462 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



ing according to ownership, makes the salesman anxious to get the stock 

 sold so that the work can be completed. Also the necessity of selling in 

 small lots results in less competition and more resort to sale to yard 

 traders; and the desire to get price on each owner's animals prevents 

 or diminishes the possibility of price adjustment by which some animals 

 help to sell others, which is possible if they are all the property of one 

 owner. And to some extent the fact that the shipment is a "Co-op" and 

 that "Co-ops" have made their work more difficult, has resulted in an 

 attitude of less zeal in handling them by vard employees. 



And altho one of the desired results of cooperative shipment is that 

 each owner's stock may realize its actual market value, in practice it 

 comes short of this. Where a number of animals of different grades are 

 sold at a straight price and they have several owners, there is bound to 

 be a difference of value that cannot be adjusted in adjusting the price. 

 Where car-lots of hogs or calves are sold at a straight price and the 

 adjustment of the total among the different classes is done in the office, 

 this is apt to be rather a hit-or-miss adjustment, than based on a close 

 classification. And it must be admitted that the negligence or ignorance 

 of the local manager contributes not a little to this in the failure to 

 properly mark and identify the separate animals. 



Finally, in spite of the additional equipment in scales and pens made 

 by the yards company, and the increasing skill of employees in handling 

 and identifying these shipments, it still remains that the present method 

 of handling them tends to congest the market in seasons of large receipts, 

 to increase considerably the time necessary for all stock to be weighed 

 up and thus to increase the shrink, and involves a larger total cost for 

 labor in the operation of the market which the producers must pay. 



How this situation is to be met, it is not easy to say. But the best 

 judgment seems to be that it will require a changing of methods both in 

 the country and at the yards. The changes in the country will probably 

 have to be along the line of local confederation of individual associations 

 with better supervision and more efficient management. The changes in 

 the yards will necessitate a radical change from the present methods of 

 handling, sorting and selling, and it is probable that such necessary 

 changes cannot be brought about except by the establishment of selling 

 agencies that will have the authority and inclination to adopt new 

 methods. 



But divergent as are the problems for each class of livestock, there is 

 only one promising — yes, possible — method by means of which they can 

 be solved. This is thru the cooperative organization of the different classes 

 of producers, to the extent that they have a separate and distinct com- 

 modity along the lines of that commodity. It is fairly certain that the 

 present agrarian movement in this country will succeed or fail according 

 to whether it succeeds or fails in putting agriculture — especially on its 

 marketing side — on a cooperative basis. Organizatton may be extended 

 until it includes practically all the farmers of the great agricultural 

 states, officers and committees may be chosen who may claim to speak 

 for millions of American farmers, they may bring pressure on congres- 

 sional committees and force concessions for public, quasi-public, and pri- 



