Ready for dinner at the meeting of the lllh' 

 neis Grain Corporotlon are, ciockwiaei W. 

 D. Thisseli, Coles county; R. K. Sickle*, 

 Adams; Emory W. Ward, Hancock; I. M. 

 Graham, Hancock; Carl G. Prox, Hancock; J. 

 C. Nelll, Hancock; and Reuel Thaxton, Sa- 

 line. 



By LEW REISNER 



neld Editor, lAA RECORD 



IM Grain Co-ops Hit lew Highs in 1947 



Roy Hendrickson 



THE AMERICAN farmer has a 

 fair prospect for food exports 

 higher than the pre-war level for 

 many years aheaa, Roy Hendrick- 

 son, Washington representative 

 of the National Federation of 

 Grain Cooperatives, told members of 

 the Illinois Grain Corporation at their 

 annual meeting 

 held recently in 

 St. Louis. 



"Our grain ex- • 

 ports will be need- 

 ed to meet deficits 

 for several years 

 ahead because such 

 surpluses as Eastern 

 Europe may devel- 

 op will not, because 

 of Russian domina- 

 tion there, be avail- 

 able to feed West- 

 ern Europe as was the case before the 

 war," Hendrickson told his farm audi- 

 ence. 



From a close study of the areas 

 which he had visited Hendrickson said 

 he has come to the conclusion that this 

 winter will be the season of greatest 

 need since the start of the war. 



"The hunger of Western Europe," 

 Hendrickson said, "provides a picture 

 of desperate human need. Food is 

 critically needed in Italy, Greece, 

 France, and the Army-occupied areas 

 of Germany, Austria, and Japan, and 

 almost as badly needed in Belgium, 

 The Netherlands, Norway, Finland and 

 the United Kingdom." 



He attributed this year's shortage to 

 the severe winter weather in 1946-47 

 that killed crops in the ground, fol- 

 lowed by floods and poor growing 



weather, and abated by a discouraging 

 array of troubles that plague Europe. 



President Charles Schmitt of Beason, 

 reviewing the year's business activity of 

 the grain organization, told members 

 at the annual meeting that their co- 

 operative had earned more than one 

 million dollars this year, a record for 

 the company. 



Handling last year's bumper corn 

 and soybean crop gave Illinois Grain 

 Corporation its greatest volume. It 

 sold 32,000,000 bushels of grain for its 

 member elevators. 



Illinois Grain Corporation, a coop- 

 erative commission company, operates 

 on the Chicago Board of Trade, the 

 St. Louis Merchants Exchange, and the 

 Peoria Board of Trade, principal ter- 

 minal grain markets. It is owned and 

 controlled by Illinois grain producers 

 through their local elevators and 

 county Farm Bureaus. It is an asso- 

 ciated company of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association. 



At the meeting patronage refunds 

 on earnings amounting to nearly one 

 and one-half cents per bushel were an- 

 nounced. These savings totaled $475,- 

 517 and will be passed back to mem- 

 bers in the form of cash and class "C" 

 preferred stock. 



The volume of 32,000,000 bushels 

 was almost double last year's 16,500,- 

 000 but reflects also the increase result- 

 ing from handling the grain of a large 

 farmers cooperative in Des Moines. 



This year, because of its volume of 

 business, the office of the Illinois 

 Grain Corporation was moved into the 

 Chicago Board of Trade building at 

 the time the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation moved to its new home at 

 43 E. Ohio street. 



IOWA farmers are earning from three 

 to five cents a bushel by handling 

 their grain cooperatively through a 

 grain terminals organization. 

 This was the picture presented to 

 Illinois farmers by Fred Maywald, 

 manager of the grain department of the 

 Farmers Grain Deal- 

 ers Association of 

 Iowa. 



He spoke during 

 the first annual meet- 

 ing of the Illinois 

 Grain Terminals 

 Company held dur- 

 ing the recent Illi- 

 nois Agricultural As- 

 sociation convention 

 in St. Louis and pre- 

 Homer Curtiss sjjgj ^^^^ ^y Presi- 

 dent Homer Curtiss, JoDaviess county. 



"Terminal operations and grain mer- 

 chandizing have paid well in recent years," 

 Maywald said. "We reported net earn- 

 ings of 514 cents a bushel to our mem- 

 bers in 1946 and a little less than 3 cents 

 last year." 



An Indiana cooperative, he said, has 

 had similar savings during the past five 

 years with net savings ranging from 2 to 

 8 cents a bushel. 



Sp>eaking of the advantages inherent 

 in grain merchandising, Maywald said it 

 gives grain farmers a terminal market 

 outlet, a step farther than local elevators 

 can take toward final sale to processors. 

 A terminal elevator in turn gives farm- 

 ers a chance to take advantage of day by 

 day market conditions, he said, and helps 

 particularly with such practices as grain 

 blending, or mixing various grades of 

 grain, to produce a more marketable 

 product. 



Reporting on Illinois Grain Termi- 

 nals Company, Manager George Iftner 



I' 



30 



L A. A. RECORD 



