Here are some numbers related to livestock “drive-ins”, which is what the USDA called any livestock arriving by truck or hoof. As you can see the numbers increased as trucks took over and rail service declined. You also need to remember that the 28 hr law did not apply to trucks until well after railroads stopped transporting livestock, ie well after 1960. Another reason farmers went to trucks so quickly, they did not have to feed and rest animals being transported in trucks.

Note hogs went to trucks early. One reason many hogs were raised within 100 miles of where they were slaughtered, ie the mid-west, esp after meat packers began building plants outside of Chicago. A farmer with a truck could get his hogs to the slaughter house all most as fast as he could get them to the railroad stockpens.

In contrast sheep/lambs stayed with rail transportation because most sheep were raised long distances away from slaughter houses.

It is also very interesting to look at the numbers for the 17 markets around the country and the great contrast between truck and rail

Percent drive-ins of total receipts seventeen markets                                   

Year       Cattle/Calves     Hogs      Sheep/Lambs

1916       1.7%      1.8%      1.3%

1921       3.7%      7.8%      4.1%

1928       13.6%    18.2%    10.8%

1929       17.5%    29.7%    12.8%

1930       22.9%    35.6%    14.0%

1931       29.9%    44.5%    17.1%

1932       39.3%    54.6%    21.6%

1933       49.2%    61.6%    25.2%

1936       59.1%    70.7%    30.6%

1941       70.6%    75.8%    37.9%

1944       63.3%    70.8%    35.6%

1946       64.1%    67.3%    41.0%

Source: U.S.D.A., F.D.A. Driven-In Receipts of Livestock, 1943-1946                                         

Drive-in Receipts of Livestock at 67 public markets                                          

Year                       1946       1945

Cattle                    57.2%    58.1%

Calves                   62.3%    65.0%

Hogs                      60.7%    60.3%

Sheep/Lambs    35.9%    34.3%

Percent of Livestock Drive-ins at 17 public markets in 1946                                                           

Market              Cattle       Calves   Hogs      Sheep/Lambs

Chicago, Ill           59%        55%        44%        25%

Cincinnati, Ind   32%        51%        66%        48%

Denver, Colo      43%        45%        36%        16%

Ft Worth, Tex    79%        83%        52%        75%

Indianapolis        82%        79%        94%        89%

Kansas City         39%        44%        54%        17%

Louisville, Ky      63%        63%        86%        74%

Milwaukee         55%        77%        56%        59%

Okla City, Ok      97%        96%        53%        28%

Omaha, Neb      77%        49%        69%        21%

Portland, Ore     38%        66%        12%        33%

St. Joseph, Mo  73%        82%        73%        41%

St. Louis (East)   49%        56%        67%        46%

Sioux City, Ia      75%        26%        90%        53%

Sioux Falls, SD    97%        95%        99%        90%

S St Paul, Minn  66%        89%        83%        50%

Wichita, Kan       71%        74%        68%        71%

TOTAL   63%        68%        67%        41%

Doug Harding

www.iowacentralrr.org