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AGRICULTURAL NEWS OF THE WEEK FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS Number 201 Wednesday, November 4# 195.3 COTTON There were 458,900 bales o? cotton placed under CCC loan in the week ended October 23 - the largest volume in any week on record. Total loan entries through this date this season were 11 839 1 600 bales, also a record high for the period. Cottonseed prices in wagonload lots at the gins in Texas last week averaged $53.50 per ton, according to PMA. In Oklahoma the average gin-yard price was $51.JO. Spot cotton prices continue to fluctuate slight~ below loan levels. Merchants have been buying ma.inly for current needs. GRAINS The Secretary of Agriculture has announced that there will be no marketing quotas for the 1954 frop of ~· However, acreage allotmentsprobabli will be proclaimed later or the commercial corn-producing area. Acreage allotments were last used in 1950. Stocks of wheat in all positions in Texas on October 1 were at a record high level, according to a report released last week by the BAE office in Austin. The report shows 106 million bushels on hand on that date, or 20 million bushels more than a year earlier. These stocks were about five times the 1953 Tex.as wheat crop, which indicates that most of this wheat was brought into Texas for storage. Wheat stored on Texas farms on October 1 was estimated at about 3 1/4 million bushels. The trends in prices of grains on the Fort Worth Grain and Cotton Exchange during October were mixed. On Mondq, November 2, No. 1 hard wheat brought a top price of $2.64 per bushel, carload basis, or about 10 cents more than a month earlier. No. 2 white oats brought a top price of $1.01 per bushel, up 5 cents fran a month ago. On the other hand, No. 2 corn sold at $1.74 1/4, off about 15 cents, while No. 2 white corn brought 1.9 W, top price, down about JO cents for the month. No. 2 yellow milo sold at $2.81 per cwt., o:tr 14 cents fran a month earlier. ----- y$11$ LIVESTOCK Recent rains reported over much of the Southwest caused a decline in cattle marketing ,!:!:. ~ Worth last week. Cattle and calf prices .!:£!!, partly as a result of reduced marketings and also because of a pickup in stocker demand. At week's end, cattle and calves were $1 to $2 higher than a week earlier. Prices of slaughter lambs and old sheep also advanced, while hog prices suffered further seasonal losses. On Mondq, November 2, Choice fed steers and ~arlings brought $20 to $23 in Fort Worth; Good sold most]3 fran$17 to $19;all Cormr:.ercial, $13 to $15. Medium and Good stocker and feeder steers and yearlin6s sold at $11 to $15, a few Good and Choice year~i\ip to $16. --Good and Chace slaughter calves brought $13 to $16, Utility and Commercial $9 to $12. Choice stocker steer calves drew $17 to $18. Choice 190-250-pound hogs brought $20.75 to $21 in Fort Worth Mond.l\f. Good and Choice slaughter lambs sold fran $18 to $19. Medium and Good :reeder lambs moved from $14 to $1~.25. FARM INCOME Cash receipts from farm marketings in Texas in the first 8 months ot 1953 totaled $957 million, or about 18 percent less than the $1,169 million received in the same months of 1952, according to the USDA. Receipts from the sale of livestock and livestock.Jiroducts totaled $581 million, down $100 million fran last year. Receipts fran e sale of crops totaled $.376 million, down $112 million. Cash receipts fran farm marketings in the other southwestern states in the first 8 months of 1953 and changes from a year earlier: Arizona $241 million, up $8 million; Louisiana $142 million, down $25 million; New Meiico $95 million, up $1/2 million; and Oklahoma $360 million, down $57 million. The USDA s~s that present prospects are for sane further decline in cash receipts from farm marketings in 1954. With acreage restrictions like]3' on some of the principal crops, the total volume of marketings probab:Qr' will be down a little from 1953, and no offsetting increase is expected in the average of prices received by farmers. Realized gross ram income mq be moderate:cy lower next year; however, sane further decliDe in total production expenses is also expected in 1954• Famers' realized net inccme next year probably will remain somewhere near its present level but mBi' be down a little. MISCELLANEOUS The PMA reports that Good French Combing 12-months wool was purchased in Texas last week at 72 and 72 1/2 cents per pound, in the grea8e, to the warehouse. Warehouse sales of mohair were made in Texas at 77 to 78 1/2 cents per pound for adult and $1.02 to $1.03 1/2 for kid mohair. The USDA says that the average of' prices received by domestic producers for the 1954 wool clip probably will not be great'.cy' different from prices received this year. Broiler markets in Texas last week closed at 27 to 28 cents per pound, most:cy- 28. Reports on turk~ces at Texas flU'lll8 last week show well-finished, broad-breasted young tans se at 28 to 30 cents per pound, young hens 35 to 36 cents. The index of prices received by U.S. farmers on October 15 was down 2 percent from a montli earlier. The index was 250 (1910-14 • 100), which canpares with 256 in September and 282 in October a year ago. Further declines in the prices of commodities used for fa.nu production lowered the Parity Index to 276, which is 3 percent less than a year ago. With farm product prices declining faster than prices paid by tanners for commodities and services, the Parity Ratio declined to 91 at mid-October, which is the lowest ratio recorded since Mq 1941. Total assets of American agriculture, including all physical assets and the financial assets owiiid by farm operators, are expected to be valued at $156 billion on January 1 1 1954, about 5 percent less than a year earlier but 46 percent more than the value of these assets at the beginning of' 1946, the first postwar year, according to the USDA. The total value of peysical fann assets is expected to decline du.ring 1953. Farm real estate, which accounts for more than hal..f of all assets in the balance sheet, is expected to decline nearly 7 percent. W. M. Pritchett Agricu1tura1 Econanist
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