One avenue of growth for U.S. dairy cooperatives is exporting. Long- term market development is one ingredient for success in international sales. Given possible trade liberalization, cooperatives should evaluate their position in the global marketplace and develop a plan to ensure growth and...

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...

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

This report describes relationships between major farm characteristics and co-op use and membership. Analyses were based on multivariate logit regression. Statistically significant relationships were found between farm size and farm location and co-op use but relationships varied greatly by farm...

Combined balance sheets and operating statements were used to develop benchmark financial ratios for dairy marketing cooperatives. Data from 291 cooperatives were summarized for five types of dairy cooperatives, then by three types and three size combinations. Both type and size of cooperative...

In 1985, a total of 17 regional cooperatives marketed livestock. These cooperatives were created to provide greater competition, bargaining power, and market access for producers. Growth in direct marketing, bypassing the services of cooperatives, has occurred because the number of buyers has...

The two types of niche markets targeted by lamb marketing cooperatives are described in this guide. The first type includes specialty middlemen outlets that cooperatives used to market lamb to specialized niches within the traditional meat marketing system of retail food stores, restaurants,...

A total of 2,339 local cooperative associations handled 4.6 billion bushels of grain during the 1979-80 marketing year. This amounts to around 40 percent of total off-farm grain sales. Their grain storage capacity totaled 2.3 billion bushels. Corn, at 1 .8 billion bushels, ranked as the leading...