PAGE FROM THE PAST
From the archives of Rural Cooperatives
and its predecessor magazines
50 Years Ago…
From the July and August, 1956 issues of News for Farmer
Cooperatives
Making merchandise move
“To do a better job of merchandising for farmers, co-ops
must know something about people and their reactions. A
business should carry articles people need and then handle
these articles in a way to please the users,” explains F. Byron
B. Cory, president of Henry County Supply Co-op Company
in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Many of the basic principles of good
merchandising that businesses have found essential also apply
to cooperatives. Some important principles include where a
building is located, the type of building, modern fixtures,
delivery equipment, trademarks and general business set-up,
such as hiring staff with good personalities. People are more
likely to come back for more if a store is clean and uncluttered
and products are displayed attractively.
Fish fare fine on rice farms
The Arkansas Fish Farmers Cooperative of Lonoke, Ark.,
began in January of 1956 to raise fish in the same fields as
rice. By rotating fish with rice, members of the co-op are
making more money and improving the land. Some good
results that have been reported include: (1) the organization
gave publicity to fish farming and created new interest in it
and respect for it; (2) fish buyers increased the price they paid
for fish; (3) inquiries were received from canning plants; (4)
inquiries were received from governmental agencies for game
fish for use in stocking streams; (5) since the organization of
the cooperative, commercial fishermen have reduced their
usual charge of 50 percent of the fish harvested to 25 percent;
and (6) this cooperative is representing and defending the
interests of fish farmers.
Co-ops process and market cottonseed
Cottonseed, processed and marketed by cooperative mills,
has found its way into several diverse products, such as food
shortening, cattle feed, mops, surgical dressings, paints, meat
casings, soap, printing inks, twine and explosives. Fourteen
co-op cottonseed oil mills process about 10 percent of the
cottonseed crushed, bringing members an average of $21.66 a
ton more than other cotton growers received over a sevenyear
period. The primary functions of a co-op cottonseed oil
mill are to crush seed for its members, market the products,
and return net sales proceeds on a patronage basis. In addition
to crushing seed, some mills perform additional services,
such as feed mixing, handling bagging and ties, and cotton
planting seed. Almost all cottonseed processed in co-op mills
comes from grower members and member gins.
30 Years Ago…
From the July and August, 1976 issues of Farmer Cooperatives
Cooperative Marketing Act 50th Anniversary
On July 2, 1976, the Cooperative Marketing Act celebrated
its 50th anniversary. When the Act was approved in 1926,
“helping farmers to help themselves” became national policy.
The Act enlarged, strengthened and made permanent the
Department of Agriculture’s formal assistance to cooperatives
that had begun shortly after passage of the Capper-Volstead
Act in 1922. The Farmer Cooperative Service marked the
50th anniversary with a special birthday observance on the
patio of USDA’s administration building June 30. Special
guests included representatives of national cooperative organizations,
congressmen and cooperative leaders and officials of
USDA, including Secretary of Agriculture Earl L. Butz.
Texas cooperative making denim
Since at least 1953, the Southwest cooperative cotton
industry has been trying to develop a marketing system that
would reward producers and distribute their product as economically
as possible. To do so, the American Cotton
Growers (ACG) is constructing a $30 million denim manufacturing
facility in Littlefield, Texas. The plant is using the
open-end spinning concept in the annual production of 20
million yards of finished, heavyweight, indigo-dyed denim.
Begun a year ago, the denim plant is on schedule and is
expected to be in full operation by December. Although ACG
began construction of its denim plant in 1975, the enterprise
started in 1973. Since then, the organization has completed
three ginning seasons and remains confident about its
advanced concept of off-farm services — transportation of
cotton from field to gin, centralized ginning, compressing
and pool marketing.
Russian farm specialists visit Mid-America
“A team of Russian agricultural specialists visited Mid-
America Dairymen’s headquarters in Springfield, Mo., this
spring to study research and accounting facilities and to discuss
milk marketing. In summing up their experiences on
their tour of this country, V. N. Pustozerov, spokesman for
the five-man team, said, “We have studied your experience in
productivity, and have corrected our previous conclusions
about the U.S. It is better to see it [American agriculture]
once than to hear about it 100 times.” Pustozerov is deputy
minister of agriculture in Russia. Others in the team included
A. Goriashin, head of Leningrad Oblast Administration of
Agriculture and E. G. Knoplev, assistant agriculture counselor
of Russia’s embassy in the United States.”
10 Years Ago…
From the July/August, 1996 issue of Rural Cooperatives
Memory quilt honors Land O’Lakes 75th Anniversary
“A 90- by 110-inch memory quilt that features the cooperative’s
family history in fabric has been created by members,
employees and their families to honor the 75th
anniversary of Land O’Lakes Inc. (LOL), at Minneapolis.
Rita Page Reuss, LOL’s vice president for public affairs, said
the quilt was “a natural fit with our rural heritage, commitment
to people and dedication to quality and craftsmanship.”
About 350 members of the LOL family submitted
individual 10- by 10-inch quilt squares depicting some
aspect of LOL’s history, heritage and values. The project
took one year to complete, including the call for entries,
judging, quilting layout and assembly. Those squares not
chosen for the quilt will be made into charity quilts.”
Minority producer co-ops face
marketing and financing challenges
Only a handful of minority-owned farm and handicraft
cooperatives are presently included in USDA’s cooperative
database. This is in part a reflection of the small number of
minority-owned farms in the United States. In 1919, there
were 1 million black farmers in the United States, but that
number today has declined to less than 20,000. Results from
USDA’s latest minority co-op survey point to the difficulties
facing minority cooperatives. The relative lack of numbers
and seemingly low success rate for those minority co-ops that
are formed underscore the need for both a stronger national
effort at cooperative education and technical assistance outreach
to the nation’s minority farm and handicraft producers.
It is possible that a more energetic cooperative development
effort could help preserve or expand the presence of minorities
in an ownership role in our nation’s agricultural system.
Navajo co-op weaves self-reliance
“The Ramah Navajo Weavers Association is a grassroots
cooperative group made up of more than 40 traditional
weavers who live on the Ramah Navajo Reservation in the
pinion-pine country of west-central New Mexico. Founded
by 17 women in 1984, the association is working towards two
broad goals: (1) to increase family self-reliance by using
indigenous resources (land and water) and native skills (traditional
Navajo weaving, sheep
raising, land use and management);
and (2) to strengthen
important and distinctive landbased
traditions, values and
spirituality for future generations
of Ramah Navajos. The
association has a holistic philosophy
and is working in four
areas: weaving improvement,
sheep and wool improvement;
land restoration and protection;
and cultural and education
development.”
