We do not have a monopoly. We do not have a territorial franchise. In fact, there are at least 14 other marketing businesses within a 75 mile radius of our business. There is no guarantee that a producer who sold livestock through our business last Monday will utilize our business the next time he has livestock to sell. Neither Mr. Jennings, head of the Packers and Stockyards - AMS, nor Mr. Campbell, the Judicial Officer of the Department of Agriculture, nor Mr. Brinckmeyer, head of the Rates, Services and Facilities Branch of the Packers and Stockyards can guarantee that we will have any customers at all. Can we guarantee customers? Yes, if we can operate our business in such a way as to earn the confidence, and respect, and satisfaction of those who choose to do business with us. We draw customers or earn their business. Who are my regulators? The people that our marketing business serves and strives to serve. The producers know this. As do the organizations to which the producer belongs, at the local, state, and national level, such as a Farm Bureau, or a Grange, or a Cattlemen's Association. Because the producer is an independent businessman, too. AMS cannot guarantee Thus, while the Packers and Stockyards customers to us, the manner in which they apply their authority can adversely affect our ability to earn and serve our customers. Without satisfied customers, we have no marketing business. Hence, I cannot see that the presently applied rate regulation by the Packers and Stockyards - AMS is applicable to my marketing business in today's livestock industry. Rather than have the Packers and Stockyards personnel in Washington, D. C. apply various formulas to our business in Oxford, Mississippi, we need to be able to utilize a tariff which will fit in with our first and basic objectives of having satisfied customers. Thank you for your attention to this particular area of deregulation and the opportunity to appear before you. 22-929 O-78-6 Mr. HIGHTOWER. Thank you, Mr. Sanders and Mr. Branscome. Mr. KOEHLER. Yes; Mr. Chairman. Mr. HIGHTOWER. Thank you, gentlemen, very much. If you can remain in the room until we have heard from the other witnesses, we would like to call you back for questions. Our next witness is Mr. Robert B. McCreight, president of the American Stockyards Association, Omaha, Neb. Mr. McCreight, we are happy to have you. [The prepared statement submitted by Mr. McCreight follows:] STATEMENT OF ROBERT B. McCREIGHT ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN STOCK YARDS ASSOCIATION H. R. 9482 Mr. Chairman, my name is Robert B. McCreight. I am President of the American Stock Yards Association 805 Livestock Exchange Building, Omaha, Nebraska 68107. The American Stock Yards Association is a national association of major livestock markets or posted stockyards. Most of our members were in business and operating when the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 was enacted. Since then, the rates and charges for stockyard services in effect at the various livestock markets operated by our members are and have been continuously subject to the rate making authority of the Secretary of Agriculture, as set forth and contained in the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, as amended. We have carefully considered the contents of H. R. 9482, as well as similar bills. Each of those bills would restructure the existing rate supervisory authority of the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to charges for stockyard services by amendment to the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, as amended, to only those stockyards which either (b) (a) have an annual sales volume in excess of Either of these proposed formulae present certain practical or when would the rate making authority of the Secretary become effective ? After it became effective, how long does it last ? These are questions to which the bill does not address itself. They are questions which must be answered. Today, no livestock market is either so large or so isolated that it is without effective competition either from another market or from the competition of direct marketing. The decentralization of livestock marketing in recent years has provided competition in one form or another literally in every corner of this nation and wherever there are livestock to be marketed. There are no markets which can even remotely by any stretch of one's imagination be considered today as public utilities or so affected with a public interest that they require rate regulation in the public interest. The posted stockyards under the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture have neither franchise nor monopoly, which are the attributes of a public utility. Neither does the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, as amended, prescribe any entry requirements. In 1921 practically all livestock moved to market by rail or else were driven on foot. As a result, livestock markets were concentrated at railroad terminals and numbered less than 100 then. No marketing alternatives existed, so the livestock markets in operation at that time were deemed to be affected with a public interest and as such necessary to be regulated as to their rates and charges for stockyard services. Times have changed a lot since 1921. Today, practically no livestock moves by rail, but instead by motor carrier. Now, there are nearly 2,000 posted stockyards or livestock markets under the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture. While we are in sympathy with the intent of the proposed legislation, we cannot support H. R. 9482 in its present form. We are informed by the Packers and Stockyards AMS that they estimate that approximately only 100 livestock markets will continue to be subject to the rate making authority of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, as amended, in the event that H. R. 9482 should be |