Cooperatives are under increasing pressure to redeem the equities of former and overinvested patrons. This report discusses the issues concerning equity redemption and describes alternative equity redemption plans and methods that can be used to improve or facilitate redemption. Trade-offs...

Farmers' purchasing characteristics, reasons for choosing suppliers, and purchasing strategies were different for fertilizer, fuel, feed, and pesticide purchases of 100 commercial sized farmers. With fuel, few price discounts were received and few supplier changes made. More price adjustments...

This study examines the membership structure of a large centralized cooperative from an organizational workability view. Structure is created by dividing membership organizationally, i.e., assigning different roles and tasks to different groups of members, as well as to individual members, and...

The overall objective of this study is to provide cooperative decision makers with effective strategies for developing young member programs in local cooperatives. To accomplish this, the study sets out to determine: (1) the range and scope of young member programs and activities utilized by a...

A history of U.S. black farmers pursuit of independent farming and the role of cooperatives from 1865-2000.

Southern dairy farmers' perception of their cooperative's or proprietary handler's performance, level of satisfaction with the milk handler, and reasons for staying with the handler, or for shifting handlers, were evaluated. The data were from a 1989 mail survey of Southern dairy farmers. The...

The artificial insemination industry provides breeding products and services for both dairy and beef cattle. Two-thirds of the industry is organized as producer-owned cooperatives. The industry has been so highly successful in meeting the needs of producers for a high-quality reliable product...

Cost data are summarized for 14 plants manufacturing cheese, butter, and powder and average costs are presented for each product. Average cost curves are estimated for each plant. The scale of plant for least-cost operations is identified for plants of each product type. Plant capacity...

Guidelines for reorganization of cooperatives through merger, acquisition, or consolidation are provided. Planning, negotiating, and implementing phases of reorganization are covered. Items from actual combinations of cooperatives are reported as they relate to phases of the reorganization process.

Organization and operations of nine working arrangements developed by fruit and vegetable processing cooperatives are described and evaluated. Three distinct approaches are identified - contractual agreement, affiliation through membership status, and formation of separate business entity. The...