—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
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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
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