Full text of Agricultural News of the Week : Number 522, December 30, 1959

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

AGRICULTURAL NEWS OF THE WEEK
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS
umber 522

Wednesday, December 30, 1959

WI NT E R

WH E A T

The national winter wheat ~~2ge seeded for harvest in 1960 is estimated
at 44.4 million ~> or fractionally below the seedings for the 1959 crop and 11%
les s than the 10-year (1949-58) average, according to the Agricultural Marketing
Se rvice. Based on December 1 conditions and other factors, the 1960 winter wheat
crop is indicated at 926 million bu. A crop of this size would be up slightly from
the 1959 outturn but 21% below the record production in 1958.
The table below shows the acreage seeded for and indicated production of
19 60-crop winter wheat for the states of the Eleventh Federal Reserve District and
comparisons with the crops of 1959 and 1949-58.
WINTER WHEAT
Five Southwestern States

~In

Crop
of
1960

ACREAGE SEEDED
thousands of acres)
Crop
Crops
of
of
1949-58
12.22.

PRODUCTION
(In thousands of bushels)

Crop
of
1960.11

Crop
of
1959

Crops
of
1949-58

Arizona ••••••••
Louisiana ••••••
ew Mexico •••••
Ok lahoma •••••••
Te xas ••••••••••

40
90
280
5,034
4,373

109
84
280
5,034
4,287

44
])74
490
5,720
4, 962

1,360
1,170
3,360
80,544
61,222

3,672
1,200
3,791
89,174
59,850

1,229
])772
1,678
66,759
36,751

Five stat es ••

9,817

9,794

11, 290

147,656

157,687

107,189

ll Indicated December 1, 1959.
11 Short-time average.
SOURCE:

u. s.

Department of Agriculture.

CC C 0 F F E R S
CE RT I F I CAT E S
0 F
I NT E R E S T
On December 21 the U. S. Department of Agriculture announced that the
Commodity Credit Corporation is offering to commercial banks, savings banks, and
~ companies the opportunity to participate in financing a pool of price-support
lo ans on agricult~ral commodities, other than cotton, by making funds available to
the CCC at the Federal Reserve banks and their branches. (These institutions are
fisca l agents for the CCC.)
Special series certificates of interest, currently bearing interest at the
r ate of 4% per annum, will be issued to evidence participation in the loan pool.
Price-support loans in the pool for which certificates may be issued presently exceed
.i!. billion. The certificates will mature on August 1, 1960, but may be tendered to
the Federal Reserve banks or branches for purchase by the CCC at any time prior to
ma turity. Certificates tendered prior to maturity will be paid on the fifteenth day
af t er tender.

0 F
D 0 W N
TEXAS
CR 0 P S
VALUE
The combined value of the principal Texas crops amounted to $1.4 billion
during 1959, reflecting a 4% decrease from a year ago, reports the AMS. Lower
prices for cotton and grain sorghums more than offset the larger production of
these crops. Cotton lint and seed lead in value, contributing almost one-half of
the total; sorghums rank next, with about one-fourth.

P I G

C R 0 P

The total 1959 E.!li crop in the United States is placed at 101.6 million
head, or 8% above the 121§. figure and the largest crop~ the rec~21.8
million produced l:!! 1943, points out the AMS. Reports on breeding intentions indicate that about 7,3 million sows are expected to farrow in the spring of 1960, which
is 12% less than the number farrowed in the spring of 1959. If intentions for sprin
farrowings materialize and the number of pigs saved per litter is approximately equa
to the 1948-57 average, the 1960 spring pig crop will be about 52.0 million. A crop
of this size would be 11% below the 1959 spring crop.
In the District states (Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and
Texas), the 1959 total pig crop is estimated at 3.6 million, representing a 15%
increase over a year earlier. Approximately 243,000 sows are expected to farrow
in the spring of 1960, or 16% fewer than in the spring of 1959.
P 0 UL T R Y
The principal ~ commercial broiler markets were ~ steady on Monday
December 28, reports the State Department of Agriculture. Quotations per lb, were:
South~' 15¢ to 16¢, mostly 15¢; and~~' 15¢, although 43% of the sales
were at undetermined prices.

Area
BROILER CHICK
PLACEMENTS

Week ended
December 19, 1959

Percentage change from
Previous
Comparable
week
week~ 195

Texas ••••••
Louisiana ••

1,748,000
319,000

1
10

-18
-29

22 states..

28,911,000

1

-5

C 0 N S E R V A T I 0 N R E S E R V E p ROG RAM
Approximately 28 million ~ of Q. ~· cropland will be ~ ~ of production in 1960 under Conservation Reserve contracts which were in effect or were
applied for--ru-1959, according to the USDA. Land in the Conservation Reserve is
held out of production to help ease the farm surplus situation and is kept in conservation uses to meet future needs, About 22.4 million acres were out of production under this program during the 1959 crop season, and more than 5 million new
acres are expected to go into the Reserve in 1960 as a result of the 1959 fall
s ignup.
Data on land placed in the Conservation Reserve in the states of the
Eleventh Federal Reserve District during 1956-59 (and percentage of total cropland
under contract) are as follows: Arizona, 7,353 acres (0.5%); Louisiana, 176,001
acres (3.2%); New Mexico, 872,503 acres (35.5%); Oklahoma, 1,187,611 acres (8.2%);
and Texas, 3,238,504 acres (8.8%).
J, z. Rowe
Agricultural Economist