Live-poultry stores sell to the Kosher trade and to other customers 

 wishing to purchase, or select, live birds at the point of slaughter. They 

 are part-time slaughterers. Usually they are located in heavily popu- 

 lated areas. 



Small slaughterers combine local assembly with processing, sales, and 

 delivery to nearby retail outlets and consumers. Volume per plant is 

 usually less than 30,000 pounds a year and operations generally are on 

 a part-time basis. 



Importance of Various Types of Assemblers 



Of 350 potential assemblers of live poultry in New England in 1957, 

 fewer than 20 percent were processing plants, contractors, and contract 

 haulers (Table 1), but these 67 firms hauled nearly 88 percent of the 

 volume available from farms. The remainder was hauled by 265 buyers 

 of live poultry, live-poultry stores, and small slaughterers. About 5 

 percent of the 350 firms were inactive or in the process of transition 

 to wholesale distributing or retailing operations. 



Assemblers delivered to other types of assembly firms almost 30 per- 

 cent of the 470 million pounds of live poultry they hauled from farms. 

 The pre-dominant movement between types of firms was from contract 

 haulers, contractors, and live-poultry buyers to processing plants. In 

 addition, firms of like type (such as j)rocessors) sometimes exchanged 

 poultry with each other. This exchange helped to equate supplies of 

 individual market classes on hand with customers' requirements. 



The older (and smaller) assembly firms haul a higher percentage of 

 fowl than the newer firms. However, most assembly firms now handle a 

 larger volume of broilers than of fowl. Although most of New England's 

 turkey output is produced, processed, and sold by specialized units, all 

 types of assembly firms acquire a few turkeys, mostly surplus young 

 birds and breeders. 



Supply Sources and Market Outlets 



Almost two-thirds of the 470 million pounds of live poultry hauled 

 by New England assembly firms in 1957 was from farms under contract 

 to, or owned by, the hauler or his employer (Table 2) . About two-thirds 

 of the volume that processors hauled was from contract sources; for 

 contractors, the proportion was more than 95 percent; and for contract 

 haulers, 83 percent. In contrast, more than 93 percent of the volume 

 hauled by live-poultry buyers and almost 100 percent of that hauled 

 by live-poultry stores and small slaughterers was from independent 

 sources. 



Fowl came largely from independent farms since integration had not 

 developed to the same extent in New England in egg-producing enter- 

 prises as in broiler enterprises. But almost three-fourths of the broiler 

 volume was from farms under contract to assemblers of live poultry and 

 their affiliates. About 4 percent of the total supply of live poultry in 

 1957 originated on farms owned by assembly or processing firms. 



Of the total volume of 473 million pounds of live poultry handled by 

 assembly firms and sold by producers in 1957, nearly 91 percent was 



