Johnson County, Missouri - Chapter 35: - Live Stock, 1918

DEVELOPMENT OF LIVE STOCK INTERESTS - REGISTERED LIVE STOCK BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION - NUMBER OF BREEDERS AND POULTRYMBN - MEMBERSHIP AND OFFICERS OP ASSOCIATION - SHORTHORNS - HEREFORDS - POLAND CHINAS - BREEDING IN JOHNSON COUNTY - MULES - JACKS.

The live stock interests of the county have become very large and also every year more varied. Their condition is best shown l))- the Live Stock Breeders' Association and an account of this follows. The largest interests in importance and distinction are Shorthorn and Hereford cattle, Poland China hogs and mules and jacks and special short articles on these follow. Horses are numerous and valuable and include some fine saddle and draft animals, but they are not specially distinctive, as compared to other communities and periods.

Was organized in August, 1916, by F. A. Gougler, county agent, with 86 charter members. The first meeting was at the county agent's off\ce and the first officers were: President, George L. Russell; vicepresident, Erskine McClean ; secretary-treasurer, F. A. Gougler.

The chief objects are the extension of good live stock breeding and the marketing to best advantage of the stock of tiie members. Each member's stock for sale is listed with the secretary and car lots are thus readily made up. Five carloads of cattle have so far been shipped through the work of the association. A complete directory and also large posters with names and addresses of all breeders are distributed throughout the community and result in many local sales. The association directory lists the following number of lireeders of stock and poultry;

The present membership of the association is 82. The present officers (for 1918) are: President. F. A. McWethy, Holden ; vice-president. Erskine R. McClean, \\'arrensburg: secretary. F. A. Gougler, Warrensburg; treasurer, A. Lee Smizer, Warrensburg.

The largest number of cattle in Johnson county of any one kind are Shorthorns. The registered breeders listed for 1918 in the Breeders' Association's directory number thirty-one. Three of these keep the Polled Durhams. Several owners keep fifty head or more of registered animals. The oldest herd is probably the McClean herd.

In 1868 William McClean, father of Erskine McClean, brought to Johnson county "Cherokee," a red bull, registered, number 6536. and "Highland Belle." a pure-bred red cow and became one of the first successful breeders in the county. From 1868 until his death in 1902, he also bought other animals. He sold all his stock at private sale, and though in the early seventies prices were very low, he kept up his herd. To-day his son, Erskine McClean. and son-in-law, J. B. Elliott, have succeeded him.

L. L. Gregg and F. A. McWethy each have consideral)le herds. Mr. Gregg in 1888 began and has continued ever since with Scotch Cruikshank bulls. He first kept reds and now has roans. He has had as many as ninety head, and now has forty to fifty.

F. A. McWethy, of Holden, advertises fifty head in his herd with representatives of "Orange Blossom" and other good families and headed by a son of "Choice of All." Otiiers may ha\e even larger lierds, but these illustrate the condition and development of the Shortliorn cattle in the county to-day. Sale prices average about $75 to $300 and have ke])t steady for many years.

Tlie Shorthorn breeders are satisfied tliey have the best all-around beef and milk animals adapted to more farms and farmers than any other lireed.

The Herefords here in Johnson county are raised and bred Iiy cattle men - men who have been in the cattle business from their youlii to the present time and who have therefore had time to satisfy themselves as to what in their judgment was the best beef cattle to breed.

The number of registered Herefords in Johnson county is about 1.500 head. Among the more extensive breeders are W. B. Wallace, Millard Hobbs, R. L. Whitsett, and J. E. Terrell, of Holden, Missouri.. Levi McMurphy of W'arrensburg. and the Lee Brothers, of Columbus.

Originally developed to meet the demand for a medium for converting the luxuriant grasses antl abundance of forage of the west of England into high class beef, the Hereford is recognized today, as it was a century ago as the premier grazing animal, attaining a higher finish and producing a better quality of beef, on grass alone, than an\- other beef animal.

Seventy-five per cent, of the top sales made at the market centers the past year have been cattle showing a preponderance of Hereford blood. This applies to drylot baby beeves, grainfed medium and heavy beeves and grass beeves.

The demand for bulls from the great cattle-growing sections of the Northwest. \\'est and Southwest, where registered Hereford bulls are used on most of the herds affords a ready market for the surplus of the Hereford breeding herds in this community. The demand for breeding females is in excess of the supply.

Several car loads of registered Herefords have been shipped from Johnson county to Ivansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, and Texas and several smaller shipments to other states. Some cars averaged as high as $400.00 per head, while some individual animals have been sold for much higher prices.

I think I brought the first to the county in September. 1867. from Champaign county. Ohio. They were known as the "Magee" hog, the "Polands." the "Big China" and other names and they were white and black spotted, wliite predominating with occasionally one of a sandy complexion. Later when the "Ohio," the first Poland China record, was founded they adopted the name "Poland China" and color black with white points as preferable. A part of those I brought were for John Rowland, of Chilhowee township. We sold some of the offspring for breeders but raised them principally for the market as many of the old settlers declared they would not give fifteen dollars for any pig they ever saw and this when our currency was inflated.

Henry Russell, one of Johnson county's pioneers, commenced breeding the Poland China northwest of Warrensburg. At that time there were but few farmers in the country that knew anything about pure-breds. As soon as people ascertained the great improvement the pure-breds made over the scrubs, they secured from Henry a few of his pigs and new herds started throughout the county. The most prominent were those of W. P. Gibson and \V. \\'. ^^'allace, Kingsville : D. T. Boisseau, of Elm: C. T. Meyers, of Centerview: and R. S. Fisher, of Holden. The only survivor of the group that is still breeding the Poland China is R. S. Fisher, now of Denton, Missouri.

The Poland China has become so popular that today nearly every school district in Johnson county has a breeder of pure-breds. This hog is the most economical machine for converting the products of the farm into the highest quality of human food. While the highest possible development of the Poland China may not have been, and probably has not been reached, whatever further improvement is made must be made with a view to increasing its efficiency as the great general purpose utility hog.

In 1915, 1916 and 1917, an inquiry sent out to over a hundred breeders showed that the total average on one hundred Polan.' China sows was nine and three-quarters farrows to the litter.

Johnson county is especially adapted to the raising of the Poland China, on account of it being a great clover county and hogs thrive as well on red clover, or better, than any other kind of grass.

The jack and mule business in Joluison countv is one of its best known specialties in agriculture or live stock. For many years l)ack, the county has had some good jacks, and the production of mules lias been steadily increasing. About twenty to twenty-five years ago. special attention began to be paid to these two lines.

Mules. - John T. Cheatham. .\]cx. Mcl'dvaine, John W. Stone and A. J. Redford were the chief mule buyers at tliis time. They shipped chiefly to the South, with some to the East. Prices were forty dollars to seventy-five dollars for small cotton mules, and from seventy-five dollars to one hundred thirty-five dollars for sugar nudes. An extra good span sold by Mr. McElvaine brought tliree luuidred dollars. Tliere were very few jacks in the county then and averaged fifteen to thirty miles apart.

The great impetus to the mule business was the Boer War. Mule men say that the demand for mules in this war at least doubled the price in this county. From that time on prices kept up or slowly increased until the present world war. when they increased since 1914 from twenty-five dollars to fifty dollars a liead. Cotton mules now sell for one hundred dollars to three hundred dollars. They have so much improved in quality that they now are in the same class with sugar nudes, and the top ones bring tlie same prices.

Aside from the production of mules in Johnson county, it has developed remarkably as a mule market. Our buyers now buy in and ship from as far as southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma and over six to eight counties in iNIissouri. It is said that over ten times as luany mules are handled here as were twenty years ago. Seven firms make it their main business and buy all the time.

In prize mules. Johnson county has an unusual record. .\t the \\'orld"s Fair at St. Louis in 1904, Ed Kendrick. of Knob Noster. with two mules took a number of prizes, while Larkin H. Blackburn and Walter L. Jones showed fifteen mules and took forty-five prizes, including twelve first and fourteen second prizes, amounting to S3. 230 cash, and took as many prizes on mules as all the other contestants put together. (They showed fifteen mules, including two in every class.)

Jacks. - From the time of the first settlers in Johnson county, there have always been jacks in the county. Until comparatively recently, however, the number was very small, and averaged, it is said, fifteen to thirty miles apart.

About 1900, with the development of the mule business came the beginning of what is now one of Johnson county's best businesses. There are to-day good jacks all over the county, and one firm, Bradley Brothers, have a state and national reputation, keep on hand an average of forty jacks and fifty jennets and advertise that "we have more big black registered jacks and jennets than any firm in the United States we know of."

The markets for the jacks that are shipped from here are chiefly in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, and about one hundred are shipped out yearly. The prices are high for the good ones. Bradley Brothers' sale of March 4. 1918 disposed of twenty-four jacks for an average of $651 a head. The highest priced jack ever sold in the county was at this sale for $1,660, and the highest price for a yearling was $1,250 at the same sale.

The demand is increasing for size with cpiality. A good jack fourteen and one-half hands high will bring $400, fifteen hands S800, and fifteen and one-half hands $1,000 to $1,200, if all of the same quality.