In the past month there has been discussion about livestock shipments via
rail. Today I had an opportunity to visit via telephone with a 90 year old
fellow from Belle Plaine, Iowa who spent his entire life dealing with
livestock and the shipment of livestock, primarily via the railroad, the
CNW. What follows are redacted notes I took during our conversation. Note
especially that his comments and recollections many times confirm what has
been discussed, but at times his comments are different from what I have
said in the past. I plan to update my thoughts about livestock movements
based upon this interview.
Doug Harding
www.iowacentralrr.org
Purebreed breeding stock usually came from the east, ie purebreds came from
Ohio, etc
railroad did the cleaning of stockcars and was responsible for
providing/replacing the bedding. Cleaning of cars at Belle Plaine was often
done elsewhere. The railroad would ship the cars to a ?clean out? track.
Bedding was typically sand, with hay added in the winter. The sand was
preferred as it added traction in the cars, especially as the car floors got
slippery with manure. The sand could be wetted in the summer, which enabled
cooling for animals, esp hogs.
prairie grass was the preferred bedding, not straw or alfalfa or other kinds
of hay
straw had too much chaff, wind would blow chaff into the eyes of the animals
prairie grass has no chaff, nor would it cause loose stools
often there was a trailer (car) load of hay in a stock train, probably a
boxcar. The animals would come with their own hay. A stock train might also
have feed in a car for transit travel.
bedding might or might not be cleaned out, depended upon the condition of
bedding. If it was dry it did not need to cleaned out. But if the cattle had
loose bowels or there was lots of blown in snow or rain causing the bedding
to get wet, it would be replaced. This was determined on site, there was no
hard and fast rule. The station man might make determination.
At Belle Plaine they reused same cars, left them on siding, shoved done the
siding if other cars had to be loaded or unloaded. In Belle Plaine it seldom
happened that more than one stock train was there at the same time.
Shipping hogs in winter, they would line the car with rosen like paper, like
cardboard, nailed sheets over every other spacing, bedded pretty deep with
hay, hogs would lay down, nestle in and get out of the wind
sheep and cattle less of a concern as they had hair or wool.
Real concern in winter was the stress weather put on the animals. A car of
cattle sitting on a siding, could be put through lot of stress during a
storm. Wind and snow could cause lots of stress and other problems.
At Belle Plaine the local crew did switching, would pick up cattle put then
on main line for pickup by through train. Typically shipped on Sunday, for
arrival in Chicago on Monday. Sometimes waited till Friday for better prices
on the Chicago market.
cattle arrived in Chicago, Emil would top the market, ie get a better price
than others got.
The trick, you didn?t really feed and water upon arrival, buyer looking to
not buy water, paid better price for thirsty cattle, got more per pound,
knowing they got meat and not water.
commission buyer - usually talk to commission man before leaving town,
but some cattle would not be consigned, upon arrival to Chicago might be
some confusion at the stockyards, ie short handed, or during a big run, they
literally ran out of holding pens, etc. Even strikes.
sometimes cattle shippers would over load system by shipping all at the same
time because commission man was calling everyone to ship during what was
thought to be a low time.
drovers catered to old guys, regular sellers, folks with reputation, those
cattle were bought first, if you were at bottom of pile, ie someone who only
shipped cattle once a year, or only had a few cows to sell, you might not
get price, might not even get them sold.
Warmer months, livestock dead in cars,
Chicago had big horses, ie draft horses at 1800-2000lbs. used to drag carts
about and to drag dead livestock out of the cars.
In those days hogs could weigh over 600lbs. Many farmers would feed them to
500+ lbs. A dead hog that size on it?s side looked just liked a dead steer.
If animals were not sold upon arrival at Chicago, the owner had to pay
yardage, ie pay for pen, feed, etc.
did not have sale barns in early years, Belle Plaine built the sale barn in
1936, Tama?s sale barn was built after that.
Salebarns were for the small guy, no big bunches, the fellow with 2-4 cows
used sale barns
local slaughter houses also did a lot of buying at the local salebarns. IE
plants in Iowa.
At feed and rest station:
Were cattle put back in same cars? Tried too, so you wouldn?t spread
diseases. Disease was a big concern. Would Quarantine disease. Something
called shipping fever, cattle in transit, weakened
got lot of feeder calves from a ranch at Marva, Texas
cattle from south came in the spring
cattle from west came in the fall
had to be careful with cattle from west, especially from high altitude
areas. They could get brisket disease, ie hearts would swell cause other
problems
cattle to Belle Plaine usually from Sand Hills area, Hwy #20, Valentine NEB,
through billing cattle would be loaded back upon the same railroad cars, use
the same bill of freight, through billing, had to be loaded back in within
certain time period, ie less than 24 hours
done in 1946 and earlier. Feeder cattle went to final designation after stop
for water and feed, ie taken off at Tama for feed/rest, buyers would come
and look at cattle, if desired were shipped on to final destination, ie
Belle Plaine because in Belle Plaine buyers wanted the animals. Shippers
could make one additional move on same billing.
Out west if railroad went through a ranch, the ranch often had its own
stockyard and loading chutes right on ranch. Neighboring ranches would use
it as well, was often closer than going to town.
trailer car, extra car not clear full, ie ½ load. Divide with partition and
put cattle one side, horses on other side, to ship full car
ride train caboose to Chicago, playing cards around pot belly stove. In
Chicago some would pick up checks, cash it, and lose all his money playing
cards with the card sharks on the ride back home.
cattle from west ? Of drovers caboose
not always riders with animals, ie feeder cattle
riders went with animals to market, sometimes farmer or feeder would go with
his own cattle, not take a change of trusting someone else to do the
selling. They would ride caboose in, passenger train back
Certain Chicago producers were endorsed by the Farm Bureau
Some buyers or commission men would procure feeder cattle via Farm Bureau.
in New Mexico 40 acres to cow/calf in Iowa 1 acre per cow/calf
exotic breeds were larger cows, created a problem as they needed more
feed/roughage,
1400lb cows more forage, have to travel further to get the same amount of
feed/forage in a day.
bigger cow spends more time at water hole, drinks more water,
out west in dry lands, only got water once a day
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