Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association, a capital stock cooperative formed to buy and sell livestock for its member associations, began operation in the Milwaukee stockyards in 1922. Wisconsin livestock farmers had felt the need for an organization to increase their bargaining power in the sale of their stock.
Equity grew quickly, but by the early 1930s the market was undergoing major changes. Trucks began to supplant railroads as a more convenient and efficient means to transport livestock, and farmers began to sell their livestock closer to home. In 1936, Equity opened a branch in Green Bay which was equipped to deal with both rail and truck shipments, but the decentralized marketing trends had led packers to establish local buying stations throughout the state. Although they proved convenient, these stations also reduced the farmer's profits; the farmer had no bargaining agent working for him at the market. Equity then opened fourteen regional, private treaty markets which bought the farmer's stock on a daily basis and shipped it directly to the packers. The first such market opened in Altoona in May 1946.
The private treaty markets operated profitably throughout the 1940s and early 1950s. Then Equity's sales began to decline due to intense competition from packer buying stations. Coupled with declining volume at their Milwaukee terminal, Equity management realized the Association's marketing practices were becoming less effective. For the second time in ten years, Equity reorganized its operation. It adopted the auction market system and opened its first such market in Richland Center on April 15, 1957. By 1960, Equity had eight regional auction markets. Five years later, the main office was moved from Milwaukee to Baraboo, which was more centrally located within the state. In the same year, the Association had ninety-four active shipping cooperatives serving 38,000 farmers statewide.
By 1975, Equity operated ten auction markets: Altoona (opened in December 1957), Bonduel (1958), Johnson Creek (1960), Reedsville (1958), Richland Center (April 1957), Ripon (1958), Sparta (1959), Stratford (1959), Zumbrota, Minnesota (1973), and Menomonee, Michigan (1974). In addition, Equity operated a hog marketing service through a private treaty market and nine lamb pooling operations. By 1972, their success had resulted in sales of over $70 million and in a membership of over 44,000 farmers.
