—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 1. 1976 20 The missing $1.60 “Farm-retail price spreads" may sound like gobbledygook to you, but they do exist and your grocery bill reflects them. ' For example, if you bought a T bone steak at $2.00 a pound, a large part of what you paid falls between the farmer and your shopping bag. The farmer received only about 40 cents a pound for that steer from whence your T-bone came. Why the gap? That's where farm retail price spreads come into the pic ture. There are a lot of costs involved in transforming the animal on the hoof into steaks and other cuts jn your supermarket. Your T-bone starts out as part of a live animal —usually about a 1,000- pound steer. When the farmer sells the steer, let's say he gets 40 cents a pound or $4OO. Then the animal goes to the packer and isdressedouttoa62o-poupd car cass. Not including any value added by the packer's services, the carcass is now worth 64.5 cents a pound. The carcass must be cut and packaged for retailing, however. By the time some bone and fat are removed and some 'moisture and meat are lost during the process, only about 440 pounds of salable meat are left. This meat now has a value of about 91 cents a pound. Processing, transportation, and marketing costs also have to be figured. Add to that '9l cents per pound about 8 cents for slaughter ing; 4 cents for transportation from slaughter house to retail store; another 21 cents for labor to cut the carcass into retail cuts and package it for sale; about 5 cents for packaging material; and about 2 cents for adver tising. Add on a little profit for each of the firms along the line and you come up with a figure of about $1.40 a pound for the 440 pounds of usable meat. But how did that T-bone get up to $2.00 a pound? Control many grasses and broadleaves in soybeans. A Lasso plus Lorox tank mix will control foxtails, crabgrass, fall panicum, pigweed, ragweed, smartweed and many more. Proven on thousands of acres by thousands of farmers. Lasso' Hedxade Lasso g a regaered trademark of Monsanto Company Lonnisatraoemancof Ei OM>ontde Memoirs and Company Always read aid fOKMr taoa drecoons Well, that steer we started with produced a mere 16 pounds of T bone steak in the first place. The other 424 pounds of meat were most ly cuts that sell at lower prices than T bone. Chuck steaks and roasts, ground beef, shanks, short ribs, and stew meat are good examples.'. If you average out all the ham burger at, let's say 84 cents a pound, the T-bone at $2.00 a pound, and all other cuts at various prices, you come out with $1.40 per pound. That's why the price the farmer receives per pound of live animal is so far from the price the consumer pays for meat in thesupermarket. But then again, the conveniently packaged, ready-to-cook cuts of meat you buy in the supermarket are a far cry from that 1,000-pound live animal. 440 lb. RETAIL CUTS 16 ib. T-BONE Greater output needed “What’s needed is not a larger public sector in thi» country, but more private capi-* tal investment. More produc tive capacity In our nation’s businesses, factories and tonus' to piatcb our growing society. More capital investment in new machinery and new equipment. More,private investment, rather than more government doles. We’ve been investing in larger government, rather', than in ’ new manufacturing plants and equipment in recent years. We’ve produced and consumed too much for today, and not enough for tomorrow. Big gov ernment often not only saps the economic strength of our country, it does something even worse. It saps our strength as Individuals. It reduces incen tive and blunts our desire to care for ourselves.... The cost of big government can be high er than we sometimes think.” —Earl L. Butz Secretary of-Agriculture Natural Wonders A witchweed plant, can produce 500.000 seeds* in a single growing season. The average American dairy cow produced 4,784 quarts of milk in 1974, compared with 1,500 quarts pier cow 150 years ago. The world’s spiders—averaging at least 50,000 per acre in green areas—annually destroy a hundred times their number in insects. Bangor, PA Denver, PA Holtwood, PA Landisvflte, PA Milton, PA Muncy, PA Port Murray, NJ Readme, PA Richland, PA 'Stewartstown, PA' Thomasnfe, PA West Grove, PA DBS SHI ® The simple “A,B,C’s” of the farm, are Alertness, Bi preventing falls, the leading - ance and Care, cause of disabling injuries on FOR YOUR COPY OF G.T.S. CALL: Eric Hdnsohn 215588-4704 Danin Yoder 215-267-3423 Paul Herr ' 717-284-4592 lanes Charles 717838-8694 Marin Knpman 1-800-322-8550 Ronald Vamfine 1-800-322-8550 Robert Kaytiart 201-689-2605 Robert Grader 215-374-7798 Paul Martin 717-866-4228 Marrin Joines 717-993-2281 Ira Soya 717-225-3758 Maurice Stump 215469-9187 Ag-safety Tip - lal DBS
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers