^' 



A. 





i 



f 



packers buying from individual farmers 

 and from local livestock co-operatives op- 

 erated by highly trained and informed 

 managers. And direct buying of cattle 

 from individual farmers," he continued, 

 "offers far more dangers than direct buy- 

 ■ ing of hogs." Mr. Smith warned farmers 

 to be on their guard against selling cat- 

 tle to packer buyers and speculators and 

 quoted a statement by one country buyer 

 to the effect that he made enough profit 

 to buy a new Ford car on every carload 

 of. cattle purchased during the market 

 rise. 

 , - "The I. A. A. in 1935 has a mandate 

 ; •^^.-from its governing body adopted at the 

 last annual meeting to support concen- 

 ■ -: tration of livestock in present co-opera- 

 • . tive selling agencies," he continued. "We 

 :,; are not going to take sides on the ques- 

 tion of terminal vs. direct selling. We 

 believe this is a sound program to follow 

 .■^ until we know more about the influence 

 on prices of these different types of mar- 

 ; :J^ keting. We know that the effect of or- 

 ganizing livestock at co-operative con- 

 centration points is to increase the vol- 

 ", upie of livestock marketed co-opera tive- 

 ■ rr"iy in the terminals." 



Mr. Smith>e<Jnfined the latter part of 

 his address to a discussion of production 

 contr9l,lp£2^Sg°tntiendments to the Ag- 

 ripaltural AdjTlStmeiit Act, and unem- 

 loyment relief. 



Fight Begins ; 



^he fight to pass these amendments 

 begins next Tuesday," he said. "It's not 

 going to be easy because there is a gen- 

 eral lack of understanding of the merits 

 of the proposed program. When the time 

 comes we want your support. The lead- 

 ing amendment we desire is to take out 

 of the law the necessity for. the. payment 

 ©f benefits^to producers Of a conamodity 

 when a processing ta^F^t levied on such 

 a commodity; — Everyone kncrfrs that it 

 is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, 

 to make accurate and fair allotments to' 

 individual farmers for hogs, cattle, sheep 

 and dairy products. It is • much more 

 simple to control feed grains and then 

 maintain a normal surplus to tide us over 

 in case of drouth against which ware- 

 house cprtificates may be issued — and 

 made the basis for storage loans. 



"This- amendment will make possible 

 only a nominal tax on each commodity, 

 the revenue from which can be used to 

 export surpluses, to develop non-food 

 uses for farm crops, or to control 

 acreage. 



"I believe that livestock growers every- 

 where, as well as dairymen, will sup- 

 port this kind of a program when they 

 thoroughly understand it. At a recent 

 meeting of Illinois dairy' leaders senti- 

 ment Tijas unanimous for the proposed 

 amendofient. It is generally conceded that 

 it would be much more fair to spread 

 the processing tax over all the livestock 



His Power Upheld 



being benefited by the com acreage con- 

 trol program rather than to get nearly 

 all the money from the hog producer. 

 Hogs are now paying 93 per cent of the 

 cost of the 'feed grain control program." 

 In his talk on the subject "Individual 

 vs. Organized Livestock Marketing," C. 

 G. Randall in charge of the livestock and 

 wool section of the Farm Credit Admin- 

 istration, declared that in recent years 

 packers have gone to the country and du- 

 plicated terminal market facilities now 

 under government supervision for weigh- 

 ing and grading livestock and are now 

 doing their own weighing and grading. 

 In the minois Livestock Marketing Asso- 

 ciation, he said, you are attempting to 

 correlate direct marketing and terminal 

 marketing. Although packers have their 

 organization, the Institute, they some- 

 times assume that farmers don't need an 

 organization to represent them in the 

 sale of their livestock. Packers have hun- 

 dreds of buyers in the country purchas- 

 ing livestock today where formerly they 

 had only a few buyers, comparatively 

 speaking, on the terminal markets. These 

 buyers have the advantage over the incli- 

 vidual farmer because they possess more 

 information. 



Buyer Has Advantage - 



For example, the packer buyer has in- 

 formation on cut-out values, storage sup- 

 plies, the dressed trade market, livestock 

 receipts, etc. Individual farmers have no 

 ready means of getting such informa- 

 tion." 



Mr. Randall charged that there has 

 been altogether too much attention paid 

 to the cost of getting the livestock to the 

 packer which represents only 15 per cent 

 of the total costs involved. Farmers 

 should be getting more information and 

 be concerned about ways and means of 

 reducing the other 85 per cent of over- 

 head expenses involved in processing the 

 livestock, and shipping, wholesaling and 

 (Continued on page 7) 



62 Per Cent Grain Shown 



By Chicago Producers 



Correctipn Of Statement As Pub- 

 lished In 1934 I. A. A. Report 



*'■ -* 



( 



The Livestock Marketing Section of 

 the I. A. A. Annual Report for 1934 

 erroneously reported the volume of busi- " 

 ness handled by the Chicago Producers 

 during their first year of operation as 

 17,9rt cars, whereas the correct figure 

 is 11,791 cars. The 17,916 cars,^s sho3iE»^' 

 in the report, was the business done by 

 the Chicago Producers during 1924 — a 

 year of abnormally large receipts of live 

 stock on the Chicago hiarket and one in 

 which very few directs were received. 



The Chicago Producers handled 19,117 

 cars in 1934, a gain of 7,326 cars, or an 

 increase of 62% over the first year's 

 business. Not only have the Chicago 

 Producers gained in volume of live stock' 

 sold cooperatively on the Chicago mar- 

 ket but also in the percentage of total 

 receipts. As contrasted to 4.04% of the 

 market receipts handled the first year, 

 the 1934 percentage was more than three 

 times as great at 12.93%. The Associa- 

 tion stood in first place among all the ' 

 firms on the market, handling more than j , 

 double the next largest firm. .. ■■ 



Gain In All Classes 



During the year 1934 the Chicago Pro- 

 ducers sold 8.1% of the cattle, compared 

 with 7.1% sold during 1933; 14.26% of 

 the calves as against 12.03% in 1933; 

 17.44% of the hogs as compared with 

 14.6% in 1933; and 18.5% of the sheep 

 as against 15.18% in 1933. 



The gain in the volume of trucked-in 

 business handled by the Chicago Pro- 

 ducers has been particularly striking. In 

 1934 the Association handled 21.81% of 

 the total trucked-in business — a gain of 

 27.59%— handling 14.79% of the totol . 

 number of cattle trucked to the Chicago 

 market; 24.16% of the calves; 23.77% 

 of the hogs; and 21.09% of the sheep and 

 lambs. 



On April 20, 1934 the Chicago Pro- 

 ducers started operating under a new 

 and lower schedule of commission rates 

 ordered effective by the Secretary of 

 Ag7"iculture, representing an average re- 

 duction of 20 to 25% less than the pre- 

 vailing rates on the Chicago market. 

 Since inaugurated, the savings to patrons 

 of the Chicago Producers have amounted 

 in the aggregate to more than $50,000. 



The increase in the amount of live 

 stock handled by the Chicago Producers 

 has enabled it to greatly increase and 

 extend the services rendered its patrons. 

 Its present volume, trained and experi- 

 enced personnel, and splendid financial 

 position, makes this association one of 

 the outstanding successes in the field of 

 cooperative livestock marketing. 





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I. A. A. RECORD 



