﻿UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1150 



Washington, D. C. 



August 8, 1923 



ACCOUNTING RECORDS AND BUSINESS METHODS FOR 

 LIVE-STOCK SHIPPING ASSOCIATIONS. 1 



By Frank Robotka, Assistant, Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, and Col- 

 laborator, Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



What forms are needed 3 



Scale ticket 3 



Manifest 4 



Prorating sheet 6 



Member's) statement 6 



Shipment record envelope 7 



Shipment summary record 9 



The cash journal 10 



Operating the cash journal 11 



Information, needed to determine 



the business standing 16 



Description of the accounts 18 



Advances to shippers 22 



Sales subject to inspection 22 



The need of permanent records 23 



Records as a protection to man- 

 agers, directors, and others 23 



Page. 

 The need of permanent records — Con- 

 tinued. 



Records as a guide to manage- 

 ment 23 



Monthly and annual reports 24 



Analyzing the business 28 



Who should keep the books V 29 



Marketing methods 30 



Terminal market methods 30 



Grading and prorating at home. 33 



Problems involved in prorating- 34 



Filling out the prorating sheet- 38 



Prorating mixed shipments 41 



Short weight and mixed car- 

 loads 45 



Illustrative transactions 47 



The cooperative marketing of live stock has experienced a more 

 phenomenal growth than perhaps any other form of cooperative 

 endeavor. Using Iowa as an illustration, the oldest association in 

 the State was organized in 1904. Of all the associations in existence 

 in the State in 1920, about 3 per cent were organized before 1910, 

 only 8 per cent before 1915, and less than 25 per cent before 1918. 

 About 75 per cent of the associations in existence in December, 1920, 

 were organized during the years 1919 and 1920. 2 



Even though the history of the movement in other States differs 

 in some respects from that in Iowa, by far the greatest development 

 for the country as a whole has taken place within the past five years. 



This rapid growth has brought to the front a number of problems, 

 most of which may be traced directly or indirectly to small volume 

 of business, inexperienced management and in some localities to 

 competition among the associations. As a result there is a wide 

 difference in the cost of shipping between the most efficient and the 

 least efficient associations. The choice of markets is also important, 



1 Manuscript for this publication was prepared in collaboration with the Iowa State 

 College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and is also published as Accounting Records 

 for Live Stock Shipping Associations, by Frank Robotka. Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. No. 

 209. 



2 Cooperative Live-Stock Shipping in Iowa in 1920, by E. C Nourse and C W. Ham- 

 mans, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. No. 200. 



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