Page Six
Association Aids
Livestock Marketing
In Wallowa County
Heppner Gazette Times, Heppner, Oregon
Tax Experts to Aid
Thursday. November 27, 1941
By GARNET D. BEST,
County Agent, Wallowa County.
Wallowa county lies at the ex
treme northeastern corner of the
state of Oregon, and the only means
of shipping out agricultural pro
ducts is over the branch line of the
Union Pacific which connects with
the main line at La Grande, or by
truck. You can see, from the stand
point of shipping out our products,
we are somewhat isolated.
Prior to the organization of our
marketing association, there were
fifteen or twenty buyers covering
Wallowa county in cars, buying cat
tle, sheep and hogs as cheaply as it
was possible for them to do so.
These buyers were always very anx
ious to buy livestock when the mar
ket was rising, but on a falling mar
ket it was almost impossible to get
any offer from them.
With so many buyers in our lim
ited territory, it was absolutely nec
essary that they have a very wide
margin on which to operate because
the volume of each purchaser was
necessarily quite small. In many
cases, it proved necessary for two
or three men to pool the stock they
had purchased in order to make a
car load to Portland, or for one
buyer to sell his purchases to an
other for shipment.
Many of these livestock buyers
were more or less operating on a
"shoe string," and if they guessed
wrong on the selling market, bad
checks often resulted. Sometimes
these checks were later collected,
and, in some cases, they never were.
Under the conditions as just out
lined, it is easy to see that the small
shippers were the ones particularly
at the mercy of the local market and
suffered much worse than if they
themselves were able to ship stock
in car lots. However, the car load
shippers were also hurt to some ex
tent because when livestock in small
lots can be picked up at less than
market prices, it tends to bear down
on the price set at the terminal mar
kets. The matter of organizing an asso
ciation had been discussed for some
time in Wallowa county and final
ly came to a head early in 1928.
At this time the Pomona grange ap
pointed a committee to meet with
N. C. Donaldson, at that time coun
ty agent of Wallowa county, to for
mulate plans for an association, the
Best
Wishes
for a
Successful
Convention
to the
E. O. W. L.
scorrrs
Super-Creamed
Ice Cream
purpose of the organization to handle
the smaller shipments of the live
stock grower who had to sell in less
than carlots.
The association's first shipment of
livestock was made on October 9,
1928.
The first annual meeting of the
association was held December 22,
1928, and a board of seven livestock
shippers was selected from seven
different sections of the county to
act as directors.
J. W. Miller of Enterprise was el
ected president and N. C. Donaldson,
secretary-treasurer.
The first livestock shipments were
assembled by the association direc
tors and $10 per car was allowed
them for their expenses.
Later on, of course, it became nec
essary to hire a man at Joseph, one
at Enterprise, and one covering the
Wallowa and Lostine section, for as
sembling, weighing and shipping the
stock.
At the annual meeting of direc
tors, December 18, 1931, W. L. Teu
tsch, assistant county agent leader,
explained the procedure and ad
vantages of incorporating under the
cooperative laws of Oregon. The as
sociation decided that this was a
wise move and authorized the board
of directors to draw up articles of
association, formulate by-laws and
file the necessary papers at Salem
This was done immediately.
At the present time, the mem
bership fee is 50 cents for any bona
fide livestock producer in the coun
ty who ships with the association.
At no time has it been required
that members sign a marketing
agreement and members can sell
through the association or outside,
as they desire. As may be seen
from this, the association depends
for business upon its ability to give
better service at less cost than its
competitors.
Although charges have varied con
siderably, according to the shipping
costs, price of feed, etc., those in
use at the present time by thg asso
ciation are as follows:
Cattle & Hogs
Association charge, 6c cwt.
Insurance charge, lc cwt.
Sheep
Association charge, 7c head.
Insurance charge, lc head.
All weighing is 25c per draft.
The association charge is used to
help pay the men assembling, and
for other miscellaneous association
expenses.
The association owns its own truck
and hauls livestock to the stock
yards for members at cost. However,
during seasons of heavy shipments
the association hires additional
trucks to haul the livestock of the
members. Members may, at their
option, deliver their livestock at the
yards.
The average cost to the shipper
to get his livestock to the stock
yards in Portland is 75 cents per
cwt.
When a man delivers livestock to
the stockyards, it is weighed, given
an individual shipper's mark with a
pair of clippers, in case of cattle
and hogs, or paint in the case of
sheep, and is then run into pens to
await loading in the cars.
In this way, the animals are sort
ed again when they reach Portland
and each man's shipment is sold in
dividually by the commission firm.
Thus each shipper stands his own
shrinkage and is paid according to
the quality of the -stock he ships.
The association ships on a special
stock train which leaves early Sat
urday morning for Portland. Most
of our livestock is sold by the var
ious commission firms in North Port
land, although sometimes a car load
is sold to an outside purchaser who
ships them himself. In the summer,
the lambs are pooled and usually
sold on the track to buyers who
ship east.
Since organization the association,
of course, has had its share of prob
lems to be worked out in connection
with shipping stock of so many ow
ners in the same car and of keeping
records straight on such shipments.
George Gatlin, former extension ec-
Discussions at Meet
By C. D. CONRAD
County Agent, Morrow County
Claude Buchannan, president of
the Oregon Taxpayers League; Chas.
V. Gallaway of the State Tax Com
mission; and F. L. Phipps, executive
secretary of the Association of Or
egon Counties are among those who
are expected to attend the Taxation, !
Legislation and Transportation com
mittee meetings and furnish taxa
tion information to the committee
during the Wheat League conven
tion according to Geo. N. Peck, gen
eral chairman of that committee.
Others extended invitations in
clude: Ormond Bean, Public Utili
ties Commissioner; F. H. Young,
manager of the Oregon Business and
Tax Research Bureau; Earl Snell,
Secretary of State; and R. S. Kearns,
of the Oregon-California Lands Administration.
Tmrwtant Questions that will be
considered by this committee will
include taxation problems that might
come before a special session of the
Oregon Legislature if one is held.
Peck wishes to emphasize the in
formation on taxation that farmers
might pick up at this committee
meeting rather than the resolutions
to be made.
onomist in marketing, and R. L.
Clark of Portland were called upon
and have given freely of their time
and effort in helping to perfect a
system whereby such shipments
would be possible.
One of the main problems the as
sociation has had to deal with, par
ticularly in hog shipments, is varia
tion of shrink. One man's hogs in a
shipment may show a slight gain in
weight between Wallowa county and
Portland, while another man's hogs,
in the same car, may show a rather
heavy shrinkage. While this is
largely due to type of feed prior
to shipment and possibly some other
complicated reasons, yet it has been
impossible to give any definite rec
ommendations which would control
shrinkage.
Another problem was the loss due
to death and crippling of animals
enroute to market. The association
has solved this problem by the in
surance charge which it makes. It
then pays the owner for his loss and
puts in a claim to the railroad which
partly reimburses the association.
We have found that it has been
much easier to obtain improvements
in stockyards and other facilities
since the association was organized
because the voice of the shippers is
much more articulate through an
association than were the voices of
a thousand shippers individually.
The number of shippers and the
net returns to the shippers, after all
expenses were paid, since organiza
tion of the association are as follows:
1929 550 shippers $325,422.00
1930 823 shippers 473,270.00
1931 875 shippers 363,568.00
1932 580 shippers 200,259.00
1933 350 shippers 149,837.00
1934 444 shippers 195,294.00
1935 730 shippers 446,291.00
1936 770 shippers 7 559,835.00
1937 1025 shippers 667,434.00
1938 1025 shippers 567,943.00
1939 1025 shippers 547,086.19
1940 1025 shippers 525,444.52
(The 1933 net price is much lower
because of the results of the de-pression.)
WELCOME WHEATLEAGUERS
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GREEN'S HARDWARE
Welcome To Heppner
And for a safe trip home,
have your car serviced at
FERGUSON
MOTOR CO.
Extending a Cordial Invitation
To All Wheat League Members . . .
WELCOME TO HEPPNER
Braden
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Tractor cV Equipment Co.