Through the National Livestock Marketing Association the Farm Board is prepared to give financial aid to all of the member sales agencies and to any other livestock cooperatives willing to affiliate with the central agency and thus help to develop unified cooperative control in selling meat-producing animals. Any cooperative livestock sales agency complying with the provisions of the Capper-Volstead Act is entitled to purchase stock in and become a member of the National Association. In order to be eligible to elect a representative on the board of directors of the National, a sales agency is required to have under contract or to have actually marketed during the previous calendar year ending December 31 not less than 2,500 single-deck carloads, or the equivalent, of livestock. In addition to the directors elected by the qualified member associations, there are four directors at large. The latter are elected by the following four general farm organizations: American Farm Bureau Federation, 58 East Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, 18 North Klein Street, Oklahoma City, Okla. Farmers' Equity Union, Greenville, Ill. The accompanying map shows the location of the 18 stockholder members of National Association. These organizations represent three types of sales agencies-terminal, regional, and order buying. TERMINAL AGENCIES The terminal agencies operate only at the stockyards on the central markets. The services rendered by the cooperative terminal agencies include receiving, feeding, sorting, grading, and selling livestock, and remitting proceeds of sales to the shipper. They buy stocker and feeder cattle, sheep, and hogs; maintain a field service for patrons, and, in most cases, a claim and transportation service. Ranchmen and farmers and their shipping associations are members of these terminal agencies. Some of the cooperative terminals are the largest selling agencies on the markets where they operate. REGIONAL AGENCIES The regional sales agencies operate on and off the central markets. Their operations are confined chiefly to the range areas of the western and southern parts of the United States. The four regional sales agencies, members of the National Association, are separately discussed immediately below: WESTERN CATTLE MARKETING ASSOCIATION The Western Cattle Marketing Association at San Francisco operates in California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, selling all of its members' livestock to the processor or packer. Its chief business is the selling of finished cattle to killers, although it does handle a large number of feeder cattle for its members. The territory in these States is districted and the sales are handled by field agents who operate in the respective districts. All cattle are sold on grade basis at the ranch. Packers place their orders at The location of the National Livestock Marketing Association's main office and the headquarters of its 18 stockholder members are shown on the above map. Of the 18 members, 13 are terminal sales agencies, located at Chicago, East St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleve land, Detroit, Buffalo, Kansas City, Sioux City, Peoria, Springfield, Ill., and Evansville, Ind. The main offices of the four regional sales agencies are located at Des Moines, Iowa; Denver, Colo.; Fort Worth, Tex.; and San Francisco, Calif. The order-buying concern, the National Order Buying Co., has its main office at Chicago. These agencies serve approximately 350,000 farmers and ranchmen who are members and patrons. Fifteen of these 18 cooperative sales agencies marketed in 1929 nearly 7,000,000 head of livestock valued at more than $170,000,000. the association's main or branch office, and field men are notified when and where to ship different grades of livestock. Each member of the Western Cattle Marketing Association is under contract, and the association is given the exclusive right to sell the cattle. The livestock is kept on the ranch until the sales are made. The Western Association is the oldest of the regional sales agencies. INTERMOUNTAIN LIVESTOCK MARKETING ASSOCIATION The Intermountain Livestock Marketing Association, at Denver, Colo., operates in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, and Utah. This association and the Texas Livestock Marketing Association are similar. These two organizations, recently formed, are typical illustrations of the combination of terminal marketing and direct marketing. In the Intermountain organization all members sign a contract, and the association is the exclusive agent for the sale of its members' livestock. Under the terms of the contract members list with the association the number and kind of marketable livestock they own. The association furnishes them with confidential information on selling, demand, and market conditions. The association may sell the grower's livestock at home, but it can not make a sale at the ranch at a price less than the member asks without his consent. The association also locates available pasture lands for its members. TEXAS LIVESTOCK MARKETING ASSOCIATION The Texas Livestock Marketing Association operates primarily in Texas and has a sales agency on the Fort Worth market. Its members pasture many thousands of cattle in Oklahoma and Kansas which are marketed through its branch office at St. Joseph and also member agencies of the National Livestock Marketing Association at Kansas City and East St. Louis. In the Texas Association all members sign a contract agreeing to market their livestock through the organization. The association handles and sells livestock for its members both on and off the terminal market. In addition to functioning as sales agencies, both the Texas and Intermountain Associations have organized regional credit corporations to give financial assistance to their members. The authorized capital stock of each of these credit corporations is $500,000. IOWA LIVESTOCK MARKETING CORPORATION The Iowa Livestock Marketing Corporation, at Des Moines, Iowa, represents a third type of regional sales agency. The rapid growth of decentralized marketing of Iowa livestock, especially hogs, was one of the main reasons for organizing the corporation. The plan of the corporation is to develop several branch or district sales agencies in different sections of the State, each with a trained salesman. The first district agency was organized at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The plan further provides that there will be several cooperative concentration yards surrounding each district sales agency. At these yards livestock is assembled, sorted, and graded, and sold by district salesmen on the basis of grade and weight. The Iowa corporation is supervising and coordinating the selling and directing the cooperative movement of livestock in that State. It is a member of the National Livestock Marketing Association and will use the services of the National Order Buying Co. when sales are made on packers' orders. It is centralizing control of marketing of livestock in Iowa, whether the animals move through terminal markets or direct to packers. NATIONAL ORDER BUYING CO. The National Order Buying Co. is located at Chicago, Ill., with branch offices at Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, East St. Louis, Columbus, and Des Moines. This company operates on the terminal markets as well as at country points and fills orders received from packers. There are numerous ways in which farmers and ranchmen may market their livestock cooperatively through the 18 sales agencies affiliated with the National Livestock Marketing Association, as shown on the accompanying chart. They are: First. The individual producer may consign his livestock to a terminal cooperative sales agency. Second. The farmer or ranchman may become a member of a local shipping association and deliver his livestock to that organization, which in turn may consign it to a terminal sales agency or to the National Order Buying Co. Third. The individual producer may deliver his livestock to a cooperative concentration yard where it is sold either to a packer, through the National Order Buying Co., or consigned to some terminal cooperative marketing agency. Fourth. In the range States, producers may consign their livestock to a terminal cooperative commission agency or the animals may be sold direct from the ranch on the basis of grade and weight. SALES BOARD OF NATIONAL Where there is no local livestock marketing association it may be necessary, in some instances, to form one, but any livestock producer, no matter where he is located in the United States, will be able to obtain the services of the National Livestock Marketing Association through one of its member agencies. Each member sales agency owns stock in the National. Under a marketing agreement with the agencies the National has created a sales board. The sales board is composed of three men-the president and the general manager of the National and the manager of the Feeder and Finance Corporation. Under the National Association's plan the sales board secures the most authoritative information relative to supply and demand with respect to livestock and its products. With this information, the duty of the board is to prepare reports daily for the sales agencies showing price and demand conditions, which enables them to more efficiently merchandise livestock. DEPARTMENTS OF NATIONAL The National Livestock Marketing Association also serves its members through various departments which deal with questions concerning transportation, legal matters, publicity and advertising, research, livestock and meats, and accounting. Each member sales agency regularly furnishes the National with uniform financial statements and statistical reports and agrees to abide by and conform to policies prescribed by the National with respect to the marketing of livestock. In order to provide revenue for the National, the member sales agencies pay car dues, 50 cents per single-deck carload and 75 cents per double-deck carload of livestock handled. The National Livestock Marketing Association has two subsidiaries the National Feeder and Finance Corporation and the National Livestock Publishing Co. NATIONAL FEEDER AND FINANCE CORPORATION The National Feeder and Finance Corporation sets up regional credit corporations which loan money to farmers and ranchmen for the feeding and finishing of livestock, making it possible to move livestock efficiently and at a minimum of cost from the range breeding grounds to the feed lots of the Mid-Western and Eastern States. The capital stock of the Feeder and Finance Corporation is owned by the National Livestock Marketing Association. The feeder desiring a loan makes application to one of the National Marketing Association's member sales agencies. He is required to furnish a financial statement with his application. The loan is made by the regional corporation to the producer through his sales agency. The loans are made for a period of nine months. In some cases the time is extended. The farmer may use this money to pay for feeder livestock. If he owns livestock he may use it to buy feed. TERMINAL AND REGIONAL SALES AGENCIES Below are the names and addresses of the terminal and the regional sales agencies that are members of the National: Chicago Producers Commission Association, Chicago, Ill. Producers Cooperative Commission Association, Buffalo, N. Y. Texas Livestock Marketing Association, with its main office at Fort Worth, Tex., and a branch office at St. Joseph, Mo. Western Cattle Marketing Association, with its main office at San Francisco, and a branch office at Los Angeles, Calif. |