doctor's office but it the fault of the physician While getting up from a waiting room chair to see the doctor Mrs Sarah Hubbard slipped and broke her ankle shipped and finally placed in a feedlot or pasture with strange cattle and in new surroundings Adjustments may be made within a few days but more likely will take a week or two or even longer The cost in question would in clude the labor feed risk and in vestment necessary to reestablish these animals back to the same rel ative position that they were in prior to rhlpment The cost involved in reestablish ment might be considered to be of three separate kinds: 1 The net value of the 15 pounds gain which would be lost leach day the animals were being moved 2 The cost required to restore the animals to their original ship ping weight 3 The additional cost of get ting the steers established in new surroundings and on new feed so that their daily gain will reach the same rate (15 lbs) that it was before shipment This cost will be a net figure and will reflect only exeessive cost of gain during this readjustment period or example if the cost gain from time the Properly cleaned graded and treated seed improves grain yields and makes profits The Link Aero will pay its cost each year in better yield from highly grad ed seed Shipments into Montana will be hatcheries and dealers who are accepted only from those hatcherr les and dealers who have obtained a 1956 seasonal permit from the Montana State Veterinarian Saf ford said The seasonal permit will be issued only to those out of state When you clean grade and treat your own seed there is no mixing of va rieties or pollution of your land with weeds from other farms The Link Aero will operate all day with little or no attention and maintain the same high quality as when originally set inished seed is made in one operaion Capacity varies but on wheat will average 20 40 bushels per hour and larger capacity obtained when clean ing for market quality Treated seed emerges faster and more evenly and matures earlier produc ing stronger plants and higher yields tv 99 A4 As a farmer stockman or poultry raiser you are in a manufacturing business You are in a manufacturing busi ness for exactly the same reason as the man who builds your tractor or feed grinder of other implement You are in this business to make it pay you a profit So when you con sider that your feed bill represents 50 to 75 of the total cost of production it is easy to understand why you lose or make money according to the'economies you practice or neglect in your feeding operations No the question is not whether it pays to grind the feed It is simply a question of which particular Grinder will pay you the most on this investment in your manufacturing P'' 7 CAVE CnoZr'TT K'i 14 overlooked This item although difficult to measure is definitely a cost and applies equally to cat tle being sold for immediate slaughter and to those going into the fecdlot or pasture There is evidence to indicate Young Poultry all Prey to Nematode Young poultry are more con genial hosts to the fowl nematode ascandia galh than two months of age the latest study Dr Kerr reports that the worms grow to maturity in 30 to 35 days in the body of a bird under two months of age but reach maturity much more slowly in older chickens Even after 50 days the eggs of the nematode failed to mature in chickens more than two months old Dr Kerr concludes that nema todes could become a major pest in broiler raising since most broil ers are marketed in the 10 weeks after hatching and the infesta tion peak could occur during the period the grower was putting on the broilers (See Aero Seed Cleaner and Grader ad at left) and made by names yop know and trust CUTTER LEDERLE a a SPECIAL EXCLUSIVE LINK AERO EATURES POSITIVE ORCED EED LIQUID TREATING ATTACHMENT ALL STEEL CONSTRUCTION i i Mt Ju 4 a cost However the buyer may very possibly underestimate the though the portion of total weight shinkage on the next group he rePresented by tissue shrink i in many cases is small neverthe buys in which ease the producer css lg real flnd should not be has been permitted to take ad vantage of the situation To him the shrinkage factor has actually functioned as a gain It is con tended by advocates of this school of thought that in half the deals shrinkage is underestimated in the remainder it is overestimated One loss is gain but the net result is that there is no economic loss to the commu nity and hence no cost EXCRETORY SHRINK Which of these two views is cor rect or are they both wrong? The first view is based on the premise I that every pound which makes up the weight of a steer standing at his home gate is as valuable as every other pound This dearly is a false assumption because the great bulk of the transit weight losses made up of waste produces which have been eliminated from the elimentary tract This fact is generally accepted and shrinkage resulting therefrom is known as The loss of this weight does not change the total value of the steer so each pound of the lighter steer after arrival at the market is more valuable than each of the heavier steer as he stood at home gate with a full belly Thus we must consider that the view held by this group that shrinkage is a market ing cost to be determined by mul tiplying weight lost by market is untenable TISSUE SHRINK However the second view that no cost should be assigned to shrinkage is almost equally unten able Studies have shown that part of the loss which occurs when animals move to market is actual See Us or All Your Drug Needs KALISPELL Rexall DRUG To eeding Time A machine cuts and gath ers grain or hay in fluf fy quick curing wind rows using far less horsepower than old costly tractor drawn in methods You're in the driver's seat for greater profits as you open all fields without knocking pVIah down any hay or make the 4 SAVING with an Windrower 1 1 Oiaw a Si kx i i vVx st tiMa?" KA 5 ak Tiirnu inrip Lira I 'Ws 1 1 7 A grj I A 1 1 Mnmawini IM i st II 1 11 idmi I I JM i 1 11 1 'Tr az I mmr 'i Xis Ji 7 in 4 AA4Z SC 1 1: 7 'HA4 1 BUCKET ELEVATOR SCREEN CLEANING BRUSHES RONT DISCHARGE MATERIAL GRADED OUT STEDJE BROS Inc Phone 5555 Kalispell 1300 Block irst Ave business STEDJE BROS Inc Phone 5555 YOUR ORD DEALER Kalispell I.