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S. S. STETTBACHEH 

 "We should have had a county wool 

 marketing service years ago." 



1 ^^ HEARING, one of the "mean" 

 ^^S^ jobs in sheep husbandry, is a 

 N^^y white collar job for Livingston 

 county farmers. It's as simple as getting 

 the mail. Nearly half the sheep raisers 

 in the county take care of shearing with 

 a stroke of the pen. 



Sam Stettbacher, except that he is a 

 veteran Hampshire breeder and showman, 

 is typical of the farmers who keep sheep 

 in the county. Since 1920 he has rented 

 the 185 acres where he lives. His small 

 flock of 20 head is sheared the easy way. 



This is the way Sam does it. Early this 

 spring he received a notice from Glenn 

 Martin, manager of the Farm Bureau 

 shearing ring and wool pool, that the 

 time had arrived to set his shearing date. 

 All sheep owners in the county got the 

 same notice. 



Sam told Glenn that he would be ready 

 the first week in April. Late in the after- 

 noon of April 3, Glenn stopped at Sam's 

 and asked him to have his sheep shut in 

 the next morning. 



Mid-morning of April 4, Glenn re- 

 turned. With him were Chris Prickett, 

 shearer, and his assistant. They swept 

 off the floor in the driveway of Sam's 

 barn, set up a clipper powered by a small 

 gasoline motor and went to work. Every 

 four minutes Chris released a smoothly 

 sheared sheep and started on the next 

 one. Those four minutes were just 

 enough time for Chris' helper to tie and 

 sack the fleece and catch another sheep. 



Before noon, while Sam's sheep were 

 still getting acquainted with each other 

 in the brisk spring breeze, the shearing 

 crew, with Sam's wool on the Farm Bu- 

 reau's trailer behind Glenn's car, was 

 pulling in at C. A. Brewer's place. 



Brewer went to town meeting just be- 

 fore two o'clock but he didn't worry 

 about his sheep. He knew that they 

 •would be well-handled. He knew, too, 

 that by the time he returned the wool 



J4AY. 1939 ;:■;;.: 



■*( "" ,.'■■■ r ■■. - - 



■ 1SS. -•■'■ '•■■ ■ ■ 



Successful Cooperation 



Wool Marketing Is \ Cinch tiie 

 Livingston County Way 



would be properly tied, sacked, weighed 

 and stored at the C. & A. R. R. warehouse 

 in Pontiac. 



Cooperators pay only 25 cents a head 

 for shearing and handling the wool. 

 Few sheepmen can afford to do the job 

 for that money. It is a complete service 

 and it assures wool growers full value for 

 their clip. 



These men and some 300 other farm- 

 ers in the county will have the 4000 

 sheep they own sheared by the ring be- 

 tween April 1 and May 31. AH this 

 wool, some 25,000 pounds, will be sold 

 through the Livingston County Farm Bu- 

 reau Wool Pool. 



All any of these men have to do to get 

 this service is tell Glenn Martin they want 

 their sheep sheared. None will have to 

 spend valuable time from their spring 

 work to locate a competent shearer. Nor 

 will any of them have to stop their 

 tractors to tie wool or catch sheep. Yet 

 all of them are assured that their sheep 

 will be handled by a master craftsman, 

 that the checks they get for their wool 

 will represent its full value. They will 

 waste no time in petty dickering with 

 local buyers over a sack or two of wool. 



Glenn says the wool is weighed as soon 

 after shearing as he can get it to the 

 warehouse. As soon as the weight is 

 established checks are sent to wool own- 

 ers by the Farm Bureau. This payment, 

 at the rate of 14 cents a p)Ound for good 

 wool, is similar to the present corn loan. 

 Advance payments are backed by the 

 Commodity Credit Corporation and are 

 handled in the state through the Illinois 

 Livestock Marketing Association. 



When shearing is completed, or when 

 a carload of wool is assembled, the wool 

 is shipped to a warehouse of the Nation- 

 al Wool Marketing Association in Indian- 

 apolis. There it is graded and sorted and 

 an additional payment is made the pro- 

 ducer based on grade. The producer holds 

 title in the wool until it is sold. 



If, when the sale is made, the wool 

 brings more than the payments already 

 advanced, the producer gets another 

 check. If the wool price doesn't permit 

 a third payment, the producer has ob- 

 tained all the wool was worth or more. 

 Regardless of price, sale of the wool 

 satisfies the loan to producers. There is 

 no further recourse. 



Sam Stettbacher has been in the sheep 

 business for 30 years. He started in 



1907 when he bought a band of Shrof*- 

 shire ewes through Prof. W. C. Coffey 

 at the University of Illinois. Later he 

 bought several head of Hampshires from 

 Walnut Hall Farm in Kentucky at the 

 Illinois State Fair where he was showing 

 his Shrops. 



"In the 30 years I've kept sheep, I've 

 never sold one on the market. They all 

 went for breeding stock. There were so 

 many Shrop breeders that I couldn't get 

 much more than market price for them. 

 That's why I went into Hamps," Sam 

 said. 



Prof. Coffey was resf)onsible for Sam 

 selling his farm in Effingham county and 

 moving into the com belt in 1920. 



" 'You'll do better if you can get north 

 on fertile soil where you can get alfalfa 

 hay to feed,' Coffey told me. I'd spotted 

 Livingston county a year or two before 

 when I showed at the Kankakee County 

 Fair. So I sold out, came here and rented 

 this farm. I've been here ever since." 



Sam's children were interested in 

 sheep, too. Wayne, Sam's only son had 

 his own flock and showed with his father 

 at the state and county fairs and at the 

 International. Hazel, whose husband is 

 a chemist with a rubber company in New 



C. A. BHEWEH AND FMEND 

 He went to town meeting while hi* 

 sheep were being sheared. 



17 



