UVESTOCK MARKETING TRENDS 



SHOW NEED FOR CO-OP STUDY 



Hogs and Cattle Purchased Outside of Public 



- Markets Show Increase Over Past 20 Years. 



Statewide Committee Seeks Ways and 



Means to Improve Cooperative Machinery. 



By S. F. RUSSELL 



FOR the past five years, livestock 

 farmers have been pointing to the 



time when they could get together 

 as a representative state-wide group 

 and consider the in and outs, ups and 

 downs of marketing their livestock. 

 This they are determined to do on a 

 cooperative basis. 



The war, with all of the attendant 

 rules and regulations, ceilings, floors, 

 rationing, and many many other rami- 

 fications, brought the problem to focal 

 point much sooner. Then too, last win- 

 ter and this spring and summer the 

 markets all over the country weu liter- 

 ally flooded with hogs and nMirkcting 

 became disorganized to a very hi^ de- 

 gree. Hogs remained in pens- in mxAy 

 instances because they' could not l^ 

 sold until the quality \i*s lowered be- 

 low good to choice and as a result sold 

 below the support price. The shrinkage 

 on all hogs so handled was very 

 . mjirked, amounting in some instances 

 J to as much as 10 to 15 pounds on a 

 200 lb. hpg, Heavy hogs suffered se- 

 verly and- "were penalized as much as 

 $2.50 a cwt. A chaotic market situation 

 existed all over the country. Farmers 

 must do something. 



The country insisted that the lAA 

 call a series of district meetings in order 

 that livestock raisers could get together 

 and express themselves as to what 

 should be done to improve the market- 

 ing of their livestock. As a result the 

 lAA called six district meetings. These 

 meetings were designed to cover the 

 entire field of commodities in which 

 the lAA is interested, such as milk, 

 produce, grain, fruit and vegetables, 

 wool, and livestock. The meetings were 

 held at Mt. Vernon, Galesburg, 

 Champaign, Jacksonville, Peoria and 

 De Kalb. The major part of the discus- 

 sion at most of the meetings was on 

 livestock and minutes were kept and 

 out of these conferences came the. fol- 

 lowing general recommendations. 



1. Complete a study of the possibil- 

 ity and feasibility of establishing local 

 meat slaughtering and packing plants. 



2. Study the possibility and feasibil- 

 ity of extending our cooperative live- 

 stock marketing agencies, or coordinat- 



ing them, in such a way as to exercise 

 greater bargaining power in the sale 

 of livestock through the control and 

 distribution of volume. 



3. To study the possibility of secur- 

 ing stocker and feeder livestock through 

 agencies already established, or 

 agencies to be established that would 

 put the buyer of such feeder livestock 

 in a better bargaining position than he 

 seems to possess now, buying his 

 feeders through established sales 

 agencies. 



4. That the foregoing studies be 

 made and conducted by a committee 

 selected and established in a manner 

 similar to the State School Committee, 

 and that these studies should be gotten 

 under way promptly. 



Recommendation No. 4 has been 

 carried out, and a state-wide committee 

 has been set up, composed of two rep- 

 resentatives from each of the 15 con- 

 gressional down-state districts together 

 with a representative of the following 

 producer agencies; Chicago, National 

 Stockyards Illinois, Peoria, Springfield, 

 Indianapolis, Indiana, Evansville, Ind., 

 and Illinois Livestock Marketing Asso- 

 ciation. The marketing committee of • 

 the lAA heads up the state group. The 



main objective of this group is to de- 

 velop ways and means whereby the 

 bargaining power of the livestock pro- 

 ducer can be strengthened and main- 

 tained in the sale of his commodities. 



At the first meeting of the commit- 

 tee in July, a review of the cooperative 

 marketing system was made from the 

 organization in 1922 of the first pro- 

 ducer agency up to the present time. 

 Figures revealed that 37,273 decks of 

 livestock were marketed, cooperatively 

 from Illinois in 1943 and that 20,450 

 decks of livestock were marketed in 

 1943 through concentration points 

 scattered over the state. Also there are 

 38 meat packing plants operating in 

 Illinois, outside the big cities of Chi- 

 cago, East St. Louis, and Peoria. 



Charts prepared by the reasearch de- 

 partment of lAA showed receipts and 

 shipments of hogs, cattle, calves, sheep 

 and lambs from Chicago, 1866-1942; 

 per cent of federally inspected slaughter 

 received at Chicago and per cent pur- 

 chased outsfde public stockyards. The 

 latter indicated trends of marketing 

 and showed the following changes. 

 Per cent Purchased Outside of Public 



Stockyards 

 HOGS: CALVES: 



yr. 1922-23% yr. 1922-13% 



1942-54% 1942-37% 



SHEEP AND LAMBS: 



CATTLE: yr. 1922-15% 



yr. 1922-11% 1942-38% 



1942-23% 



Each of the general recommenda- 

 tions coming out of the six district 

 meetings also were discussed. Namely, 

 coordination of present marketing 

 agencies, stocker and feeder program, 

 and cooperative packing plants. It was 

 the general concern of the meeting that 



Livestock Purchased Outside Public Markets 



(Per Cent of Federally Inspected Slaughter) 



■^ 



This chart shows one oi 

 the renins why ionn- 

 ers' livestock marketing 

 problems have grown 

 more complicated dur- 

 ing the last 20 years. 

 Hogs piirchosed outside 

 public markets i n - 

 creased from 24 per 

 cent in 1924 to 54 per 

 cent in 1942: cattle 

 show«d an increase 

 from 10 per cent to 24 

 per cent in the some 

 period. .-V. ^ :,, . 



I. A. A. RECORD 



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