Ear on Chicago; Stockyards

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey These are the sounds of cattle arriving at Chicago's Union stockyards. To tell you the story of the stockyards operation, we propose to trace the route of a typical load of cattle through the stockyards. Let's begin by meeting the owner of this particular load. What is your name, sir? Dennis Larson from Lithia, Illinois. Stark County. This is Mr. Hyal, my partner.

Clanchile, a PR -09. Well, I farm Mr. Hyal's 480 acre farm on a livestock share lease program. These particular cattle were bought out of western Nebraska, Cheddar, Nebraska. They arrived on the farm around the 10th of November last. They were fed grass silage and corn silage with some grain added, gradually working them up to a full feed. They were on full feed by about Christmas time. They've been in dry lot on full feed ever since. We've been holding these cattle off of the market for the one big reason being the market has worked down, and we were secretly hoping that the market would turn for the better. It hasn't as yet, and we just can't keep them forever so we're bringing them to market at this time. Well, these are definitely prime cattle. However, I should explain that we don't market prime cattle as a rule, but we were caught like so many other cattle feeders were this summer. With the down trend of the market,

we kept holding the cattle. The cattle were getting fatter and heavier all the time, and until they have reached the prime grade now. Where we were at the unloading docks, we met the general manager of the Chicago Union stockyards, Mr. Frank Flynn. Mr. Flynn, what happens to these cattle after they arrive at the unloading docks? Well, when the truck pulls into the dock, it's unloaded into the holding pen. They're delivered and counted by our men, put into a pen where they're held until the commission firm comes to take delivery of them. We get a receipt from the trucker after they're counted as to the correct count. We get a lot of these trucks last night. We had 1 ,155 trucks came in here with 1

,786 owners on the trucks. Now, those must be all kept separate, so that when they come for delivery of them, that there won't be any mixed up and given the wrong cattle to the wrong man. We've had as high as right close to 1 ,600 trucks in one night and have very little difficulty in the morning delivering the right cattle to the right parties. Quite often, the farmer comes in with his own stuff and other times, why they just send them on into the commission firm. Now, after we make delivery to the commission firms, then they're out of our hands until later on. We're standing now in what's known as an alley, frutting on a number of pens of

a commission firm operating here at the stockyards, and we're going to talk with Mr. Wise who represents one of the leading commission firms. Mr. Wise, the market has only been open a few moments and opens 8 o 'clock every morning, doesn't it? That's right. Now, we're following Mr. Larson's cattle. The cattle have been taken to one of these pens and now the cattle have been ready for sale under the supervision of some of your fellow salesmen because Mr. Larson picked your particular commission firm. Now, we'd better explain what a commission firm is. First of all, Mr. Wise, can you tell us? Well, actually, we're agents for the livestock feeder, both in the buying and selling of cattle. Primarily, though, we sell cattle on a commission basis for all of the livestock feeders throughout the Midwest and Far West. It's our job to match which, you might say, with the buying side of the business and get all of the true value of all of the livestock shipped to us for the farmer's account. So, as of right now, you're really working for Mr. Larson. That's right. His pen of cattle is for sale. As his agent. All right. Now, what did you do to get Mr.

Larson's cattle ready for sale? Well, our night force picks them up at the unloading shoots and brings them to our pens where they're then taken care of until the morning. They're not watered until our morning gang gets out and then they're brought in and watered carefully and eventually put in their sales pen where they're fed hay. Uh -huh. Well, now, what is this process of watering and feeding the cattle before sale? Is that have any connection with the sale trapper? Well, it's to cut down the shrink, which has been caused by the shipping of the cattle over a number of miles. And we try to get them to take a drink so that the shrink will be lighter. The more fill we can get into the cattle, the less the more money the farmer gets for them. Well, now, what happens to cattle? Let's say being shipped here from Iowa. How much will cattle lose in that shipment? Oh, we generally plan on about a 3 % shrink that is 1 ,000 pound animal. We'll shrink about 30 pounds. Sometimes heavier cattle will shrink more, 40 or 50 pounds ahead. We try to

get as much of that back as we can by fill. Mr. Wise, about how many buyers are there in the Chicago market? Oh, I believe there are about 300 buyers on the market. And they represent approximately a hundred pounds. Several hundred packing plants scattered from here all the way to the Atlantic coast. Well, now, this is the busiest Wednesday. We've had him some days here at the yards. How do you think this is going to affect your selling today? Well, we believe the light cattle will move steady, if not actively so, because the chain store trade is pretty solid at the moment. However, we feel we'll be abused on the heavy cattle, because there's an abundance of them on today's trade. Well, we'll be interested in watching Mr. Larson's load of cattle to see what happens. Say, Bert. Yes, sir, James. Would you buy a real prime load of cattle? No, Jimmy, if they're prime, I'll buy them. Well, now I want you to take a look at these Dennis Larson cattle. I think you love them. Come on in here. They're very beautiful cattle. Whip them around there, Barnard. Bert, see, I'll tell you something. Well, that's whipping them

around. I can tell you right now that they're very, very fat. Almost too fat for our orders. A little too heavy. At the present time, heavy fat cattle are a drug on the market. Well, I think I've heard that before this morning. Bert, but somebody's going to buy this prime load of cattle, so it might as well be you. Let's look at them. What are you going to try to get one down? 23 and a half, Bert. I'll tell you what to do. Jimmy, you just take off one penny upon and brittle by them. No, I can't do that. I can't do that, Bert. You can. Three and a quarter for them. Jimmy, I didn't expect you to say yes, but I'll give you another quarter. That's 275. Bert, I can't do it. I know Mr. Larson won't be happy regardless of what they bring down on those figures. I don't doubt that. He's probably fed them a long time. They're the fat and quality of the cattle, so that they... Tell you what I'll do with you, Bert. If Mr. Larson's willing, I'll take 23 cents a pound, but I won't take any... You do, Jimmy, take off 15 and I'll buy them. Bert, I'm going to let you go. I'm very, very sorry. You may come back. I may, but I'm going to try and get the three from it. Okay. All right, Jimmy. How do you decide what to ask for a particular lot of cattle? Mr. Larson's cattle, for example. Well, in the case of Mr. Larson's particular load of cattle, they are too heavy for the current demand. And

unfortunately for Mr. Larson and people like him, they've overstayed the market and are going to suffer severely because the heavy cuts of beef are hard to move both here and in the east. We try to judge what cattle are worth by current values, the previous day and what the prospects are for today, how the beef market closed yesterday, and the size of the receipts on the market, and all of the factors going up into the economic situation, covering the beef industry. Say pardon me, Mr. Flynn. I see a buyer I want to get on this load of cattle. Say, Nate, would you buy a prime load of cattle? All right, I'll take a look, Jim. Come on in here. All right. These are the Dennis Larson cattle. You know the cattle. I know, Dennis, yeah. Beautiful load of cattle. Fett of year, Nate. Yeah, they're nice cattle. Jim, they're too heavy. I don't think they're going to wait. Wait, wait, wait a minute, Nate. They're not that heavy. No, they're too heavy. Jim, the cattle are going to weigh 15, 15, 150 pounds. Why, Lord Almighty, Nate? They can't weigh anywhere near that. Jim, if they were 300 pounds lighter, I'd try to buy them. But otherwise... Well, listen, you'll try to buy them anyway, won't you? I'll try. You know,

Dennis's cattle. I'll always try to buy him. All right. I'd take three six bits for him. 2375. Jim, I mean, heavy cattle. I'd bring anything like that. You want a market penny cattle, 22 cents. Will you admit this, Nate? Did you ever see a better load of cattle this way? Jim, I'm not arguing about the cattle themselves. It's just the weight of them. I'm afraid of the weights, you know? You'll admit they're prime. I like the cattle. All right, that's mark from three and a half and gold. Jim, you want a sell load of cattle? Get it over with. Mark the cattle, 22 .50. Go, but I'll tell you. Wait a minute now. I don't go on off just a minute. Now, Larson wants to sell the cattle at three. At $23, I'll let you have them. And I don't care whether you buy them or not. Now, take them away. I'll split with you. Not the $22 .75 and I'll buy a load of cattle. Nothing off, Nate. It's 23 cents. Can I save a little bit? This is load of cattle. I am to food fair. Well, here's Mr. John Procaro, who's the general superintendent of the stockyards company. And we're standing near the scale house. Now, would you call this operation? That's right, Faye. Now, maybe we can give a word

picture of what happens here. This is a building, I would say, with an area about 20 feet wide by what? 32. 32, all right? And this whole area amounts to a scale. That's what we call the scale platform, the scale yard. And now, a cattle come up with the various alleys here and they're separated into lots and led into this scale and the weight is recorded inside. Now, who operates these scales, Mr. Procaro? The scales are operated maintained by the Chicago stockyard company. Uh -huh. And accurate and rapid weighing, of course, is one of the most important functions of your operation, I suppose. Well, I say that's the most important because, uh, due to that, we have periodically tests on scales and that's, of course, supervised by the U .S. Department of Agriculture. And in this case, uh, the supervision and testing were allowed a tolerance of upon and a half per thousand, so you can see that's pretty rigid. Very accurate, isn't it? And, uh, how often do you rebalance these scales? Well, we rebalance the scale every third draft that's in order to give accuracy again

and to kind of tear off the weights of droppings on the scale. Uh -huh. And the Department of Agriculture has something to do with your scale operation, too? Absolutely. It's been supervised, isn't it? Well, now this weight recorder, how do you record these weights? Can we step inside the scale house and, uh, see what this young lady is doing? I should explain that, uh, in the center of this busy stockyards operation, now we're moving inside the scale house, with Mr. Procaro, is a young lady who's, uh, in a wire enclosure. What does she do, Mr. Procaro? Well, her job, uh, is to weigh. Of course, you see now she's manipulating the poise to a certain point where the indication shows that the cattle has, uh, has arrived to a perfect weight. And in turn, she stamps a ticket, which is a registered weight ticket. Uh, she receives the information from the commission firm, which is recorded on this ticket, such as the firm weigh in the stock, to whom it sold. And in turn, she delays this message to our conner off, which is located on the offside of the scale. He records this

on a ticket, and also records the pen number, or the holding pen, where the cattle are stored until such time that the buyer may take delivery. Uh -huh. Well, this sounds like an interesting job this young lady has. Uh, she's awfully busy. I don't know if I can get a word from her or not, but how long have you been working out in the midst of the stock yard, Miss? Just too much. And, uh, want to give us your name? Very shank. You find this exciting work? Yes, I just love it. Now, uh, Mr. Procaro, you said that the information this young lady is relaying by, uh, public address system there, goes where? Out to this next office? Out to our offside of the scale, which is an office, and, uh, scale conner being posted there. Of course, his duty, his duty is to con off the cattle as they're coming off the scale. Maybe we can move out there and get an idea of what happens in this particular operation. Now, we're following Dennis Larson's cattle through the weighing operation. Uh, they've been weighed already, and you will hold them now until, uh, Mr. Seagull's firm fills them up.

And when they call for the delivery, we again send out our man the unlocked block and con off the cattle and make a proper delivery on the load. Thanks very much, Mr. Procaro. Well, here's Mr. Joel Bricker, who is the assistant superintendent of the stockyards, and he's responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of this tremendous stockyards operation. Mr. Bricker, this is quite a job you have. I notice some of your equipment and operation there now. Oh, Mr. Flynn, when you look about you and get an idea of the size of our yards here, you can well imagine the problem that we have in keeping it clean on total pens in the yards, figure somewhere close to 7 ,500. There are 4 ,500 pens out here in the cattle alley where we are now, so that it's a big enough job that a separate department is assigned to do nothing but cleaning. We have some 125 pieces of equipment that do nothing but clean

the yards, five days a week, eight hours a day. Well, now there's some value in this manure that you salvage every year, isn't there? There's quite a bit of value in it. We calculate that we get 50 ,000 tons of manure a year from the yards. That manure moves mostly through the Midwest to florists, farmers, any concern that have any use for this manure. Well, how many people do you have in your department to keep these yards in shape? Our cleaning department is composed of about all roughly 50 men. Now, all of these wooden pens and so on have and I keep jobs, who is that? That's another very big item so far as we're concerned here in the yards. The cattle aren't the most gentle things in the world and about the most important thing that we all can hope to do around here is prevent bruises. It hurts the farmer, it hurts the packer, anything that we can do to prevent bruises. That's why we have a program of constantly

employing new construction, new pen construction. Ways to prevent these bruises. Well, I notice in these passageways, alleyways, as you call them, between the pens that you have a sort of a brickwork underfoot. The whole yard is brickwork, Mr. Flynn. That must be a tremendous job. It's a bad shape. Here's the go. It certainly must have been something putting a men. Cleaning the alleyways goes right along with cleaning the pens. You see these front end loaders that are working right now, these small front end loaders? How they'll drop their bucket on the ground, move into a pen, pick up the load of manure, back out, empty the manure into a cart, and that goes on. That's what we're looking at now constitutes our cleaning operation. Well now there's one wonderful thing that you people deserve a couple of men on with all this hay and wood that you have here. You have had an amazing record in keeping fires down. Well, is that partly your responsibility? It's something in the back of everybody's mind. Everybody working here in the yard, no matter

whether they're stock yard company people, commission people, buyers, whoever they are, always have that idea in mind. To do everything that we can to prevent any fire. Thanks pretty much, Mr. Bricker. We're now in Mr. Jimmy Wise Office, and the load of cattle that we've been following, Mr. Larson's cattle, we're sold around 11 o 'clock this morning as you heard. And now the transects is about to be completed in Mr. Wise's office. Now we've been through the weighing operation and the slip that was made there, has reached your office, Mr. Wise. What do you do with it now? Well, that's called a scale ticket, and there are two separate slips to the copy, one of which we retain for our records, and the other of which is sent to the buyer. The price and weight is on the buyer's copy, as well as our own, and he turns that over and on, the back endorses that amount of money

to us to be paid by his bank. That is our method of collection for the money involved. Within our office force, then goes with what we call a count sale, and Mr. Larson then gets the net proceeds, and in this particular case, you have it in front of you. That little slip of paper, that scale slip is with its weight and gold. That's it. That's as good as a cashier's check. That's very interesting. I was watching this transaction this morning, and no money changed hands. It's all happened on good faith or what? Yes, this is all a word of honor business out here, and millions of dollars worth of livestock are sold and bought each year here, strictly on word of honor. We have a code of ethics and rules, the punishable rules that apply to those who might try to violate it, but that's something that just doesn't happen here, and we sell, well, our own particular firm sells as many as several hundred thousand dollars worth of livestock in a single day, and we never have any trouble or disagreement over the price with the buyers. Well, now,

Mr. Wise, let's follow through on this Dennis Larson sale. I have his sheet here in front of me with the notations your firm makes. Now, we had a way this lot in two shifts, so to speak, because of the weight. Do you want to tell me translate this for me? Well, you'll notice over here where it says purchaser, food fairbought the cattle. Well, we weighed them in two drafts because we couldn't get them all on the scale at once. These are rather heavy cattle. They weighed 14 .53, and they're weighed in two drafts, a 23 cents a pound. The gross, there were some hogs involved there, but the gross of these particular cattle ran well over $7 ,600 for 23 cattle, as you can see. Then added to 34 hogs they had, as gross was $8 ,952 and 83 cents. His hauling charge, $169, as yardage, $35, is a $4, as corn, $4 and 30 cents, which was fed to his hogs. Fire insurance, $8 cents, meat

board, 30 cents. His transit insurance was $21 .46. The commission, the smallest thing on the bill always, was $39 .43. His total expenses were $273 .83, and his net was $8 ,679, even. I might note here that out of an $8 ,700 transaction, his total expenses, including hauling, was $273 .83. We are now ready to hand Mr. Larson, both his bill and his check. Now Mr. Larson is half owner of this lot of cattle, so you'll mail out the other check, I suppose. That's right, the other check will go to his partner on the cattle, Mr. Hyall, of Björj Lennon. You got that check handy? We can turn it over to Mr. Larson right now. Very hard, Dennis. Here's your check and bill. Dennis, what are you going to do with this money? Be off the mortgage now? No, I think I'll go down to the feeder division and see what they've got. How do you know what you look for today? I had Larson as my name. Helius, right? I was looking for some light yearlings. Light yearling

cattle? Or might over this way, we'll show you. We've got several pens over here, but they're kind. Oh, damn. Here's a good pair of perfect cattle right here. Buy some like this here. These are good to order in cattle, Montana cattle, and just come in here yesterday morning. Good yearling cattle. What do you got them away on? Well, they weigh about five quarters, five quarters in there. You can buy them in 2050. You got anything a little lighter? Yes, I got another pen over here. Over here, come over here. The pen of angus over here. Care for angus? Yeah. Well, here's the pen of angus. You can buy these in 2075. These will weigh about 475. Where were they from? They were Wyoming cattle. Wyoming. Fresher one they get in. They come in yesterday morning, yes. We got them in here yesterday morning. Good cattle, good weights on these cattle. That means an awful lot in buying your cattle by good empty cattle. There's two or three over there that I don't like the looks of, exactly. Well, how many is there in the pen? There's about 40 cattle in this pen here. They're a good buy for you, and they'll make you money. That's what you want. Boy, if we

could only have that in writing. Well, I know, but they do it every year. They do it every year, and they make money. They come back. I'll probably buy a cattle before the season's over, but we got some more. Look at these cattle here. You'll buy these cattle here. These cattle here will need to buy in, and they're the kind you want. Well, the price is about $1 to high. Well, you give for cattle like this. What do you want to give for this kind of cattle? I'll give 1975. I'll take 20 and a half to sell this in cattle. See if there's any trade to you. Well, I want to move you around and look at a few more, and maybe I'll come back. You know, we farmer can't make up a mind of what kind of cattle to buy sometimes with these markets. Well, like you say, we haven't got cattle. You can't make no money, though. That's right. That's what keeps us. That's what keeps us in the business. That's for sure. Well, I'll see you, Mr. Healy. Well, when you get ready to buy your cattle, come back to Chicago. We always have a very good selection here, and all kinds of cattle. I'll do that. Thank you.

Well, now we're sitting in the office of Mr. Potter, who is the executive vice president of the Union Stockyard and Transit Company. Mr. Potter, how long has the Chicago Stockyards really been in existence? I would say, in the year 1865, the stockyards was officially open for business. Now, all Chicagoans know that we have the stockyards, and that you do a tremendous job here, and helping provide food for the American people, food for a great section of the world. But why is an enterprise of this sort really necessary? Well, over the years, as livestock is ready for the market and comes in here to Chicago and has for many years, prior going to the packing company, it has to clear through some central location. And therefore, many years ago, it was felt there should be one central market here in Chicago. It was the vision of Frederick Henry Prince many years ago that this should be, and

over the years, it has become the greatest central livestock market in the United States. Now, let's take a typical load of cattle, for example. What happens to it to make sure that it goes through the competitive process as exemplified here? Well, very simply, a farmer say has 40 cattle that he wishes to market on a certain day. He has in mind a commission firm who can best represent him in getting the top price for that load of animals. Those animals are shipped to the Chicago market. The responsibility for selling those animals and getting the top price rests with the commission firm representative. A buyer from one of the packers, either here in Chicago or an Eastern buyer, will approach that commission man and offer him a price for that load of animals. The commission man earlier in the morning will have decided what he thinks those animals should bring on the market. And if the buyer does not offer that price, the commission man has the prerogative of permitting another buyer to come into his area and bid on those animals. And the commission man therefore will continue

permitting buyers to come in to quote on those animals until he gets what he considers the type top price on the market that day. And despite the tremendous volume of sales involved, the actual sale of a load of animals still comes down to discussion between two individuals, isn't it? It always does. There can be a discussion between two individuals, but not more than one buyer is permitted to bid on the animals at any one moment. Later on, another buyer may come in and bid on those animals. Well now in recent years, you folks have done many things out of the stock yards to improve your services and your efficiency of operation. I wonder if you could describe some of the improvements you have made in recent years. It would take a long time, Mr. Flander, really describe the improvements and the efficiencies that have been brought to bear here in the Chicago market. Since William Wood Prince came out here as President some five years ago, there have been, as you've noticed, as you've walked around the yards here today, tremendous banks

of lights, flood lights, which light up the yards at night. In previous years, the work here was done by flashlight and in previous times before that by candlelight. But today the men can go about their business knowing that they can see where they're going and the lights are properly in effect all evening. And I'm Mr. Potter, I know that you and the other executives and the officials of the Union stock yard and transit company are looking ahead as all American businessmen are. I'm wondering what you see in the future for this tremendous enterprise you now have. Well we can see first of all a need for continued modernization. By that I mean there is tremendous congestion of traffic, truck traffic coming into Chicago. We want to make it possible and the trucks bearing livestock come to these yards, they can get in the yards quickly and get out of the yards quickly. Towards that end we are going to be doing some rerouting here in the yards to make that possible. Another great thing we have done, we feel for Chicago, is to increase the size of the international amphitheater by 180 ,000 square feet this past year. This as you know Fahee

is where the great international livestock show is held each year and where incidentally the international dairy show and rodeo opens on October the 7th. The whole vision here for the future of the stock yards is to make this a place where the shipper to the market will know that number one he's going to get fair treatment. He's going to be received curiously, his animals will be handled carefully and efficiently so that he will know when he comes to Chicago he's going to if there is a top price here he has every single chance to get it. Our number one objective is to maintain Chicago as the top market for livestock in the United States. You