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MADE BY MAIKEnm YARDS 



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OULD you like to sell your hogs 

 in your home town through your 

 own cooperative? Livestock farm- 

 ers are saying yes to this question 

 by their increased support of the 

 Illinois Livestock Marketing As- 

 sociation in its enlarged hog buying pro- 

 gram. 



The Illinois Livestock Marketing Asso- 

 ciation cannot reach every farmer yet but 

 they are expanding 

 rapidly into a state- 

 widemarketing coop- 

 erative by setting up 

 farmer-owned b u y - 

 ing points for hogs. 



At their annual 

 meeting in St. Louis 

 President Mont Fox 

 indicated how well 

 farmers are respond- 

 ing to this expand- 

 ing program. "They 

 have given the asso- 

 ciation its biggest 

 year. We handled 

 about a quarter of a 

 said. "In all we sold about $15,000,000 

 worth of livestock." 



There is one big difference. These new 

 cooperatives buy and pay for hogs right 

 at die yards. AH hogs are then sold for 

 the local yard by the state sales force in 

 Decatur. 



These new cooperatives have had the 

 benefit of years of experience of their 

 parent marketing agency, the Illinois 

 Livestock Marketing Association which 

 was organized back in 1931. 



It was based on six county marketing 

 associations which formed the nucleus of 

 the state company. These original county- 

 wide companies are going strong and 

 continue to expand. They are located in 

 central and east central Illinois at Bloom- 

 ington, Champaign, Decatur, Danville, 

 Shelbyville and Paris. 



W. R. Cummins, manager of the Pro- 

 ducers Marketing Association, Indian- 

 apolis, in discussing a pilot packing 

 plant, said farmers should develop their 



W. R. Cummins 



million hogs," he 



outlets for meats before going too heavily 

 into the packing business, suggesting we 

 needed hams and bacons ten Prairie Farms 

 milk trucks. 



President Fox's address read like a real 

 progress report. "By next year the sen- 

 ices of Illinois Livestock will have been 

 extended to 20 points in Illinois," he pre- 

 dicted. "Most of these points are county- 

 wide in scope. Compare this with last 

 year when only six county companies 

 were in operation." 



For the coming year these county-wide 

 marketing associations will content them- 

 selves with buying only hogs from their 

 farmer members. "We probably won't 

 be able to broaden our sales service to 

 cover cattle. But we may be able to offer 

 feeder cattle to our menibers by the time 

 the feeder season rolls around next fall," 

 Fox said. 



In his review of the year's activity of 

 the marketing cooperative Manager H. 

 W. Trautmann of Decatur said their nevk- 

 expansion program had hardly reached 

 the grass roots until his office was "be- 

 sieged with requests" asking for help in 

 setting up these local marketing coopera- 

 tives. 



Co-ops Spring Up 



The first of these cooperatives to or- 

 ganize last year was started in Strong- 

 hurst on Jan. 6 under the name of the 

 Henderson Livestock Marketing Associa- 

 tion. It has been a success since the day 

 it started. 



Other county marketing cooperatives 

 were not long in following. The Ste- 

 phenson Livestock Marketing Association 

 opened at Freeport Feb. 3 and have since 

 opened a branch point at Lena. Adams 

 County Marketing Association started in 

 Quincy June 23, Hancock county at 

 Elvaston on July 14, and Mercer county 

 in Aledo July 23. 



Others have incorporated and have 

 been buying and shipping for a short 

 time. Scott county started at Bluffs Oct. 

 1, Schuyler at RushviUe Oct. 13, Henry 



Map shows results of Illinois Livestock Mar- 

 keting Association expansion program dur- 

 ing the post fiscal year. Lines radiate from 

 state sales office at Decatur. Stars show 

 eld established buying points. Squares in- 

 dicate buying points established since the 

 post fiscal year. Circles show where buy- 

 ing points are being set up. 



county at Cambridge Nov. 3, and White- 

 side at Erie Nov. 17. 



The success of the program was indi- 

 cated by members at the annual meeting. 

 Stockmen said that the new co-ops were 

 often able to raise day-by-day hog prices 

 by 50 cents a hundred. Some said 50 

 cents was too low. A dollar a hundred, 

 they reported, was not uncommon. 



Farmers can now sell through this 

 newly expanded cooperative service, at 

 yards located in these cities: Blooming- 

 ton, Champaign, Decatur, Danville, Shel- 

 byville, Paris, Effingham, Stronghurst, 

 Aledo, Bluffs, RushviUe, Cambridge, Erie, 

 Quincy, Elvaston, Freeport, and Lena. 



Commenting on last year's market. 

 Trautmann said: "We have been able to 

 help our member yards through a maze 

 of tricky markets that at times slipjsed 

 SI or $2, or even more, in a single trad- 

 ing day without appreciable loss to our 

 members and without much let-up of 

 buying." 



Trautmann said it cost 15.7 cents a 

 head to market through Illinois Livestock 

 this year. The 249,935 animals which 

 cleared the sales office sold for $15,289,- 

 305.15. Farmers were charged one fourth 

 of one per cent, $38,853.28, to handle 

 this livestock. 



Part of this was returned as patronage 

 dividends to member yards. Checks 

 amounting to $5,019.40 were mailed to 

 member yards as patronage dividends. 



JANUARY, 1948 



