My dad used to drive part time for a guy named Fred Ford. Fred had a straight truck that could be used to haul cattle, pigs or sheep. Once in a while dad would take us with him to go to Des Moines and we hauled bagged feed from a mill in Des Moines back to Winterset. Another guy in town named Shorty Thompson had a fleet of dump trucks, water haulers and cattle trucks. His cattle trucks were always at the Madison County sale barn every Tuesday. Shorty might of been 4'8" but he had his own little kingdom.
It wasn't hard to find someone who could haul pigs, cattle or sheep back in those days. 99% of them were straight trucks. Many farmers had sides on their pickups that could haul one or two cows and 6 or 8 sheep or pigs. I think the side boards were made by a company named Omaha as I recall. I haven't seen one of those for years. That was back when an average farm was 80 acres and they had 3 or 4 kids who got on a school bus every day.
kwg
That would be Omaha Standard pickup livestock side racks.
kwg
You could spot a pick up that had hauled a few cows from a mile away.
