Charlie Ball Charts History
Of Cattlemen's Organizations

By Elmer Kelton

Cattlemen have faced many problems during the long history of the industry, not the least of which has been getting organized and presenting a solid front on the issues that plagued them. This long struggle with organization is the subject of an ambitious new book, Building the Beef Industry, A Century of Achievement, by Charles E. Ball.

The book is sponsored by the National Cattlemen's Foundation, headquartered in Denver. It traces national cattle producer organizations – some that worked and some that didn't – from the 1883-1885 National Cattle Growers Association of America and the 1884-1885 National Cattle and Horse Growers Association of the U.S. In 1886 these merged into the short-lived Consolidated Cattle Growers Association of the U.S.

The first to survive long-term was the National Live Stock Association of the United States, 1898-1905. Next year will mark the centennial of that organization and its successors.

From the beginning, the legendary independence of the cattleman has complicated his efforts at organizing an effective common front. Not only has there been disagreement about solutions, but often there has not even been agreement on identifying the problems.

The principal national group endured many changes in name and function, becoming the American National Live Stock Association from 1906 to 1950, the American National Cattlemen's Association from 1951 to 1977, the National Cattlemen's Association from 1977 to 1995, and finally combining with the National Live Stock and Meat Board to become the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in 1996.

The 296-page book is profusely illustrated, much of it in beautifully reproduced color, portraying many facets of the industry, past and present, as well as industry leaders over the last hundred years. These range from pioneer organizers such as John W. Springer, Joseph G. McCoy and Murdo Mackenzie to today's NCBA officers.

Though first of all a history of cattle-industry organizations, the book revolves around the industry itself, its many ups and downs through drouths and depressions, its many battles with packers, railroads, central markets, imports, and probably most of all, the federal government.

It traces the fortunes of cattlemen through the many market cycles, the occasional boom times and the periodic busts that always seem to last much longer than the booms.

From the beginning, one of the most pervasive problems has been ever-changing public and governmental attitudes toward grazing on public lands. It was a major source of concern to stockmen in 1883, and it remains so today, perhaps stronger than ever.

Of particular interest to many present-day cattle raisers will be the factors that led up to the big wreck of 1973 and the agonizingly slow recovery. Any who went through it still bear the scars.

One point which strikes the reader is that despite the tremendous changes the industry has experienced over more than a century, its basic problems remain much the same as when the first group tried to organize. Resolutions written a hundred years ago sound much like those being passed today.

It is also evident that each time the industry has gone into a deep financial crisis – usually the result of overproduction – cattlemen have looked for a culprit outside their own ranks. In earlier days it was the packers, and to some degree it still is. Again, it was the railroads and their shipping rates, the stockyards and commission men, imports or the middlemen in beef distribution. In more recent times it has been the "yellow sheet" and cattle futures.

Another issue resurfacing at intervals over the last century has been the question of price supports or other forms of government aid, and the controls which would inevitably accompany them.

The book's hundreds of illustrations would be reason enough for most stockmen to be interested. But the text, while emphasizing the organizations, follows the evolution of the industry itself from trail drives and open range operations, through the concentration of marketing at central stockyards in Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha and Fort Worth, to the decline of rail transportation and the rise of the livestock truck, the stock trailer and the local auction, to the development of farm feedlots in the Midwest and recent decades' transfer of cattle feeding to huge plains feedlots and decentralization of packing plants.

It speculates briefly on where the industry goes from here, a subject on which there are about as many opinions as there are cattle raisers, feeders and bankers.

Ball is in a good position to review the history of the cattle industry and its organizations. A native of Lamar County, Texas and graduate of Texas A&M University, he was for 20 years regional editor of Farm Journal, and he was executive vice president of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association from 1972 until his retirement in 1988. For TCFA he wrote a book, The Finishing Touch, a history of cattle feeding in the Southwest. He also wrote a horse book, Saddle Up!.

Building the Beef Industry is available through the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. or by direct mail from Saratoga Publishing Group, Box 959, Saratoga WY 82331 at $40 plus $5.50 shipping.