/•'*T*? 



'^I» i i i»wr*-V - ••■''■• 



ClHTRALIZED GRAIM 

 MARKETIMG 



By Harrison Fahrnkopf 



ILLINOIS is vitally interested in grain marketing. Our producers ship out 

 of the counties where grown more corli and more oats than any other state. 

 Approximately 215,000,000 bu. of corn, pats, and wheat are shipped annually 

 out of Illinois counties. This is 15 per cent of the commercial supply of these 

 crops sold annually in the United States. Illinois furnishes one-fourth of all the 

 corn that enters the channels of trade in the United States. It lies closest to Chica- 

 go, one of the greatest primary grain markets in the world. 



Corn is the largest of all agricultural crops in the United States in acreage, 

 quantity and value, and in quantity it is tihe largest grain crop in the world. In 

 terms of dollars from a world's standpoint it is seoond only to the wheat crop. 

 Although the United States produces approximately 3,000,000,000 

 bu. of com annually, only two per cent is exported, six-tenths of 

 onq per cent is required for seed, and bet^A<een 1 5 and 20 per cent 

 is milled and manufactured. The balance is fed to livestock. 

 Approximately 500,000,000 bu. of corn moVe annually in the trade 

 channels of the United States. 1 



j Three States Sell Half Com 



OUT of the 300,000,000 bu. of corn produced annually in 

 Illinois, 120,000,000 bu. go into the market channels. Iowa 

 ships 102,000,000 bu. to market and Nebraska 61,000,000 bu. 

 These three states together produce more than 50 per cent of all 

 the corn shipped into the market channels of the United States. 

 In Illinois we have 500 farmers' elevators many of which have 

 been in operation for more than a quarter of a century. Of the 

 500 farmer-owned elevators only about loc? are fully co-operative. 

 There are approximately 2,000 country elevators in Illinois. 



Thos, only about 25 per cent are farmer-owned, and approximately five per 

 cent are wholly cooperative. It should be understood, however, that the 

 farmers' elevators are usually larger and handle a little more than half of all 

 grain marketed in Illinois. Farmers' elevators ha^e been instrumental in de- 

 veloping leaders. The Farm Bureau has developed leaders. These men come 

 from the same ranks — the ranks of the producer. ^Fe have a common problem. 

 All must work together to solve that problem. 



I The Time To Advance ^ 



T^HE time is at hand for the farmer in Illinois to give the very best he 

 A. has in the way of leadership and support toward perfecting local and 

 terminal grain marketing machinery that will operate effectively in his behalf. 

 There appears to be no question but that marketing of grain will go for- 

 ward in the name of cooperation. The big job for the organized farmer is 

 to see that the movement renders him service in fact as well as in name. 



In circle above: Harrison Fahrnkopf, grain 

 marketing director for the I. A. A. Below: 

 Federal Farm Board launches movement to 

 help grain growers. The Farmers' National 

 Grain Corporation was the result. 



Must 



Make 



System 



Effective 



THE Agri- 

 cultural 

 Marketing Act 

 has given ui 

 the Farm Board 

 and this board 

 has given us tht 

 Farmers' National 

 Grain Corpora- 

 tion. Ample cred- 

 it for marketing 

 on a large icaU 

 is available. In 

 Illinois we must 

 apply ourselva 

 assiduously to the 

 task of seeing 

 that both facili- 

 ties and credit 

 serve the pro- - 

 ducer to the' 

 maximum. It ii 

 entirely possible 

 for opposing in- 

 terests such M 

 the organized 

 grain trade to 

 dominate the sit- 

 uation to such an 

 extent that the 

 entire movement 

 may be rendered 

 ineffective. All 

 farm interesu 



Representatives of farmers' elevators and I. A. A. -Farm Bureau meet to 



discuss a centralized grain marketing organisation for Illinois. S. R. 



. \4cKelvie of the Federal Farm Board is the man in the light suit. 



must pull together. We should build a cooperative marketing system that 

 will enable us to get "an American price for an American product." Our 

 marketing machinery should be producer-owned and producer-controlled — not 

 producer-owned and "somebody else" controlled. 



Need Control of Commodity 



THE problem is to secure control of the large percentage of the commo|lity 

 in order that it may be marketed through single hands. This c/tntrt^ 

 should lie within the farmer's own organizations. By all groups working to- 

 gether we can realize the long hoped for marketing system whetehy 

 the farmer can merchandise his crop to his own advantage and get a 

 price for that product equivalent to the world price plus the American 

 tariff. 



The farmers' elevators, the Farm Bureau, and the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association working hand in hand and giving support to the new national 

 program should go far in setting up an effective organization in 

 Illinois. 



Still Back in the Country 



SAMUEL R. McKELVIE, grain member of the Federal Farm Board, 

 told members of the State Bar Association at Lincoln, Nebr., re- 

 cently that mastery of the terminal markets was the next point for 

 agricultural cooperatives to gain. "There are more than 12,000 farmers' 

 cooperative societies in this country today having a membership of 2,- 

 000,000 and handling annually products of the value of over $2, $00,000," 

 he said. "For the most part these cooperatives are back in the country 

 and have not reached the terminal markets where the greatest influence 

 is exercised in orderly distribution and price control. It is the job of the 

 Federal Farm Board to see that these cooperatives take the next step in 

 organization which will give them mastery of the terminals." 



i 

 f 



i^ 



■If 



«v( 



' anc 

 ooo 

 \ of 

 ♦,* slai 



4* 



