- 
LIVE-STOCK SHIPPING ASSOCIATIONS. arg 
misjudges frequently. A thorough knowledge of the different 
markets, the relative costs of shipping to them, and other factors 
concerned are essential on the part of the management if the greatest 
possible success is to be achieved. Some managers shift the respon- 
sibility for the choice of markets to the shippers themselves or to 
the shipper who owns the bulk of the load. 
Distributing the total expenses among the shippers.—Little uni- 
formity exists in the methods used in distributing the expenses 
among the shippers. This is true whether the prorating is done at 
home or by the sales agency. In the case of some of the older asso- 
ciations, particularly in the Northwest and in some of the Corn-Belt 
States, all of the expenses are added together and charged to the 
shipper at so much per 100 pounds. In other cases the attempt of 
the cooperator to obtain the actual market value of his stock less 
the actual expenses of marketing, seems to have been interpreted as 
meaning that the member’s statement must show in dollars and cents 
how much he has contributed toward each of the six to a dozen 
different items of expense, calculated on two or three different bases. 
Between these two methods there exists a wide range of variations. 
Under the method of prorating illustrated in the following pages 
all expenses are added together, irrespective of the basis on which 
charge was made against the shipment as a whole, and divided among 
the shippers equally on the weight basis. The advantages of this 
method are: 
(1) The work involved in prorating is reduced to the minimum, as 
only one calculation is necessary in determining the amount of ex- 
penses to be charged each shipper, compared with the large number of 
calculations involved in the detailed method of prorating. The extra 
work involved in prorating is reflected in the extra charge of $2 to 
$6 per car made by commission firms for handling cooperative ship- 
ments. 
(2) The distribution of expenses among the shippers is as fair on 
the average as is practically possible. Inasmuch as each 100 pounds 
of livestock in a shipment receives practically the same service, it 
seems logical to distribute the expenses on the weight basis.2° Effi- 
ciency in marketing calls for handling the shipment in such a manner 
as will yield the highest possible net price per 100 pounds for the 
entire shipment, rather than striving for individual accounting of 
each shipper’s stock at any cost. 
(3) The single-rate method of prorating conveys to the shipper in 
an emphatic manner the factors which determine the financial results 
of the shipment, i. e., the weight and shrinkage, the selling price, the 
total expenses in dollars and cents, and the rate per 100 pounds. It 
is believed the educational benefits of cooperative shipping can be 
realized more fully by presenting the detailed information regarding 
expenses, etc., in the form of comparatively monthly summaries than 
by presenting them on the individual member’s statement. Variations 
in expenses, losses, and shrinkage can be explained more satisfactorily 
when based on more extensive data than a single shipment affords 
10 Tt is sometimes urged that it is only fair that the expenses should be passed on to 
the shipper on the same basis as they were actually incurred. Carried out to its logical 
conclusion, this would necessitate the determination of the amount of feed actually 
consumed by each lot of live stock separately. It would mean weighing by ownership 
determine actual shrinkage by lots. It might even mean that shippers should assume 
the risk of losses individually, 
