Selling Cattle (ca 1950)

Credits
pastebin.com/0kRvxbZG
- Rights: The Stewart family shares this film under a Creative Commons attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/b... External).
- Excerpt from Les Stewart's film, "Fall,” (ca. 1950) which documents the mechanics of selling cattle at season’s end. Les’s narration was recorded on July 7, 1982, by Margaret Purser and Carl Fleischhauer. Prior to the scenes shown here, the rancher and a buyer negotiate a price expressed in cents per pound or dollars per hundredweight. Then, as shown, the cattle are weighed and loaded onto trucks to travel to a feedlot, and the rancher is paid. The animals are weighed early in the morning before they are allowed to drink; the buyer doesn't want to pay for excess fluid. The buyer who made the purchase shown here was Clarence Landson; Les said he was a freelance "order buyer" who earned a dollar a head for his work. Selecting the right moment to sell a crop calls for a combination of judgment and luck. The year's income derives from this sale, and markets are always uncertain; the outcome of the event will determine an operation's profit or loss. This scene, therefore, represents the denouement of the rancher's annual "story." It is characteristic of Les's narrative sensibility to have filmed this scene. Other aspects of Les's sensibility are revealed by certain details of the film: the whimsical opening, the anti-government tableau, and the thoughts about Native Americans.
Running the film in reverse created the humorous opening scene of Les’s father Fred Stewart "receiving the market report by air mail." Les photographed his father tearing up a newspaper and tossing it into the wind. In reverse, pieces of the newspaper seem to float into Stewart's hands. Les shares an anti-government stance with many of his neighbors, and the check-passing scene in this film footage expresses his reservations about taxes and government spending. Bill Johnson, another order buyer, played the Internal Revenue Service agent. Les said he had planned to shoot a closing scene in which the tax collector drives away in a Cadillac.
Northern Paiute people from the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation have worked on the ranch from its earliest days. The Indians seen in the final scenes of this film include Albert Skedaddle, Donald Dave, and Arthur Horn. When reviewing this footage, Les mused that all the men had died, and recalled hearing that Skedaddle's father had been living in the valley when Les's grandfather and other white settlers arrived. Other persons seen in the film include Gus Ramasco and Jimmy Angus moving steers onto the scales, and truck driver Emmett Delong and brand inspector Clyde Foster at the chute pushing cattle onto the trucks. The brand inspector is present at a sale to certify the seller's rightful ownership of the cattle by checking their brands.

[@edwardbright5894]

Even though this video wasn't taped a very long time ago. Technology makes it seem such a long time ago. I like the old ways. And old times. I hate what technology has done to the entire world.

[@jerrymills4203]

Thanks for sharing. Cool history. I just can't believe congress kept this stuff

[@darrenmisick3493]

A really great video. Thanks for sharing it

[@RedCowsGreenFields]

“That’s the Internal Revenue Service man…if there’s any money left he makes sure it goes to the Internal Revenue Service…and they waste it…” Some things never change…smh

[@phillipgarrett7001]

I was raised on the farm . My dad Lawrence William Garrett LW they calling got wounded during world war II 1945 spent two years in the hospital when he came out he built two dairy farms and an excavating company lost his ass at all of them but he worked hard thanks to the government they put the dairyman out of business in Alabama every way they could hurt him they did he had a degree in agriculture and loved what he done and always grew and planted to the day he died. Thanks for saving these films brought back a lot of memories he was put out of business dairy was in 1971 when they tried to force a part of barn down his throat and put him in debt he could never get out of God bless you all I really enjoy this I love our history and a good time memory hard work never hurt nobody and these men were men this country don't have men like this no more sorry to say that very few of them could do half of what one of these could. God bless the USA

[@nmelkhunter1]

The government has nothing to lose, and when you have nothing to lose you act irresponsibly.

[@davidhorn5288]

Yes I saw that also. But if you noticed they also stripped their riggings from the same side. I wonder if the negatives got "flipped?"

[@deeproots7663]

Rifle scabbard for left handed shooters are on the opposite side than the norm. It becomes easier to change your mount/dismount rather than awkwardly fighting to draw your rifle from your non dominant side... just from my personal experience.

[@Jack-ne8vm]

Long truck ride for critters.

[@edwardbright5894]

Now this was the American Dream🤠👍🐃🐂🐃🐂🐃🐎🐎🐎🇺🇸Cowboy Up America

[@tedlahm5740]

Dismounted on the right side of the horse?

[@deeproots7663]

Rifle scabbard for left handed shooters are on the opposite side than the norm. It becomes easier to change your mount/dismount rather than awkwardly fighting to draw your rifle from your non dominant side... just from my own personal experience?

[@jacerowland5534]

I always heard of ‘the Indian side’.

[@peterbowling950]

Smoky Pritchett

[@peterbowling950]

Smoky Pritchett