THE MORXIXG OREGOXIAX, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1921
No. 6 in The Oregonian "Know Portland" Series
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THE ROMANCE of the West is forever intertwined with cattle. The
cowboy, the range, the grazing herd, the round-up and the campfire
have a place in American atmosphere from which they can never be
dislodged.
To the Easterner, Oregon has always typified all that the word "West"
has meant and he has thought of the Oregon of romance rather than the
"Oregon of commerce and industry.
Even today the Pendleton round-up keeps alive for him the glamour, the
mystery and the color of the old cow-country days, which elsewhere are fast
disappearing before the irrigation ditch and the tractor:
Livestock cattle and sheep on a million hills and over vast areas of
grassy plains has been a basic industry in Oregon ever since the red In
dian was dislodged and his warwhoop ceased.
But it is a far cry from the livestock industry' of the romantic yesterday
to the less spectacular stability of livestock growing today.
It is a tremendous change from the sombreroed cowboy to the agricul-.
turist who grows livestock as part of a diversified farming programme.
It is a mighty mutation from the blanketed sheep herder with his band
of thousands, to the blooded stock on Willamette valley farms.
In most of our field these changes have definitely taken place and with
them has come a development and a stabilizing which has made the rearing
and marketing of livestock in the Portland field an industry which brings
Northwestern farmers twenty millions in cash annually for fat stock and
fifty millions for dairy products mostly marketed through Portland.
Pointers on Northwestern
Livestock
The value of all livestock on farms in Oregon,
Washington and Idaho is $270,468,757.
The greater portion of all fat stock produced, in
Oregon, Washington and Idaho and in parts of Mon
tana and Wyoming is marketed at Portland.
Fat stock marketed annually at Portland approxi
mates twenty million dollars in value.
The number of cars required to haul stock to the
Portland market each year is 7500.
Portland has the only important livestock market
on the Pacific coast.
Northwestern farms supply the needs of the Port
land territory for all meat products except pork. A
large number of hogs from Missouri river points
are slaughtered in Portland.
Portland is the center of the pure-bred livestock
industry west of the Rocky mountains.
Oregon has 24,712 pure-bred cattle.
The Pacific International Livestock Exposition,
held annually at Portland, is the largest enterprise
of the kind in the entire United States.
It was sjtarted in 1910" with a floor space, of 5000
feet. '
In 1921 its total floor space is 500,000 feet.
In 1910 its total prize money was $750. In 1921
it is $75,000.
The building in which it is held has ten acres of
floor space.
Its attendance in 1921 will probably be 200,000
people.
LIVESTOCK on farms and ranges in the
Portland territory (Oregon and those parts
of Washington and Idaho which, because
of location, market their products through Port
land) is worth 175 million dollars. Of this amount
75 millions represents cattle; 30 millions repre
sents sheep, and the remainder is horses and
miscellaneous livestock.
The same factors which have made Portland
the distribution and transportation center of the
Northwest have made it also the market place for
Northwestern livestock. At Portland are the
only stockyards of importance on the Pacific
Coast. Here also is the only important packing
industry on the Pacific Coast.
Fat stock produced in the Northwest is
handled through the Portland yards; much of it
is slaughtered and packed in Portland and re
distributed as fresh or cured meat and by-products
to cities, towns and rural districts in this
territory or shipped by water to foreign and
domestic ports.
Judging from the records of the first nine
months of 1921, the Portland stockyards will
handle during the year the following volumes of
meat animals:
Cattle ..
Calves .
Hogs ...
Sheep . .
..125,000 head
.. 10,000 head
...160,000 head
. .350,000 head
This livestock comes chiefly from Oregon,
Washington, Idaho and Montana. It is requiring
Other Subjects to Be Covered in The
Oregonian "Know Port
land" Series:
'Financial resources of Portland territory.
The dairy industry.
The fruit industry.
Pulp and paper.
Portland and its manufacturing.
Portland, the jobbing center.
Portland, the railroad center.
Our fisheries and what they mean.
Our inland waterways.
Iron and other metals.
Tourists as a trade resource and our climate and
scenery.
7500 cars to transport it, and the cash sum which
farmers are receiving for this fat stock will
approximate 20 million dollars.
Cured meats are being shipped by water from
Portland to London and other European markets.
When refrigeration shipping facilities are pro
vided, frozen meats will go from here to Europe
in large quantities.
--There is still another phase of livestock farm
ing in the Portland field. Dairy farmers produce
in this territory 50 million dollars' worth of prod
ucts annually 30 millions in Oregon' alone but
this phase of livestock farming will be treated in
a special page.
Livestock Facts About Oregon
HERE are some livestock facts applying to
Oregon only which are contributed by the
Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis:
"The state has twice as many horses, beef
cattle and dairy cattle and 714 times as many
sheep in proportion to human population as the
average state.
"Three-fourths of its area is devoted to graz
ing. Most of the range lands are not suited to
cropping but their range-carrying power is being
constantly increased by fencing and sunken wells
for watering.
"Livestock is the major industry in three
fourths of the State.
"The development of irrigation is rapidly
increasing the livestock production of the state by
increasing the quantities of winter and finishing
feeds. It is also tending rapidly to improve live
stock quality through the development of pure
bred stock.
"The well-balanced grouping of field crops and
summer and winter ranges makes livestock farm
ing less of a hazard in Oregon than in other
Western states.
"Uniform conditions of climate and feed
supply with absence of drouths, extreme cold and
feed shortage give Oregon marked advantages
over other livestock producing sections,
"The livestock industry finds at Portland the
largest service in stockyards, market and trans
portation facilities of any place west of the
Rocky Mountains. The biggest market in the far
West is thus at the very doors of the entire
industry." -
The Pure-Bred Capital of
the West
WHILE Portland is the market center and
distribution point for the fat stock and
dairy products of the Northwest, she is
also the capital and focal point for the pure-bred
livestock industry of all the territory west of the
Rockies.
The Pacific International Livestock Exposition
held annually at Portland is the largest and most
successful event of its kind in the world. It is the
only livestock event of more than state-wide im
portance which includes beef cattle, dairy cattle,
horses, sheep, swine, goats, rabbits and poultry.
It is housed in the largest livestock exposition
building in America.
It attracts entries from Massachusetts to the
Pacific and from Canada to Mexico.
It is one of the nation's greatest stimulants to .
the development of pure-bred stock and the im
provement of farm herds.
It is located at Portland because Portland is
the natural livestock market place of the West and
because pure-bred livestock interests must always
center where fat stock and dairy products are
most largely sold.
LIVESTOCK production will continue to be a
major industry in all the Pacific trade field,
and its volume will increase in direct pro
portion to the development of irrigation, the im
provement of logged-off lands, the increase of
. farm population and the increase of city popula
tion which must be fed from the farms.
The capacity of the Portland field for livestock
production is many times its present volume and
in both present volume and future promise the
Northwest has an asset of tremendous value.