J'hSiSpDhi Qo-DfLSi 



FIRST 4 MONTHS 



• • COMPETITION has been tou^h 

 \ \ B 1 but we've- paid our own way 



from the day we started. 

 That's the way Manager Joe 

 Brown summed up tlie hrst 

 two months' operation oF tlic 

 Stephenson Livestock Marketing Associ^i- 

 tion. 



Farmers say the co-op is already a 

 price stabihzer. A Dakota stockman re- 

 ported that the Freeport co-op had raised 

 prices on hogs a dollar a hundred at Da- 

 kota. 



Hogs are coming in t'rom as tar as -0 

 miles from Freeport. The yards have 

 received shipments from outlying Kent, 

 Lena, Winsiow, Orangeville, Rock City, 

 Ridott, German Valley, Baileyville, Shan- 

 non, Stockton, and Nora. 



Although it started in a slack season 

 and during weather that kept even milk 

 trucks ice-bound, the Freeport marketing 

 cooperative is off to x respectable start 

 with its hog merchandizing program. 



At present volume is small. But busi- 

 ness is increasing steadily and in its first 

 two months of operation, February and 

 March, the co-op bought a total of 1930 

 hogs and shipped 12ft calves and 163 

 head of cattle. 



A truckload 

 of hogs is un- 

 loaded at the Ste- 

 phenson Livestock Mar- 

 keting Yards at Freeport. 



Left to right, are: Rudolph 



Peterson, the shipper; Alvin "^^K 



Cooper, yard man; Lamorn Morris, 

 the truck driver; Sterling Taylor; 

 Joe Brown, yards manager; and V, J. Ban- 

 ter, farm adviser, Stephenson Farm Bureau 



By LEW REISNER 



lAA RECORD Field Editor 



Merle Wise (right) watches Yards Man- 

 ager Joe Brown get ready to adjust the 

 scales to weigh in Wise's load of hogs. 



Since we reorganized we've served 

 250 customers. On this basis our busi- 

 ness will double or triple this year," 

 Stanley Worth, a director from Dakota, 

 pointed out. 



Competition, however, is strong. Old 

 line buyers are well-established and well 

 financed. Last year 17 buyers were 

 purchasing hogs in Stephenson county. 

 One buyer recently has been quoting Chi- 

 cago prices for hogs he is buying at 

 Freeport. 



Their marketing cooperative will be 

 successful. Manager Brown maintains, if 

 farmers stick with their own company 

 while it is getting a foot-hold, 



Rudolph Peterson, Pecatonica, summed 

 it up like this. "It's just like other co- 

 ops getting started, I've got others chas- 

 ing me for business. But I'd be cutting 

 my own throat not to sell to my own 

 company." 



In addition to the concentration point 

 at Freeport associations at Stronghurst 

 and Effingham have been organized to 

 buy direct. The Effingham yard is a 

 branch of the Shelbyville marketing asso- 

 ciation. 



Located conveniently adjacent to two 

 highways, near the intersection of high- 

 ways 26 and 20 on the north side of 

 Freeport, the yards are built along the 

 Illinois Central tracks. The railroad owns 

 the yards, scales, and office building. 



The need for a strong local competitive 

 market is apparent. Stephenson normally 

 produces 140,000 hogs annually. At 

 present almost all of these hogs are being 

 bought direct by old line packer buyers. 



The new cooperative can take heart 

 from the old Freeport Shipping Associa- 

 tion, at one time one of the most success- 

 ful shipping cooperatives in the state. 

 In its golden era, the old shipping asso- 

 ciation dominated the Freeport market 

 and in the late twenties was shipping 

 more than 300 cars a year to terminal 

 markets. 



When the board of directors of the 

 old shipping association decided they had 

 to reorganize to survive, they agreed their 

 best bet was a buying and merchandising 

 program for hogs and a tie-in with the 

 lAA affiliated Illinois Livestock Market- 

 ing Association, the state-wide coopera- 

 tive sales agency with headquarters at 

 Decatur. 



The new Freeport co-op had scales and 

 yards used by the old shipping association. 

 Some 510,400 was raised through the 

 sale of stock and the co-op was ready to 

 go Feb. 3. 



Organized in 191 9 the old shipping 

 agency had about the same competition 

 to face as does the new co-op today. 

 "I can remember coming to town with 

 my father with a wagon load of hogs," 

 Leslie Finkenbinder, Stephenson county 

 organization director recalls. "Five or 

 six buyers would meet us and offer to 

 buy the hogs before we reached the 

 yards. The old shipping association com- 

 peted with them and thrived." 



Will the new co-op match the record 

 of the old shipping association.' Sensible 

 Stephenson county farmers say it will do 

 it and then some. It's going to be an- 

 other case of neighbors working together. 



12 



I. A. A. RECORD 



