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Subscribe today for full access on your desktop, tablet, and mobile device. Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about. Equity's marketing practices restrict price discovery mechanism.

A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs. This was due mainly to the loss on tariffs and commissions generated by livestock sales, she explained.

That reduction was tied to the combination of lower sales prices during and of a cutback in livestock volumes in Equity's sales channels, Bilz pointed out.

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For sales volume in , Equity handled , head — down from , in Those decreases were shared by the cooperative's four categories of livestock, Bilz noted.

The totals and the percentage decreases from were , cattle 3 percent , , calves 18 percent , 47, hogs and feeder pigs 12 percent , and 38, sheep and goats 5. Equity's president and chief executive officer Charles Adami observed that Holstein bull calves that were once going to out of state buyers are no longer being consigned because of very low prices.

Instead, many of them are staying within Wisconsin to be raised, he suggested. Adami is also concerned by the choices being made by large consolidated dairy operations in the state to sell their cull cattle directly to buyers rather than through auction markets. Equity's volume also suffered a bit in because of competition that arose for one of the cooperative's auction markets, meeting attendees learned.

In a wider spectrum, the demand and prices for Holstein steers collapsed during because Tyson Foods stepped away as a buyer, leaving only two major packing company buyers, Adami explained. Overall plentiful beef cattle supplies along with Choice grading of carcasses reaching 80 percent, up from only 52 percent three years ago, probably prompted the Tyson decision, he said. They noted a great portion of sales are through negotiated contracts, preventing the cash market from providing a fair price discovery process.

Asked what the portion of contracted and undisclosed price sales is, Adami estimated it to be at least 75 percent. He said a 25 percent cash market is not sufficient to establish a valid overall market price.

Not having a widely based cash market leads to wild swings in futures market prices and creates uncertainties for those in the feeder cattle segment of the market, Adami remarked. Fleming reported that the National Livestock Producers Association is urging its members to strive for a 50 percent cash market for cattle.

He said that the drop in Equity's livestock volume was not a surprise but that the major drop in prices for mature cattle and calves was not expected. Amid its financial challenges, Equity is nonetheless continuing to build a new auction market facility at Stratford, completing replacements or upgrades on roofs, lights, furnaces, air conditioners, skidsteers, and office equipment at other sites, proceeding with its cooperative-wide installation of a new computer system, adding waterers at some locations for cattle held overnight, and now serving as an originator of federal Farmer Mac loans, Schleis reported.

Bilz exhorted members to enroll for direct deposit of payments to their banks. She indicated that mail service to some areas in the state is not satisfactory. To address the question directly, Adami said the top five reasons all pertain to being a cooperative — an entity that's owned and governed by its members, an organization that's a social and financial partner in communities, a business whose employees are dedicated to serving the members, an institution that can obtain knowledge from its sister cooperatives, and an organization with a history of education and advocacy for its members.

Despite doubts in some quarters, Adami said Equity's leaders are convinced that sales checkoff fees for livestock are beneficial for the producers. In an update on activities at the local Reedsville auction market, manager Andy Bubolz reported that the hay and straw sales have been attracting 40 to 45 loads on Wednesdays in recent weeks.

He reminded shippers that cattle can be delivered on Monday afternoon for the Tuesday auction sale and that a lamb pool sale is conducted on a Monday every month. Bubolz commended the local shipping association for its bidding activities for youth project livestock sales at the Manitowoc and Calumet County fairs and the Northeast Wisconsin Junior Livestock Show.

He offered to visit livestock producers at their farms to talk about raising and marketing their animals. In the election for the Reedsville association, Mike Van Duerzen, Marvin Schleis, and Jeff Wunrow were chosen as board members.

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