Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1921-12-29
LIVE STOCK MARKETING
Old Shipper Criticizes Co-Operative
Shipping Association Marketing
of Live Stock.

! vi live StOCk.
! Editor: | have noticed for some
( time a number of articles running in
various magazines covering the diff
ferent phases of live stock shipping.
A great many of che articles seem to
/ have been written without any par
ticular regard to facts. One was in
1.-THE Country Gentleman" of Oct. s.
written by Stuart o. Blythe, entitled
THE Door to the Packing House"
1t is one thing to rattle along and
tell how many cars of stock have
been shipped by different cooper
ative shipping associations and how
much money they have saved the
producer, and another thing to give
actual facts. He starts out by in
terviewing "0ld Man Corwin," as he
calls him. "Old Man Corwin' told
him that in the old halcyon days
when the country shipper was buying
the stock the farmer did not have ii
chance, that the shipper would give
just the same for stock worth $500
per hundred as he would for stock
worth $1,000 per hundred.
| Now, ] have been in the shipping
business for over forty years and
have shipped about as much stock
as any, and it is very obvious to any
one at all familiar with the live
stock business that any dealer that
did that way would not remain in
business very long.
cold Man Corwin" complains
about so many buyers running over
the country wearing out horse flesh
and burning up gas, but he does not
say word about there now being
more men handling the same
amount of business comparatively
than there were buying II, and on
top of that a number more doing
duplicate work in handling the bust
ness two or three times, going
through the country and forming
state organizations which does no
one any good, and all of these men
have to be paid. Neither did the old
man tell Mr.. Blythe that the man
ayers alone get more money per car
for simply marking and loading the
stock than I myself or any other
shipper of my acquaintance ever av-
eraged profit per car when we paid
the cash for the stock, took all the
risks and did all the work.
Old Man Corwin also told him
that when they used to sell to the
local buyer they filled them as full
as they could so they could sell at
the additional weight; in other
words, they were trying to get the
best of the buyers. Now, it would
have been needless for him to have
told any buyer that, for they all
learn very early in the game that a
great many of them had the Corwin
habit of filling The old man might
also have told Mr.. Blythe that lot
of them were doing the same thing
now so as to get the best of the 9TH
er fellow when shipping co-operat-
lively, when the hogs are weighed
together, and the shrink pro-rated,
and right here let me say that CO.
operative shippers never will know
what ii has been costing them to
have their hogs sorted and weighed
for ownership. / know OF one load
| of hogs belonging to eleven owners
that were sorted and weighed in
eleven drafts. As the drafts came off
the scales they were all held and
when the last draft was weighed
they were all put on together and
they weighed 140 pounds more IN
one draft than they did in eleven
This simply Covers the loss in the
breaking Of the scales on the differ
ent drafts, which would represent
about IS pounds to the draft. Hogs
at that time were worth $1,000, so
it cost the owners $14.00 to weigh
that load of hogs for ownership. be-
sides what they would shrink while
sorting, which would be at least
another 100 pounds, which would
bring the cost of sorting for owner
ship up TO $24.00 on the load. That
alone is more than the average ship
per's profit, and no one gets the
benefit of it except the packer who
buys the hogs. Multiply this
amount by the hundreds of loads
that Mr.. Blythe tells of being ship
ped this way and see what it costs.
No wonder the packer is very favor
able to cooperative shippers. Mr..
Blythe makes the statement that
cooperative stock gives better re-
suits on the markets. Now. any
experienced live stock man would
| like him to explain how that is pos
sible. We all know the stock is
not graded as it is loaded, and IL it
is sold all together somebody gets
the worst of it, and if it is sorted in
! from two TO twenty punches, it is
shrinking while being sorted, and
again the packer gets the benefit.
Mr.. Blythe says they are saving
from $25 to $3.50 per car. Does he
tell you about any OF their losses?
Now, in the fall of 1920, about the
time the readjustment started, had
three loads of hogs bought for one
shipment that lost little more than
S1,400. The farmer had the money
and / had the experience.
/ saw statement last winter by a
county agent about how many ship
ping organizations there were in his
county. II was IL to IA He told
how much business they had done
and how much they had saved the
producer. don't know how he can
tell IL they saved money or lost
money, as the farmer refuses to sell
and the buyer does not get chance
to bid 'on the stock.
I know in many cases have bid
them on their stock and they have
refused to take the price, and their
stock sold for less per hundred in
Chicago, and / do not see how they
can make from sis to $3.50 per car
shipping that way. am wondering
If that county agent added my ST.
400 loss on the one three-load ship
ment to the profits that the asso-
citation had made the producer.
II these shipping associations
have saved the farmer so much mon
ey that the local shipper has been
making, where in the name OF good
ness has all the money gone 20, as
nine out of ten of all the live stock
BUYERS | have known in the past for