1144 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Andresen. Then you would send the check either directly to 

 the producer or through the cooperative? 



Secretary Brannan. Whichever would be the most efficient and 

 would tend to support the price at the mandatory level. 



Mr. Andresen. As I understand it, the packers also have a lot of 

 sheep. Would you send a check to the packers for the difference 

 between what they got for their wool and what they should have 

 had? 



Secretary Brannan. That is an administrative problem that I am 

 not sure we have the answer to. The obligation, as I understand it, 

 for the Commodity Credit Corporation is to support the price of 

 these commodities at given levels to the producers thereof. It does 

 not seem to me that the packer who gets the wool incidentally is a 

 producer thereof. 



To answer the question as specifically as I can this morning, I 

 would say we probably would not. 



Mr. Andresen. Do you know what percentage of the wool is pro- 

 duced by the 400 packers in this country? 



Secretary Brannan. I would say none of it but what percentage 

 comes into their hands I am not sure. 



Mr. Andresen. Right now you would rule them out as being pro- 

 ducers and entitled to checks? 



Secretary Brannan. It docs not necessarily follow that that lets 

 that wool out of support but generally speaking, let us say it does. 



Mr. Andresen. I will yield to Mr. Granger. 



Mr. Granger. The producer who sells the wj3ol through a cooper- 

 ative sells his own wool. He only gets what his own wool brings, 

 does he not? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right, Mr. Granger, because these are 

 not producer cooperatives. They are marketing cooperatives. They 

 have gotten together for the purpose of marketing and not for the 

 actual production. Even if they were on the producing side, I think 

 we could make the payment directly. 



Mr. Granger. How would you pay the production payment to a 

 grower? On his level there is no standard, as I understand it. 



Secretary Brannan. You mean for grading? 



Mr. Granger. Yes. 



Secretary Brannan. You remember we are going to pay the aver- 

 age for the various grades. We are not going to pay back to the 

 producer exactly the difference between what he got in the market 

 place and the support level. 



Mr. Granger. But you would pay each one of them on a clean 

 basis after the wool was scoured? 



Secretary Brannan. If it were possible in the particular area to do 

 that, we might well do it, but the point is to establish a level of sup- 

 port for a criterion type of the commodity, then make your varia- 

 tions from that. Your modifications or additions would be made 

 from that figure. That is an administrative problem which, as a 

 matter of fact, I think is going to have to be developed as we go 

 along. 



Mr. Andresen. I have one more thought, Mr. Secretary. Of 

 course, we know that ihe trade and the manufacturers generally prefer 

 foreign wool on account of its quality and therefore a larger percentage 

 of the American produced wool is relegated to a lower class. 



