NFO-218 (AV10721): US Farm Report: Modern Cattle Marketing

[music] Communications Mueller speaking oh yeah how are you thousand head of cattle need to move whoa okay Ed listen what what zones are they located in zones five and seven okay how soon do they have to move within a week ok listen Ed I'll give this to Jim and have him checked with the meat department and I'll have lance call you back on how we made out ok you bet ed Jim wanna take this over the meat department and check it out see what they can do let me know gene we've got a thousand head of cattle in the West Omaha area and we need we've only got a week when you get them out can you help us okay we'll take care of Ed over in the Omaha area he's got a thousand head of cattle trades are listed there that have to be moved in the next five days take care of it okay I'll get on right away hello hello Lester this is Marvin here in the meat department yes we have a thousand head of cattle in the Nebraska area that we have to move in the next five days have you got room for them there there'll be 80% choice about twenty goods they weigh between a thousand fifty and eleven hundred uh just a second yes I can handle a four hundred head of them if you can get them here in two days okay you can take 400 in the next two days okay real good Lester I'll move the others some place else then okay thank you hello Marian yeah this is Marvin in the meat department we have six hundred head of cattle in Nebraska that we have to move in the next five days how many can you handle there they'll be eighty percent choice weighing about a thousand fifty to 1100 you're all filled up okay all right I'll check with Ernest in Sioux City and move 'em down there then okay thank you hello Ernest yes this is Marvin say we've got 600 hit of cattle in Nebraska that we've got to move over the next five days you have room for him there there'll be about 80% choice and weigh between 1050 and 1100 okay you can take them then okay real good ernest all right thank you hello Lance yes I have them all cattle all taken care of now we'll move 400 on the into Saint Joe in the next two days and the other 600 we were moving to Sioux City in the next five days okay Ed we've taken care of your cattle we've got 600 head to go to Sioux City spread over the next five days and you can take the other 400 to st. Joe over the next two days that's okay Ed glad to help you hello everybody we're greeting you today from the Dugdale packing plant here in st. Joseph Missouri Dugdale packing company is one of the largest independent Packers in the whole country fact the matter is this plant is a growing plant and I'm sure that NFO production is partly responsible for that because we're sitting here to show you something of its growth on the edge of some new cattle pens that are being built here to handle the influx of NFO cattle as well as cattle from other sources with me today is my old friend mr. Lester Carr who is NFO packing plant representative les and I have known each other for a number of years les has been a farmer around this part of Missouri for perhaps longer than he'd like to admit that's right how many acres are you farming about 225 well are you able to hold down this important role here and still run your farm without help or do you hire people I hire some on the [unclear] time see like putting up hay and putting in some crops but I do the most of it myself on the weekends and like it that's all right and still come down here and spend the day here at Dugdale's now Les you have a specialized job here representing NFO members of this packing plant I presume that you have counterparts all over the country doing the same thing yes we do have in the United States yes we're set up in several different plants well now could you tell us in a detailed manner step-by-step exactly what you do here well my I'm representing the national farmers organization I book cattle for the members to be delivered to the plant at a specified time first the member in each County calls the County bargaining supervisor and tells them how many cattle and what time he wants to deliver and in turn then the County bargaining supervisor calls me a day ahead of time when these cattle are supposed to arrive see and I booked them up and then in turn I contact the boy at the dock where they're being unloaded and we book them up that way so we keep an even flow of cattle coming to plan which is a great service to a packer him knowing exactly how many cattle he's gonna have on the kill right well you can anticipate the influx in here at any given time right for example today you know exactly how many cattle are coming in here tomorrow right right that's right well now you follow these cattle less as I understand it from the time the truck backs in here and unloads on to the killing floor and through the entire process right you tell us about some of your duties in these areas well I watch them unload the cattle and see if they're not crowding them and cause them to get bruising see cattle can be bruised when they're unloaded around not the end of the trucks in order to the end gate and this is very costly while bruises mean loss of of income because write it down grates the beef and in the NFO farmers simply is making the money that he would otherwise right so we we were very particular about the cattle here and they're unloading operation as they go from from the truck into the scale to be weighed live and then put in the pans and then later on after they've rested we'd run them on the kill now you said the keyword rested right as I understand it cattle in the process of being trucked and herded into a place like Dugdale get nervous and this can really affect the great can't it that's right what do you do about that les well what what we do is pan the cattle and let them rest let's say three or four hours such a matter maybe longer depends on the cattle if they're you can tell by looking at their nervous and nervous cattle just will not bleed out properly and this also affects the grading cattle because cattle are graded on the color of the meat as well as the amount of marbling in the loin okay at that point then you follow them right on to the kill floor tell us about that right and I see it they're booked up properly to go on the kill at a certain time and by the way all cattle are killed in lot numbers like if a man brought 20 head of cattle in here and they're booked up 20 is gonna follow 10 ahead of them and then maybe 15 gonna be behind that and that'll way we keep them separate those cattle will not get mixed up the only thing is get cattle mixed up at this plant is the farmer or the trucker it brings him in usually he has picked up Sam Jones's or somebody's cattle and he went over here and got some from somebody else and saying and he gets here at the plant he unloads and he says well I think those belong to so-and-so Sam Jones you know but he's not too sure see so he gets them mixed up telling the boy on the dock who's cattle swine so there's there's the problem right there on a mixed-up load but whenever they are identified properly they go through here in a lot number and that is one thing is we're watching very particular now you on the kill floor and following following the beef then on through you work with or at least you have an opportunity to observe and talked with government inspector right they have federal meat inspectors in this plane and they inspect ever half a beef is just come down every beef carcass in the plan and I can be in there and watch them and see what they're designated is a bruise to be cut off and question them on it see and therefore you know he can argue with them and to a certain extent on now as I understand it in this matter of grading you have the privilege of of asking the grading people to wait to grade some beef in other words if if you feel that by waiting a few hours beef will get a better grade you have the privilege to bring that about is this great see cattle that's being killed today would be graded tomorrow so therefore they would cool out approximately 24 hours and when the grader starts of a morning grading cattle why maybe they're not properly cool you can tell by feeling of the before this firm enough and what what is the process is going on here is the cooling out of the of the fat in other words those it will show up and in other words they call it marbling in the the loin are in the muscular lean so when that's cooled out properly why it'll all show up so the standard set up by the grader department they go by this to determine what the grade is going to be so therefore if we would wait I say the grader was your grading like in the morning say eight nine o'clock and those cattle are not properly cooled I can't wait told and say to the three o'clock this afternoon to give a final grade on which my up degrade which does a lot of times here we go here we go again and when the Bucks right here and there so as you were saying a while ago yes they centered found steer that would be twelve dollars there's a two dollar difference in the hood from a choice so that would mean quite a bit on a hundred head of cattle well now how is the price Dugdale pays for NFO cattle determined we got a pricing farmer arrangement set up with the Dugdale packing company and on a grading yield basis off of the yellow sheet price which is dressed meat market so yes so it's determined off of this plus are you sure that NFO members are getting this price yes I am certain cuz I have the mr. Dugdale's secretaries to give me a copy of everybody's grade yield sheet which I have right here so I take these sheets every day and I have the copy of the yellow sheet and I checked the price on the sheet here and according to what the yellow sheet and the great bond price is well now would you list some of the advantages of selling on this basis well is this cattle go through the plant they go through on individual merits if man ranked in twenty steers let's say and here goes one number one through and he's a choice steer well that's what he's gonna be because the government man is doing the grade strictly government is nothing to Dugdale has anything to do with yeah right and so therefore this would mean dollars and cents in the pocket well see so if you're buying them on foot there's more of guesswork that way because if I was a buying kettle in which the buyers do - I was doing a guest law so I would come out on the grade and yield which is the way they all wind up there's no eye determination no guesswork involved in right well that makes for a good site I would say do you want represent here at Dugdale any members that are or rather any farmers that are not NFO members no I cannot no just strictly NFO members well now the last would you mind briefly summarizing the point you've made tell us rather briefly exactly what do you do here has the NFO packing plant representative well first they're booking the cattle with me and I can regulate the flow of cattle coming in each day according to what possibly they might want each day may be up or down and checking the cattle for bruises and seeing if they're properly handled and quieted down as I stated a while ago so they was great better and and then also as you checking on the price and seeing that they're getting the price agreed upon on the contract this is just another way folks in my opinion that NFO protects the interests of its members we've been visiting here in st. Joseph Missouri from the Dugdale packing company with the national farmers organizations packing plant representative mr. Lester carr it must be obvious to all of you looking in on today's us farm report that the subject of our show is communications and it is only logical that we should welcome to our show our two guests who are very much involved with communications with the national farmers organization on my left is Dan Zamalik who is director of communications for NFO Don a pleasure to have you with us today and on my right is Don's very capable and able assistant Jim Horne Jim welcome to you Thank You Don what are the duties and responsibilities of the communications department the main responsibility is to assist our members to block their production together nationwide this production is bargained for by the dairy grain meat specialty commodities departments and they bargained for and get contracts with processors for our members production and once the contracts are ratified by the members and then activated the communication structure helps the members meet the delivery commitments under these contracts Jim when you explain the structure that the NFO communications department uses bill what we have is a structure established to whereby in each County we have developed a super County bargaining structure and this structure is divided into four sections - whereby we have a section foreman who's responsible for working with the bargaining coordinators in each section and the bargaining coordinator as you see here contacts not more than eight of his neighbors who are members inventory their production each week for each month these bargaining coordinators then bring this iNFOrmation on paper to their section foremen with each section foremen attending a special structure meeting bringing that iNFOrmation to the County [coughing] County bargaining supervisor - whereby he has a total of the amount of production available to be bargained for under contract with the NFO the County bargaining Supervisors then in each zone bring this iNFOrmation to the zone supervisor who is responsible to get this iNFOrmation into the marketing area chief now we have seven zone supervisors in each marking area bringing this iNFOrmation together the marketing area chief has a total amount of production available to meet commitments under contract and also need to bargain for additional production which they have in each of them of these marketing areas the marketing area chief then brings us iNFOrmation by telephone to the communications department in the national office we tabulate this iNFOrmation from each marketing area and then we have this iNFOrmation available to the dairy grain and meat department for bargaining purposes well now Don how many marketing areas does an we'll have established at this time there are now 47 in operation with several others in the planning state well are these marketing areas Chiefs who are supervisory personnel highly trained people done yes they they must be in order to carry out their responsibilities well now how are they trained we have periodic training sessions with our Chiefs and during these sessions we instruct them in detail on the latest proven procedures of operations including planning knowledge of beneful marketing programs and so forth hmm in addition we provide the latest in audio-visual aids so that these men can not only benefit themselves through a better understanding of how to carry out their responsibilities but also will enable them to assist our zone supervisors and County leaders to do a more effective job then on occasion we also have department personnel working with our Chiefs right out in the marketing areas not only to train the Chiefs but to find out even better methods of operation and we're now using mm-hmm well now how often does a marketing area chief contact the national office normally every day and quite often several times a day well then what does he report to you when he contacts the office ie reports in detail his own activity the activities of his own supervisors and we know daily the number of contacts made with our members the meetings attended the amount of production blocked together and how the contract deliveries are going in that Martin mm-hmm now Jim you've talked about the importance a little while ago of the Super County bargaining structure are there any planning meetings and yes there are well now how are these planning meetings carried out exactly well every month prior to the regular County meeting there's a special structure meeting called a week ahead of this monthly meeting and the purpose of this meeting is to find out and know how much production is available to meet the commitments under contract and how much production over and above these commitments we have blocked together to bargain for now these meetings are conducted by the County bargaining supervisor and attended by the assistant County bargaining supervisor the county chairman all section foreman the elected dairy grain meat and specialty commodity committee chairman the collection point representative the grain Sales Coordinator and the zone supervisor at this meeting a report is given by each section foreman giving the total amount of production from his section from all the members which will be available to be bargained for in that particular section mm-hmm the County bargaining supervisor then has a total of the entire County production available to meet contract commitments and also to fulfill marking arrangements when we have additional production then the elected dairy grain meat and special commodity department Committee Chairman each give a report on contracts affecting their County now they also report on how much production was sold last month these elected committee chairmen report the progress of their committees working directly with the dairy grain and meat department departments in the national office the special structure meetings show progressive farmers in action blocking their production together nationwide to bargain not beg for a price done it has there been a structure in agriculture set up along these lines certainly not nationwide and to my knowledge not even in a local situation well then why was it necessary for NFO to set up this kind of a structure we found out early in the game that large nationwide companies with processing plants in several states and even coast-to-coast were able to outmaneuver us in bargaining because of their ability to communicate in so NFO has met the challenge we're the first farm organization to match their communications and in many cases I feel we've surpassed them Jim is NFO successful yes sir well now why do you say this why do you say that NFO is successful for the first time in history farmers and ranchers have blocked their production together a nationwide wide and bargain for contracts now Jim I want to ask you this can you give me general specifics on how NFO has been able to raise farm prices right by blocking production together nationwide and selling under supply contracts we have kept low price areas from being used by the four or five large companies to lower prices in high-priced areas mm-hmm I'll supply contracts are the key because we have pricing formulas which maintain our gains and are the basis for improvement by moving production into new marketing patterns creating a vacuum companies that are not getting their production from the NFO block have to bid higher to get this production and this creates new competition well now I'm gonna leave you for a minute and turn to Don here who's had a pretty easy time over this minute here too Don although you have a large staff of trained personnel working as has been explained there are tens of thousands of volunteers within NFO working without pay now why do these people do this well definitely they're the backbone of the whole effort bill and I think I can explain that with the help of a chart here on hog prices generally about a four to six dollar higher market here on about a stable supply over quite a quite a period of time so these County leaders being the progressive farmers that they are realized that they are getting some recompense for this effort four to six bucks 100 is is pretty good to take there it is indeed that's the hog producer we've got another example in the dairy production here and this is a price chart graph for the summer of 1967 just after our milk holding action in this lower line shows the price level projected by USDA for that summer in this higher line indicates the actual prices that dairy farmers receive so I think they've been repaid and they certainly feel that they have done what do you feel is the most important things that the farmers must do just a couple of simple steps the one is to maintain good communications block that production so that the buyers of farm commodities must come to the NFO block for their supply is just that simple Jim you've talked about how the structure operates do you keep flexible enough in NFO that you're able to move production over and above the contract commitments yes we do and this is due to the fact that we have a communication structure and as we have seen the communications in operation when we went out had a call in from the West Omaha marketing area mm-hmm we had an additional thousand head of cattle over and above contract commitments as we have seen this was called in by the marketing area chief to the national office communications department this iNFOrmation was given to the meat department they got in contact with Packers to find an outlet for the additional thousand head of cattle then we called back to the marketing area office and they have notified the members who have the additional thousand head and they were being delivered as we have seen in this film today have a good vacation thank you he's been anxious to get away done so let's wish him what bone boy eyes or whatever you say to some what do you gotta do go home to the farm and the work all right we have here folks a couple of people with farm backgrounds both Don and Jim or farmers where is your farm jamming in southern south central Illinois 40 miles northeast the same old Missouri have a good vacation I will work too hard how about you Don where's your farm northeast Iowa near Cedar Falls it's been a real pleasure talking to both of you today about communications we want to thank you so much for bringing these interesting points to us farm report our guests today have been Don Zamalik who is director of communications for the national farmers organization and his very able assistant Jim Horne US farm report is seen every week on this station until we meet again goodbye everybody