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Show TENNESSEE LAMB AND WOOL MARKETING CLUBS NOW IN SUCCESSFUL OPERATION i i . Z'SZ$t, th- zr 71Bt Sheep Are Prize Mortgage Lifters When Well Managed. (Prepared by the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) Lamb and wool marketing clubs have been in successful operation in Tennessee Ten-nessee for more than 25 years. They were the outcome of unsatisfactory marketing conditions in the lanfb-pro-ducing sections of Tennessee. The plan originated at Goodletsville, where there is a club with a membership of 50 persons living within a radius of three miles from the shipping stations, and its success has prompted farmers in other sections to organize in a similar sim-ilar manner. The organization of these clubs is comparatively simple. The officers consist of a president and a secretary-treasurer, secretary-treasurer, who, with three other members, mem-bers, form an executive committee, the chairman of which is the secretary-treasurer. secretary-treasurer. The annual meeting for the election of officers is held early in the spring, that each member may report th& number of lambs and the amount of wool that he will have to sell. Sold to Highest Bidder. The secretary-treasurer advertises for sealed bids on the lambs owned by the club. The advertisement indicates indi-cates the number, grade, and quality of the lambs and the date shipment will be made. The lambs are then sold at. the shipping point to the highest high-est bidder, the executive committee reserving re-serving the privilege of rejecting ail bids in case they seem too low. On the shipping date the executive committee com-mittee is on hand to grade the lambs brought in by each farmer. All lambs not up to the advertised standard are returned to the farmer, who either holds them over for some future shipment ship-ment or sells them at a sacrifice. This has the beneficial Influence of trailing the owners to deliver only those lambs which will come within the grades advertised ad-vertised by the committee. The day for the wool sale is advertised, adver-tised, that bidders may be on hand ta see the fleeces, which are graded intJ No. 1, clear; No. 2, slightly hurry; No. 3, burry ; and No. 4, hard bnrry. Each grade is weighed, and sealed bids are received by the committee, which also reserves the privilege of rejecting all bids. All Share Equally. The farmer who owns a small flock of ewes has the same advantage in marketing his lambs as the large producer. pro-ducer. Expenses are made proportionate proportion-ate and all receive the benefit of competitive com-petitive bids. The results are seen principally in the better prices obtained. obtain-ed. It is stated freely that the club members receive from $1 to $2 a hundredweight hun-dredweight more for lambs of the same grade and 2 cents per pound more for wool than farmers in the community who have not the benefit of co-operative selling. The members are encouraged en-couraged to follow uniform methods in breeding and handling their flocks with the result that the clubs have an established reputation in many of the large markets for the uniformity and , high quality of their lambs and wool. |
