Robert Bums moves carcasses into the chill 



room oi the Henry County Locker Service 



slaughiex plant at Cambridge. 



^ 



MOST farmers don't care much for 

 the chore of home butchering. 

 That's why progressive cooperative 

 locker plants in Illinois have made it 

 their business to improve the slaughter- 

 ing services afforded patrons. 



Today the latest development along 

 this line is the installation by coopera- 

 tive locker plants of slaughtering facil- 

 ities in connection with their opera- 

 tions. Where such services are afforded, 

 all that a farmer patron has to do is 

 load an animal on a truck, and haul it 

 to the locker plant. There it is slaugh- 

 tered, cut up, frozen, and moved into 

 his locker. 



Since the first installation of a locker 

 plant in Illinois, leaders have recog- 

 nized the importance of furnishing 

 efficient slaughtering service. The first 

 step taken by some associations was to 

 employ a capable slaughterer who 

 owned a truck and have him do the 

 slaughtering on the farm and bring the 

 carcass to the locker plant. This was an 

 improvement over the farmer having 

 to do his own butchering or trying to 

 hire anyone he might find available. 



Now some of the cooperative locker 

 associations in Illinois that have built 

 slaughter houses with modern facilities 

 include Henry County Locker Service, 

 Hancock Frozen Foods Co-op, Waverly 

 Locker Company, Morgan county; 

 Golden Locker Cooperative, Adams 

 county; and the Winchester Cold Stor- 

 age Locker Service, Scott county. 



The Hancock, Waverly, and Win- 

 chester associations have the slaughter 

 room attached to the locker plant, 

 while the Henry and Golden associa- 

 tions have the slaughter plants in the 

 country. All five slaughter plants have 



adequate pens for holding both hogs 

 and cattle at the slaughterhouses. 



One of the advantages of having the 

 slaughtering operations near or ad- 

 joining the locker plant is in the con- 

 venience of moving the slaughtered 

 animal direct from the slaughter house 

 to the chill room in the locker plant. 

 This is usually done by moving the ani- 

 mal along an overhead track. 



Slaughter plants adjoining locker 

 plants may also in some cases utilize 

 existing facilities to provide ample hot 

 water and steam for cleaning in addi- 

 tion to sewage outlets. 



Where plants are located within the 

 city limits, city water and sewage out- 

 lets of course are available. In some 

 cases, as at the Hancock and Winches- 

 ter plants, which are just outside of the 

 city limits, they still have the advantage 

 of city water and sewage outlets. 



One of the main disadvantages of 

 having a slaughter plant adjoining the 

 locker plant and located within the cit\' 

 limits is that city officials may raise 

 objections. 



16 



I. A. A. RECORD 



