Illinois Livestocii Gains In '38 



350 Growers Attend Annual Meeting 

 of State Association in Peoria 



y^LLINOIS Livestock Marketing 

 iJl Association is a farmers coopera- 

 ^_^ tive engaged in selling cattle, 

 hogs, and sheep direct to packers, or 

 shipping them to the terminal co-ops to 

 be sold, whichever way will net farmers 

 the most money. It is also an education- 

 al agency which seeks to show ALL Illi- 

 nois farmers the advantages of marketing 

 their livestock thru a cooperative. 



The Association came into being near- 

 ly seven years ago in response to the rap- 

 id growth of packer buying in the coun- 

 try. "Okeh," said leading livestock 

 growers, "we'll sell our hogs direct to 



t)ackers but we'll do it through our own 

 ocal cooperative agencies and marketing 

 experts who know every minute what 

 livestock is worth. So long as farmers 

 are going to sell to buyers in the country 

 any way, we'd better set up local coopera- 

 tives to meet this new situation and keep 

 control in our own hands. If the buyers 

 try to get our stock below terminal prices, 

 we'll ship to the Producers co-ops in the 

 market centers. That way we'll protect 

 the farmers' interests." 



Whopping Gain 

 At the annual meeting of the Associa- 

 tion in Peoria Feb. 24 where 350 turned 

 out in bright sunshiny weather, President 

 Dan Smith of Shelbyville, manager' Sam 

 Russell, Chicago and Sales Manager 

 Henry Troutmann, Decatur reported a 

 satisfactory year's business with 1630 

 carloads of livestock marketed, a whop- 

 ping gain of 334 decks or 20 per cent 

 that all but pulled the Association out of 

 a $4,234.04 deficit in 1937. Net profit 

 for '38 was $4,063.76. 



In the state 1832 more carloads of live- 

 stock were marketed cooperatively during 

 1938 than in the previous year, an ag- 

 gregate of 29,117 cars or 23.2 per cent 

 of Illinois farmers' total production. The 

 Chicago Producers got about half of this 

 volume, 14,321 carloads, the St. Louis 

 Producers were second with 6,592 cars, 

 Peoria third with 3,407. Indianapolis 

 Producers received 1,339 carloads from 

 Illinois, Springfield 1,171 and Bushnell 

 which started operating May 23 got 244 

 carloads. The balance was scattered 

 among other markets mostly to the east. 

 The Illinois Livestock Marketing As- 

 sociation through cooperative units at 

 Bloomington, Champaign, Decatur, Shel- 

 byville, Danville marketed/ 1630 single 

 deck carloads. 



"While the average price of livestock 

 for the year was lower, livestock pro- 

 ducers realized more satisfactory returns 

 from their feeding operations," reported 

 President Dan Smith, "due to the lower 

 price of feed concentrates, particularly 

 corn." 



Manager Russell revealed that in areas 

 where there are small local markets such 

 as Peoria, Springfield, and around the co- 

 operative concentration points the per- 

 centage of livestock sold cooperatively 

 ranks higher than in other sections. The 

 local contact, he pointed out, seems to 

 influence greater cooperation. 



Interesting figures on the trend in 

 direct selling of livestock to packers were 

 revealed in the officers reports. From 



1937 to 1938 the percentages of cattle, 

 calves, and sheep handled direct to pack- 

 ers declined. Only hogs gained from 

 17.56 per cent in 1937 to 18.3 per cent 

 in 1938. Less than 3 per cent of cattle 

 were shipped direct to packers last year, 

 6.9 per cent of calves, and 4.6 per cent 

 of sheep. 



Top counties in single deck carloads 

 of livestock marketed cooperatively in 



1938 were McLean first with 1204 cars 

 followed by Sangamon 908, Henry 902, 

 LaSalle 845, DeKalb 762, Peoria 705, 

 Fulton 693, Knox 692, Bureau 627 and 

 Ogle 575, 



In the Bloomington, Champaign, Dan- 

 ville area estimates showed that 31% of 

 all livestock produced was marketed co- 

 operatively, in the Peoria area 29% and 

 in the Springfield area 29%. 

 Wool Pool Pays 



Smart farmers marketed their wool co- 

 operatively last year through the Illinois 

 Livestock Marketing Association. The 

 wool, consigned on to the National Wool 

 Marketing Corporation, has been kept in 

 storage and at present prices the wool is 

 worth considerably more than it was 

 when pooled last year. Growers were 

 advanced I4c per pound on their 1938 

 wool. 



"There is no question that the Com- 

 modity Credit Corporation loan raised 

 the value of wool in Illinois from 5 to 

 7c a pound," said Manager Russell. "At 

 shearing time local prices were around 

 15c and after the loan program prices 

 jumped as high as 22c per lb. All sheep 

 growers benefited but those who par- 

 ticipated in the wool program and pro- 

 duced good clean high quality wool, will 



benefit most. We will be able to begin 

 our 1939 program with a clean slate since 

 all 1937 and 1938 wool has been sold." 



Chief speakers at the meeting in Peoria 

 included Earl C. Smith, president of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association and P. 

 O. Wilson, manager of the National 

 Livestock Marketing Corporation. 



Mr. Smith reminded livestock coopera- 

 tive leaders that the cooperatives were 

 organized primarily to return farmers the 

 best possible net price for livestock; that 

 farm leaders must never allow themselves 

 to think in terms of the welfare of the 

 cooperative institution ahead of the wel- 

 fare of farmers. 



Control The Surplus 



He urged cooperative leaders to ag- 

 gressively support on every occasion in 

 public meeting or at home in the local 

 community the necessity for keeping sur- 

 plus feed grain production under control 

 so as to prevent disappointing price levels 

 for livestock in the future. TTie only way 

 farmers can bring about reasonable sta- 

 bility in livestock prices, he warned, is to 

 Stabilize the price of corn and other feed 

 grains. Marketing livestock, particularly 

 hogs, at lighter weights in periods of 

 surplus production and low prices, he 

 pointed out, will exert a helpful influ- 

 ence on the maintenance of fair prices. 



Farmer-owned cooperatives have given 

 producers control over their own live- 

 stock marketing, it's like the difference be- 

 tween ownership and renting, P. O. Wil- 

 son said. Improvement of marketing 

 practices on the terminal markets, paying 

 commission refunds and holding com- 

 missions within reasonable limits, in ad- 

 dition to exerting a helpful influence to- 

 ward maintaining fair prices from day to 

 day were other benefits resulting from 

 the cooperatives, Wilson pointed out. 

 Livestock credit cooperatives, too, he said 

 have served producers well, coming to 

 their rescue with continuous loans during 

 the darkest years of depression when 

 loans from other sources had virtually 

 dried up. 



Directors elected for 1939 include Dan 

 Smith, Shelbyville, Harvey Hemdon, 

 Adair, Wm. Temple, Serena, Wm. Sand- 

 rock, Ashton, Durham Lucas, Monmouth, 

 Lee Harris, Vermont, John L. Roth, Fair- 

 bury. F. H. Sheldon, Sharpsburg, J. R. 

 Fulkerson, Jerseyville, Fred Phillips, Ben- 

 ton, M. Ray Ihrig, Golden. 



MARCH. 1939 



