﻿34 BULLETIN 1150, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



they will give their stock proper treotiakent prior to shipment, rather than 

 stuffing, saiiinu'. or using other devices for securing a fraudulent home weight 

 or an excessive till ut the market. 8 



The question of prorating at home presents somewhat the same 

 problems' as grading; Xo doubt commission firms in most cases are 

 better equipped than the shipping associations to do this work. On 

 the other hand, inasmuch as the alert manager insists on checking 

 the work anyway, he can with but little extra effort make the original 

 calculations. Too frequently, because of the dependence upon the 

 commission firm to do this work, the local management is unaware 

 of the methods used or the problems involved. A critical knowledge 

 of these methods and problems is essential to progress in realizing 

 the ideal of the shipping association, namely, to obtain for each 

 shipper what his live stock is actually worth less the cost of market- 

 ing it. 



Conditions are gradually becoming more favorable for grading and 

 prorating at home. Managers and officers are acquiring experience, 

 and the development of the local association in many States seems 

 to be in the direction of consolidating the business under fewer and 

 better qualified managers. The work of prorating would be greatly 

 facilitated by the adoption of a uniform system of records and the 

 use of labor-saving devices, such as calculating machines, computation 

 tables, and suitable printed working forms and permanent records. 



PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN PRORATING. 



Much of the success of a shipping association depends upon 

 whether the shrinkage and expenses are charged and the returns dis- 

 tributed fairly among the different shippers. Prorating, or the 

 calculation of the returns due the individual shippers, is therefore 

 one of the most important operations to be performed in the manage- 

 ment of a shipping association. 



Prorating involves the following problems: (1) Distributing 

 shrinkage; (2) distributing the gross amount among the different 

 grades of live stock when a carload of mixed grades is sold for a lump 

 sum; (3) dividing the expense among the different kinds of stock in 

 a mixed car; (4) prorating when a shipment consists of more than 

 one car; (5) distributing the total expenses among the individual 

 shippers according to the live stock shipped by each. 



/>?xfr?7>vf/'?u/ shrinkage. — The usual practice in distributing 

 shrinkage is to charge cattle with their indivdual shrinkage, which 

 of course, necessitates obtaining individual weights at home as well 

 as at the market. In the case of hogs, calves, and sheep, however, 

 the usual practice is to prorate the total shrinkage on some uniform 

 basis, preferably so much per 100 pounds. 



Shrinkage is sometimes prorated on the head basis, which method 

 is equitable only when the animals included are of approximately 

 uniform size and weight. When the shrinkage differs for different 

 grades of animals, as, for instance, between good butcher hogs and 

 packers, the rate for each grade showing a marked difference should 

 be calculated separately. As already noted in the foregoing, any 

 lots of animals which may unduly influence the average shrinkage 



9 Cooperative Live Stodc Shipping in Iowa in 1920, by E. G. Nourse and C. W. Ham- 

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



