PEORIA PRODUCERS REPORTS MOST 

 SUCCESSFUL YEAR OF ITS CAREER 



//» jOST successful year of its career 

 JYl in point of volume and sales 

 value." That's the way the oper- 

 ations of the Peoria Producers Commis- 

 sion Association were described for the 

 1944 fiscal year by Manager W. R. Hem- 

 brough at the 23rd annual meeting in 

 Peoria Jan. 10. 



Marketings included 272,783 head of 

 cattle, hogs, calves and sheep during the 

 1944 fiscal year for a total sales value of 

 $10,519,907.46, exceeding the 1943 

 figure by 'more than $922,000. 



Be-elected as directors oi the Peoria Pro- 

 ducers at its annual meeting were, leit, 

 Guy R. French, Putnam county, and 

 Maurice F. Holmes, Peoria county, right. 



(Star Photo) 



Net income of the producers was 

 $18,360.31, or an increase of $3,630.74 

 over the previous year. A patronage 

 dividend of 20 per cent of the commis- 

 sion charges was declared and paid. This 

 amounted to $13,681.24. 



Marketings for the 1944 calendar year 

 were approximately the same for the 

 fiscal year which ended May 31, 1944. 

 In the 1944 calendar year, marketings 

 amounted to 267,392 head as compared 

 with the 1943 calendar year of 247,984. 



Manager Hembrough pointed out that 

 this amount of livestock was produced 

 by the membership under the most trying 

 times of this generation. "Labor short- 

 ages, equipment scarcity, and feed dif- 

 ficulties became a challenge to our na- 

 tional war effort and was met in this 

 successful manner by the livestock pro- 

 ducers," he declared. ' 



Membership in the Producers also 

 showed an increase for the year. Thirty- 

 five counties in the Peoria area were re- 

 sponsible for 7,509 members with the 

 neighboring state of Iowa contributing 



the balance, making a total of 7,762 

 members, or an increase of 298 over a 

 year ago. Tazewell county took the lead 

 ui 1944 with 982 members, or an in- 

 crease of 98 over a year ago. The next 

 nine high counties in numerical order 

 were: Peoria, Fulton, Mason, Woodford, 

 Logan, Marshall-Putnam, McLean, Knox, 

 and Stark. 



In volume of livestock the 10 high 

 counties were: Fulton, Peoria, Tazewell, 

 Woodford, Mason, Marshall-Putnam, 

 Knox, Stark, Logan, and McLean. 



Manager Hembrough referred in his 

 annual report to the tremendous growth 

 of the Peoria livestock market in the last 

 20 years. For example, hogs on the 

 market in 1944 numbered 943,504 as 

 compared with 504,728 in 1924. 



"Buyers and buying competition has in- 

 creased accordingly," Manager Hem- 

 brough said, "making Peoria one of the 

 best markets in the Middle West. The 

 Peoria Producers has shown a tremendous 

 growth in business during the 20 years. . . 

 Your Association has been given a maxi- 

 mum amount of credit in the develop- 

 ment of this market. Through the Pro- 

 ducers' subsidiary, the Peoria Marketing 

 Company, slaughter outlets have been 

 made available at critical times before 

 sufficient volume had attracted the pres- 

 ent competition and slaughter outlets." 



Participating in the Peoria Producers an- 

 nual program were, leit to right, George 

 Wilson, Stark county, president oi the 

 Producers; P. O. Wilson, secretary-man- 

 ager oi the National Live Stock Producers 

 association, and S. F. Russell, lAA direc- 

 tor oi liyestock marketing. 



(Journal-Transcript Photo) 



The ceiling on live cattle which be- 

 came effective Jan. 29, also came in for 

 discussion at the Peoria Producers annual 

 meeting. 



P. O. Wilson, secretary-manager of the 

 National Livestock Producers Association, 

 declared that the order of Fred Vinson, 

 director. Office of Economic Stabiliza- 

 tion, was an "improvement of the origi- 

 nal plan proposed by OPA.'" He re- 

 ferred to the setting of the ceiling at $18 

 a hundred weight instead of $17.50 as 

 originally proposed. This ceiling how- 

 ever, will be lowered to $17.50 July 2. 



At the same time, Wilson was critical 

 of the OPA for ignoring a livestock com- 

 mittee's recommendation for an increase 

 in the maximum price on AA cattle. 



Officers and directors of the Peoria 

 Producers are as follows: George Wil- 

 son, president; J. Frank Felter, vice-presi- 

 dent; Seaton Moore, secretary-treasurer; 

 Guy French, Maurice Holmes, C. W. 

 Ackerman, Loren S. Heller, directors. 

 The same board of directors serves for 

 the Peoria Livestock Marketing Company, 

 and D. H. Hirth is manager of the latter 

 subsidiary. ■ ■■r'l '-'■' - .' : 



II 



. . ."AS FARMERS 

 FORWARD GO 



ORGANIZATION NOTES 

 ■y O. O. BrUsenden 



TT APPEARS that 1945 is indeed 

 •*• proving THE year in which Farm 

 Bureau membership can be increased. 

 Counties in all parts of the state are 

 reporting enthusiastic kickoff meetings, 

 good drives, and excellent results. 

 Many of these were mentioned in last 

 month's Record, and there are many 

 more coming in almost daily. 



It is not at all unusual for counties 

 to report not only good drives, but the 

 best ones on record. This may be at- 

 tributed to (1) the growing realiza- 

 tion of farmers that a strong organiza- 

 tion is needed, both for now and post- 

 war; and (2) to the outstanding serv- 

 ices rendered by county Farm Bureau 

 offices in spite of the stresses and 

 strains of wartime. 



Organization workers are enthusias- 

 tic, too, and are pledging carefully- 

 planned campaigns, with the objective 

 of reaching every non-member in each 

 county. The long range goals totalling 

 117,000 will be reached if each and 

 every county group makes up its mind 

 to go "all out" and tell the story of 

 Farm Bureau to the non-member. 



Franklin county took its place among 

 the dynamic Farm Bureaus in the state 

 when in a contest drive, east side ver- 

 sus west side, 100 members were signed 

 to bring membership to 400. Organ- 

 ization Director Carl K. Cox reports 



12 



L A. A. RECORD 



