Direct Packer Buying in the Marketing of Livestock

Abstract

ward these market centers evolved in response to the requirements of efficient country disposal as well as to the requirements of slaughterers and all manner of packers and processors for a dependable and adequate supply of animals for their operations. The establishment and development of these trading centers constitutes a very important chapter in the history of livestock marketing. For the purposes of this paper it is not necessary to give an account of the rise of these centers of trade as the livestock industry moved westward across the country until they surrounded that section of the country where livestock production has become increasingly localized. It will suffice merely to note here that they have provided gateways for the cattle and sheep of the prairies in their movement into the feed lots of corn belt farmers or to slaughtering centers, as well as convenient market places for the finished hogs, cattle and sheep of corn belt feeders. There is another development in livestock marketing of quite different character. Since 1915 and particularly during the past ten years there has been a marked increase in number of hogs marketed directly from country dealers and farmers to packers and packer buyers rather than through the central markets. Substantially as high a percentage of cattle and sheep reach the packer through the medium of the public stockyard centers as at any other