Down on the Range

In Eastern Seaboard supermarkets last week, bargain-hungry housewives bought choice sirloin steak at 69-c- a Ib. and heavily marbled porterhouse at 79-c---and impatiently demanded more when supplies temporarily ran short. Out on the broad Midwest ranges, cattlemen were not so happy. Beef prices have been sliding for months, are expected to stay low most of this year. On ten major Midwestern markets from Denver to Chicago, grass-fed steers that brought 28 1/2-c- per Ib. in May sold for only 23-c- in December. In Kansas City, choice cattle slipped from 31-c- per Ib. in midsummer to 27 3/4-c- last week. Hogs and lambs have also dropped more than seasonally.

The dip is due to the fact that feedgrain prices are down. With feed cheap, ranchers have bred huge herds over the past two years. As the cattle went to market, prices dropped. But cattlemen are fat enough to ride out the storm, and nobody expects the break to be as rough as the one that shook the industry four years ago (TIME, May 7, 1956). Said President James L. Runyan of the Kansas City Stock Yards Co.: "Cattlemen don't like the situation, but they are able to stand it. It's not like periods in the past, when cattleman after cattleman went broke."

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