Illinois Livestock Gains In '38 



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y^LI.INOIS Livestock Marketing 



(Jl Association is a farmers coopera- 

 \^^ tive engaged in selling cattle, 

 hogs, and sheep direct to packers, or 

 siiipping 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, "well sell our hogs direct to 

 packers but we'll do it through our own 

 local 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 coops in the 

 market centers. That way we 11 protcil 

 the farmers' interests. " 



Whopping Gain 



At the annual meeting of the Associa- 

 tion in Peoria Feb. 2t where 330 turned 

 out in bright sunshiny weather, President 

 Dan Smith of Shclbyville, manager Sam 

 Russell, Chicago and Sales Nlanager 

 Henry Troutmann, Decatur reported a 

 satisfactory year's business with 1630 

 carloads of livestock marketed, a whop- 

 ping gain of 33-4 decks or 20 per cent 

 that all but pulled the Association out of 

 a $4,23-i.Oi deficit in 1937. Net profit 

 for '3^ was 54,063.76. 



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 6.3s)2 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 2i i 

 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- 

 byvilie, Danville marketed 1630 single 

 deck carloads. 



MARCH, 1939 



"While the aver.ige price of livestoi.k 

 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, j^articularlv 

 corn." 



Manager Russell revealed that in areas 

 wlicre there are small local markets such 

 as Peoria, Springfield, and around the co- 

 operative concentration points the per- 

 centage of livestock sold cooperativelv 

 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 

 I". 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 countres in single deck carloaiK 

 of livestock marketed cooperatively in 



1938 were McLean first with 1 20 1 cars 

 followed by Sangamon 908. Henry 902. 

 LaSalle SiV DeKalb "62. Peoria ~0>. 

 Fulton 693, Knox 692. Hureau 62" and 

 Ogle 575. 



In the Bloomington, f hampaign. Dan- 

 ville area estimates showed that Si'"; of 

 all livestock produced was marketed co- 

 operatively, in the Peoria area 1^)' ', and 

 in the Springfield area Z'-y, . 

 XV'ool Pool Pays 



Sm.irt tarmers marketed their wool co- 

 operatively last year through the Illinois 

 Livestock Marketing Association. The 

 wool, consigned on to the National Wool 

 Marketing C!orporation, 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 \-K per pound on their 193s 

 wool. 



"There is no question that the Com- 

 modity Credit Corporation loan raised 

 the value of wool in Illinois from "^ to 

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

 shearing time local prices were around 

 1 5c 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 he able to Iicgin 

 our 1939 program with a clean slate since 

 all 193" and' 1938 wool has been sold" 



Chief speakers at the meeting in Peoria 

 included F.irl C. Smith, president of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association and P. 

 (). 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 mu.st never allow themselves 

 to think in terms of the welfare of the 

 cooperative institution ahead of the wel- 

 fare of farmers. 



(Jontrol The Surplus 



He urged coo)xrati\e leaders to ag- 

 gressively support on every CKCasion in 

 public meeting or at home in the local 

 community the necessity for keeping sur- 

 plus teed grain production under control 

 .so as to prevent disappointing price levels 

 for livestock m the future, llie onlv way 

 tarmers can bring alKHit reasonable sta- 

 bility in livestock prices, he warned, is to 

 stabilize the price of corn and other feed 

 grains Marketing livestcxk. particularlv 

 hogs, at lighter weights in perickls 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 

 pr.ictices on the terminal markets, paying 

 commission refunds and holding com- 

 missions within reasonable lirnits. in .ad- 

 dition to exerting a helpful influence to- 

 ward maintaining fair prices from dav to 

 day were other benefits resulting from 

 the cooj^erativcs. 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 virtuall)' 

 dried up. 



Directors elected for 1939 include Dan 

 Smith. Shelbyville, Harsey Herndon, 

 Adair. Wm Temple. Serena. Win Sand- 

 rock. Ashton. Durham Lucas. .Monmouth, 

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

 bury. I". H. Sheldon, Sharpsburg. I. R. 

 Fulkerson, Jersey\ille, Fred Phillij^s. IVn- 

 ton. M. Rav Ihrig. Golden. 



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