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I must give all of our readers and advertisers a huge thank you. This week we start Volume 100, Issue 1. Western Livestock Journal has been published continually, every week, for 100 years. We would have never made it without loyal customers. Also, great staff—the list of fieldmen that have represented WLJ over the years reads like a “who’s who” in the cattle business. I’m proud to have been associated with them.
Linda Meyer, head archivist at the Agricultural and Natural Resources Archive in the Colorado State University Libraries, provided some clarification on why the first issue of WLJ’s 100th volume does not directly correlate with the year of the first published issue, 1922. “The initial publication starts with Volume 1, Number 1, rather than Volume 0, Number 1,” Meyer said. “Unlike a baby, who isn’t considered to be a year old until the first anniversary of his/her birth, a publication needs to start with Volume 1.”
We have a 100-year history of the development of the cattle industry in the West. WLJ was born in the Los Angeles Union Stockyards in 1922. The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. bankrolled my grandpa Nelson Crow to start a market sheet for the new stockyards. Slaughter steers weighing 1,150 pounds were worth $7.50-8.50 per head.
In a Jan. 12, 1939, letter, Arthur G. Leonard, president of the Union Stock Yard and Transit Co., acknowledges Grandpa’s last installment has been received. He said, “On your last letter to me, you say that you are ‘just a reporter.’ Now, get that thought out of your head—you are more than a reporter—you are a moulder of man’s thoughts and to my great delight it’s all for the good.”
We’ve come a long way in 100 years. Today, fed steers are worth almost $2,000 a head. Beef quality was a hit or miss deal for the consumers back then—today, over 85% percent of the beef produced grades Choice or better. Over this next year, we plan on bringing you lots of history. Many issues that concerned cattlemen then remain a concern today.
In the December 1953 issue of Livestock Magazine, a monthly magazine separate from the newspaper, Grandpa Nelson said, “The most controversial issue now faced by cattlemen is the matter of government assistance, whether it be price supports or some other form of aid. There is no mistaking the fact that in the coming session of Congress there will be a strong case presented in favor of government supported cattle prices. Most of the Western beef cattle organizations have come out strongly against beef cattle price supports, and membership polls indicate that the associations have the backing of the cattle people. On the other hand, those who favor price supports are putting up a strong case before Congressional committees.”
Doesn’t this sound a lot like what’s going on today, with cattlemen asking the government for market help? I’ve lost count of how many bills have been proposed that would influence our markets. One thing I’ve learned during my tenure as publisher of WLJ is that history repeats itself.
World War II was a challenging time for everyone. The government did take control of the economy regarding the war effort. Meat prices were fixed and rationed, the national cow herd was around 80 million head and cattlemen were doing well. Nelson had the forethought to suggest to cattlemen in 1943: “We’ll go into the post-war period with far greater livestock inventories than at the close of World War No. 1. No matter how much we differ with those in charge of government policies, it would be well for the livestock people themselves to seriously consider and act upon the sharp cutting down of livestock inventories. Prices now are not high in relation to peak values during the first World War, but they are high in relation to normal times. Moreover, the country needs meat. To safeguard the prosperity of the livestock business after the war, now is the time to take full advantage of present war demands to drastically cull out the older cows, non-breeders and shy-breeders and put the less profitable portions of breeding herds into immediate slaughter channels.”
Nelson was indeed a promoter and was always preaching the same thoughts as we do today. In 1943, he was telling producers, “It is still true that the most expensive bulls on the range usually cost the least money. Genuine herd sires that improve the breed in any breed are scarce. One reason is that our average level of purebreds is constantly of better quality, so it takes better herd sires, and better females, to carry on improvement. No one knows what a good, proven herd sire is worth when he is mated to high quality females. ‘High-priced’ herd sires usually constitute the soundest investments made by breeders.”
I suppose that my grandpa Nelson and my father, Dick Crow, had taught me to be a student of the livestock and meat business and to realize the difference between news and comment. Journalism has changed in the major consumer media channels. Again, I want to thank you all for 100 years of support. — PETE CROW
