Page Ten 





Produce 



' i BY FRANK GOUGLER | 



'T'HE McLean County Produce Associ- 

 ;. "■■ ation held its first annual meeting 

 at Bloomington on December 27. 

 Seventy-five thousand pounds of butter- 

 fat were handled during the year. Re- 

 funds were made to Farm Bureau mem- 

 b^s out of the surplus earnings. This 

 association is the only one in the state 

 to confine its membership to Farm 

 Bureau memJbers. 



It is doubtful if any other produce 

 marketing association has furnished its 

 creamery any finer cream than has this 

 unit. The Freeport Dairy and Produce 

 Company, which purchases the output 

 of the association, recently made the 

 following report on quality of cream 

 received : . 



„ , 1 10 Go/. 



Month Cana Rec'd 



June 340 



July .267 



August 200 



September 204 



During September this creamery re- 

 ceived a total of 1,063 ten gallon cans 

 from five stations which contained only 

 one can of second grade cream. 



Cant Second 

 Grade Cream 



None 

 None 



Does real sour cream test higher 

 than cream not so sour? "No," says 

 Dr. H. A. Ruehe, Chief of the Dairy 

 Division at the University of Illinois 

 who addressed several meetings on 

 quality improvement. Ruehe says that 

 100 pounds of cream contains a given 

 amount of fat whether sweet, slightly 

 sour or extremely sour. Butterfat will 

 not evaporate, so how can it get away? 

 "What might happen," he says, "is that 

 moisture from cream allowed to stand 

 will evaporate and a subsequent test 

 might show a higher percentage of fat. 

 But nothing would be gained here by 

 the producer for the higher test would 

 be balanced by the loss in weight." 



How much butter will 100 pounds 

 of butterfat make is a question asked 

 at miany of our produce marketing 

 meetings. This is a good question and 

 is one that should be understood by 

 every producer who sells butterfat. In 

 a report from C. Bechtelheimer, Sec- 

 retary, Iowa Co-operative Creameries, 

 for 1928 he shows tht average overrun 

 for 113 creameries to be 23.23 per cent. 

 In other words 100 pounds of butterfat 

 will make 123 pounds of butter. This 

 overrun is largely salt and water which 

 costs practically nothing. It explains 

 the reason why creameries can pay 

 practically the butter price for butter- 

 fat. The overrun takes care of manu- 

 facturing costs and profits. 



Influence of Volume of Butterfat upon the 

 Price and Cost 



Aver. Price Aver. Cost 



Volume of Paid Per Pound of Mfg. Per 



Butterfat Butterfat Pound Butter 



Less than 100,000 lbs. 48.43 5.69 < 



Another question that is often raised 

 at these meetings is : What does it cost 

 to manufacture a pound of butter? 

 Bechtelheimer also answers this ques- 

 tion in the same report as follows: 



A vexing problem of our cream sta- 

 tions is the wide range of butterfat 

 prices quoted during the late fall and 

 winter months by direct shippers. Re- 

 cent reports from producers show that 

 Chicago direct shippers offered as high 

 as 58 cents while the 90 score butter 

 market held steadily at 48 cents per 

 pound. Producers should act cautiously 

 before accepting such bids. All is not 

 gold that glitters. ' A. H. Liestman of 

 Champaign County had been a direct 

 shipper. He decided to sell through 

 the cream pool at Fisher. After deliv- 

 ering two cans, he remarked, "I don't 

 get as much per pound butterfat 

 through the pool as the direct shipper 

 price, but I get more for my can of 

 cream." This experience has been re- 

 ported by many. It is self explanatory. 

 Beware of the exceptionally high offers. 



December is the month of greatest 

 variation in egg prices at country 

 points. From the following widely dis- 

 tributed points in Illinois the prices 

 below are buying prices quoted Decem- 

 ber 24: Altamont (Effingham County) 

 35 cents; Clinton (DeWitt County) 44 



At long as you leave your product* 

 in some other person's hand to mar- 

 ket, you can expect nothing other than 

 for them to handle it in a way that 

 will net them the most profit. Farm- 

 ers should quit cussing big business 

 and get into it for themselves. — Land 

 O' Lakes News. 



•♦■« 





cents; Walsh (Randolph County) 36 

 cents; Patoka (Marion County) 40 

 cents; Champaign (Champaign Coun- 

 ty) 46 cents. Such wide ranges are 

 due to two factors, fir s t , fresh eggs at 

 country points "are exceedingly scarce 

 at this time of the year; second, it is 

 the time of year that buyers at terminal 

 markets are reducing prices low enough 

 to purchase the spring crop at satis- 

 factory figures. 



These wide' variations in prices create 

 much dissatisfaction among producers 

 and many are led to believe that mar- 

 kets are being manipulated. This is not 

 the case. The buyer at this time is pay- 

 ing according to his market outlet. If 

 the purchaser has a favorable local 

 demand, he is in better position to pay 

 higher prices than the dealer who must 

 depend on shipping to terminal markets. 

 On the date that these varied prices 

 were being paid at country points the 

 Chicago market ranged from as low 

 as 20 cents for low grade eggs to 34 

 cents for the best eggs. The New York 

 market ranged from 25 cents to 52 

 cents. 



(Continued on page 11) - 



^^^m 



pestock 

 "ailsetiiig 



BY RAY E. MUXER 



THE Chicago Producers' will hold its 

 annual meeting at the Stock Yards 

 Inn, Chicago, on Tuesday, January 22. 

 Every man interested in livestock pro- 

 duction is invited to attend. The year 

 1928 was the best year of the Associa- 

 tion's history. The total number of 

 cars handled by rail was 15,895 and 

 1,118 Jby truck, making a grand total 

 of 17,013 cars. 



The Producers Livestock Commission 

 Association, National Stock Yards, Illi- 

 nois, will hold its annual meeting at the 

 National Hotel, East St. Louis, Tues- 

 day, January 22. During the past year 

 this co-operative handled approximately 

 25% of the total receipts on that mar- 

 ket. The St. Louis h"euse was the first 

 of the 13 Producer agencies established 

 and since its inauguration has made 

 an enviable reputation in volume of 

 business and quality of service. Every 

 livestock grower is invited. i -' 



The Illinois Farm Bureau Serum As- 

 sociation will meet in Danville Tues- 

 day, January 29. The meeting will 

 begin at 10 a. m. in the ballroom of the 

 Wolford Hotel. D. O. Skidmore, chief 

 of the division of virus and serum con- 

 trol, U. S. D. A., has been invited to 

 address the gathering. Dr. Robert 

 Graham of the University of Illinois 

 and Dr. James McDonald, in charge of 

 Illinois hog cholera control work, also 

 are expected to speak. The Association 

 handled approximately 35,000,000 cc of 

 hog cholera serum and virus during 

 1928. 



Chris L. Christensen of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture will 

 be the headliner for the marketing con- 

 ference on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 

 30, Danville. Following Mr. Christen- 

 sen's address the livestock marketing 

 section will devote itself to a considera- 

 tion of the livestock marketing pro- 

 gram of the I. A. A. Suggestions are 

 invited from delegates or others in at- 

 tendance. Improved service from local 

 livestock shipping associations, the re- 

 lation which should exist between co- 

 operative shipping associations and co- 

 operative selling agencies, and the 

 tendency toward the establishment of 

 small local yards throughout the corn 

 belt will be major topics for discussion. 



The outlook for American pork prod- 

 ucts fn Germany is still unfavorable 

 and existing conditions do not offer 

 much hope for any decided change that 

 will work for an early increase in 

 sales, says the Dept. of Commerce. 

 Th^ movement of home-grown hogs to 

 market has increased considerably dur- 

 ing the past month and the price of live 

 pork has held fairly steady. 



It is estimated that over 50 per cent 

 of the hogs in Germany are fed on 

 imported feeds. 



1 



Lif 

 the a| 

 his plT 

 of th| 

 in tir 

 cuperl 

 happ^ 

 ture. 

 creasi 

 ship, 

 mg 

 living 

 opera| 

 ages 

 terest 

 sisteni 



Ar 

 insurii 

 ings 



tee ai[ 

 an est 

 anteei 



