Stock Raising.
—Marketing facilities and road transportation is greatly changing the character of stock raising. Not so very many years ago the great western plains were covered with large herds of cattle whose owners and caretakers were known as ranchers. The ranch usually consisted of the owner’s residence, which he also used as an office, sleeping and eating quarters for the cowboys, a corral or two for the horses and possibly cattle during the round-up and branding season, though this latter was usually on the open. The cattle ranged and fed upon the wild grass, the cowboys riding around the bunch daily in order to keep track of them. The round-up was held in the late summer while the calves were still running with their mothers and could be identified. The cattle of several ranches ran together and at branding periods had to be cut out—separated. Then the unbranded calves and mavericks were roped, thrown and branded; the bull calves were altered and the herd again turned loose upon the prairies. A little later in the fall they were again rounded-up and those to be sold selected and cut out. These were driven to the nearest railway track and shipped to market, sometimes a train load from one shipping point. During the winter season and in violent storms there were many hardships as well as loss of cattle. The cowboys also had to be on the lookout for “rustlers”—thieves who stole the cattle outright, branded unbranded mavericks they knew did not belong to them, or mutilated brands by placing their own over the rightful one.
Meat from these more or less wild, grass-fed animals was seldom better than second class, and never brought on the market the equal of corn-fed cattle. However, they did furnish a reasonably cheap food and kept down the price of meat.
Along with better roads and markets came a demand for other products; land that furnished the open range was fenced in, and later subdivided into farms upon which were raised grain, hogs, poultry, and perhaps a few cattle. Dairying in many places took the place of stock raising. No longer were the animals driven to market on the hoof. They were fattened upon grain and hay and carried to market in wagons and trucks. Hogs replaced cattle. The turnover is more frequent and they do well on maize, requiring no hay or straw except perhaps a very little for bedding. The corn fed to hogs usually brings about twice as much a bushel as that sold to the dealer.
Since about 12 to 15 miles is the greatest distance hogs may with profit be hauled to market in horse-drawn wagons on dirt roads, there grew up at every small railway station a stock market. The railway company provided stockyards, a series of pens with a chute for loading. The dealers bought from the farmers and placed their animals in the railway pens until a car load was obtained, when they were sent on to the packing house located in one of the large cities. Therefore, between the farmer and the packer there were at least two middlemen, the local dealer and the commission merchant at the terminal stock yards which are nominally under a different corporation than the packing houses.
With the good roads and the motor truck has come much marketing directly by the farmer at the packing-house yards. The Firestone Ship by Truck Bureau, a subsidiary organization of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, made a careful study of the use of the truck in marketing live stock, and in 1921 issued a bulletin thereon.[192] A detailed showing of the marketing of animals at St. Joseph, Omaha, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis is given. From that bulletin will be copied some statistics and other information that may be of interest. Those wishing the full discussion should write for the bulletin.
Tables are given which “show that at each yard the driven-in receipts during the years 1918, 1919, and 1920 were very much in excess of those of 1917. Of the total receipts (the tables give them each month of the four years) of driven-in hogs at the St. Joseph yards in 1917 approximately 10 per cent were hauled to the yards by motor truck. While the driven-in hog receipts at the same yard during 1918 were twice those of 1917, 40 per cent of this total was driven by truck. In 1920, 60 per cent of driven-in hog receipts were truck hauled. The St. Joseph figures clearly indicate that the truck movement commenced about 1917 and that each of the following years have witnessed decided increases.
“At Omaha truck-hauled receipts appear to have commenced earlier than at St. Joseph; for during the years 1917 and 1918 the best estimates placed the truck-hauled receipts about 90 per cent of the total driven-in receipts, while the year 1919 amounted to 95 per cent of the total driven-in receipts. In 1920 virtually all driven-in receipts were truck-hauled.
“At Cincinnati in the year 1918 more than 90 per cent of driven-in receipts were truck-hauled while in 1919 at least 95 per cent of all stock delivered at this yard other than by freight car came on motor trucks. In 1920 driven-in receipts which were not truck-hauled were negligible.
“Indianapolis has shown the most conspicuous increase in truck delivered stock of any yard in the country. During the last year more than 95 per cent of all driven-in hogs to this yard were delivered by motor truck. It is seldom that team equipment is seen at this yard. At both Cincinnati and Indianapolis on an average day 100 trucks can be seen coming into the yards, while as many as 300 trucks have been counted at Cincinnati in one day, and as many as 450 at Indianapolis.”
From tables given in the Bulletin are extracted the following data for the Omaha and the Indianapolis yards:
| Omaha Yard | |||
| Year | Driven-in Receipts | Total Receipts | Percentage, Driven-in to Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1916 | 46,542 | 3,116,820 | 1.47 |
| 1917 | 65,922 | 2,796,596 | 2.36 |
| 1918 | 188,417 | 3,429,533 | 5.38 |
| 1919 | 179,036 | 3,179,116 | 5.64 |
| 1920 | 181,946 | 2,708,482 | 6.67 |
| 1921 | ....... | ........ | .... |
| Indianapolis Yard | |||
| Year | Driven-in Receipts | Total Receipts | Percentage, Driven-in to Total |
| 1912 | 110,624 | 1,824,260 | 6.06 |
| 1913 | 90,821 | 1,994,624 | 4.04 |
| 1914 | 96,521 | 2,099,787 | 4.58 |
| 1915 | 136,441 | 2,435,319 | 5.61 |
| 1916 | 173,191 | 2,576,611 | 6.74 |
| 1917 | 271,994 | 2,350,730 | 7.84 |
| 1918 | 462,313 | 2,749,976 | 16.8 |
| 1919 | 709,584 | 2,936,493 | 23.7 |
| 1920 | 787,100 | 2,896,894 | 27.2 |
| 1921 | ....... | ........ | ..... |
A [graphical representation] shows the continuous increase of driven-in to the total receipts. The table of percentages and the graphical representation are not given in the bulletin. They show very clearly what happened when the motor truck began to function in 1917. The truck has made a very much more effective showing at Indianapolis than at Omaha. No doubt this is because (1) the average haul at Omaha is longer; Omaha draws from a more sparsely settled country and from longer distances; (2) the roads adjacent to Omaha are nearly all, as yet, earth-surfaced. Only a few hard roads have been built; (3) many of the farms in the Omaha territory are large and sell so many animals at a time that they can easily fill one, two, or three railway cars at a shipment. The percentage of truck-hauled stock will no doubt continue to increase until practically all hogs within the economic radius of truck operation are marketed by motor. When the time comes, if it ever will, when abattoirs are established at distances no farther apart than 100 to 150 miles, making the maximum haul 50 to 75 miles, the percentage of stock handled by the railroads to these abattoirs will be very small indeed. The larger packing houses with the advantages of great quantity production will still be able to reach out into the more remote districts and secure that proportion of animals necessary to keep them going which can not be obtained locally.
Showing the increase of truck-delivered hogs at Indianapolis and at Omaha.
That there is still an opportunity for increases of motor-hauled stock a further quotation from the Firestone Bulletin will show:
“The territory served by trucks in marketing live stock is principally within a 50-mile radius of the market center. In the course of investigation the longest haul which came under observation was 140 miles. The average haul on the days the investigators were at the markets was about 30 miles. The following table gives some idea of the length of hauls at the four different yards:
| Yard | No. of Trucks Observed | Longest Haul, Miles | Shortest Haul, Miles | Average Haul, Miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Joseph | 48 | 100 | 9 | 27 |
| Omaha | 62 | 75 | 6 | 28.2 |
| Cincinnati | 40 | 72 | 3.5 | 28.9 |
| Indianapolis | 40 | 97 | 7 | 32.5 |
“While the average haul is 28.95 miles, most of the trucks observed in the course of investigation use solid-tire equipment. This type of equipment had a tendency to restrict the mileage.”
The bulletin also is authority for a statement that 91.3 per cent of the hogs within a 50-mile circle about the Indianapolis yards are carried by trucks, but that only 18.3 per cent at Omaha move that way, and at St. Joseph 10.8 per cent, which indicates to them that there are still great possibilities for the truck, especially as the truck has not come into as extended use at many other packing centers as at the four places treated in the bulletin.
There is no doubt but that pneumatic-tire equipment, and to a lesser extent, the cushion-tire equipment will extend the average haul to 50 miles. Hard-surfaced roads will again extend it 25 to 50 miles, making a haul of 75 to 100 miles not uncommon.
A further effect of the truck and the ease of marketing which it will bring about is that hogs will be marketed in smaller quantities but oftener. The farmer instead of turning off his marketable animals twice a year will send them in four times a year, possibly monthly. The tendency will be to stabilize the market over the several seasons. As yet, the stabilizing, influence of the truck is hardly noticeable.
Average number of driven-in hogs marketed at Indianapolis each month; years 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920 being averaged.
Average number of driven-in hogs marketed at Omaha each month; years 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920 being averaged.
[Diagrams] on pages 290 and 291 show the average monthly number of hogs received at the yards of Indianapolis and Omaha by truck; the years 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920 being averaged. At Indianapolis, where the roads are good the year around, the receipts from June to December are much larger than those from December to June, the peaks occurring in December and June. In Omaha, on the contrary, the greater number of driven-in hogs came in the other half of the year the peaks occurring in January and July. These may be partially accounted for, in the West, on the theory that January 1st and March 1st are regular settlement days and farmers arrange to meet their obligations then by selling off a batch of hogs. They also plan to reduce the number of their hogs to the minimum during the months of May, June, and July, so as to have few fat hogs to carry through the hot weather. In the Eastern states the farmers seem to work on a different basis. If the selling of live stock could be spread out uniformly over the year prices would be more uniform. An analysis of prices on the Chicago hog market shows that they are usually highest during the summer months, from April to August, the months when the fewest numbers are sold. The advantage which those crops which can be stored without deterioration, such as grain, cotton, wool, and lumber, is manifest. The price of meat is less fluctuating than that of live stock because meat can be kept indefinitely in the cold storage houses at a very small expense. It is quite likely that more good roads and a more extensive use of the truck will tend to a better distribution of live stock marketed throughout the several seasons of the year.
One of the principal advantages of marketing by truck is the less liability of losses in transit. Dealers and owners often crowd too many hogs into a freight car and as a result some smother. Or, if hogs from different farms are placed together in a car there may be fighting, which unduly heats up the hogs with equally dire results. It is reported that at the Chicago yards in 1918 there were removed from cars 24,785 dead hogs and in 1919, 28,356. To be sure many of these cars came from a distance and were, perhaps, several days on the way. But a fat hog is a delicate animal and a stream of cold water from a hose on a hot hog will often kill him instantly. Government figures state that one out of every 319 hogs shipped died in transit; of cattle one out of every 998; of sheep one out of every 936. Losses by motor, because the animals are not crowded so many together, because they are acquainted and do not fight, because the distances traveled are usually such that only three or four hours elapse between the times of loading and unloading, and because the driver is always at hand to quell disturbances and to see that there is no undue crowding, are said to be negligible.
The local buyer at points near packing houses has almost become extinct. These men formerly bought from the farmers and held the stock until they had sufficient number to fill a car. Since they would often have to hold them several days they had to buy on a wide margin to insure themselves against loss, from 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 cents a pound. Even where the farmer does not own a truck he can get the hogs hauled at a cost of 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 cents a pound, or a saving of about $15 per truck load. If a return load is to be had, such as lumber or feeders the saving will be greater. One difficulty about the return load is the necessity of thoroughly cleaning the truck body. A shovel, a hose with a fair pressure of water, and a hard floor upon which to stand the truck while it is being cleaned are necessary.
Incidentally it may be mentioned that the local stockyards in the way they are often kept are very unsanitary and certainly a nuisance as far as bad smells are concerned as well as a menace to health.