Rural Cooperatives Magazine - March/April 2001
Minnesota leads nation in co-op business volume
Charles A. Kraenzle, Director,
Statistics Staff
USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service
Editor's note: Information was collected by statistics staff members Celestine C. Adams, Katherine C. DeVille, Jacqueline E. Penn and Ralph M. Richardson
Despite dwindling numbers of farms, Upper Midwest agricultural cooperatives - paced by Minnesota - led the nation in co-op business volume, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business-Cooperative Service.
Minnesota cooperatives, with $9.3 billion in net business volume in 1999, led all states for the first time since USDA began tracking co-op performance by state in 1951. Wisconsin ranked second among all states, with $8 billion in co-op business volume, while Iowa (the leading state in 1997) dropped to third place, with $7.9 billion in co-op business volume. California co-ops placed fourth with $7.8 billion. California co-ops led the nation from 1951 through 1977 and again from 1987 to l995. Iowa was the nation?s leading farmer co-op state from 1979 to 1985 and again in 1997. The 10 leading states ranked by net business volume are shown in fig. 1.
Total net business volume of co-ops in Minnesota was down in 1999 compared to 1997 (USDA compiles state-by-state data for co-ops only in every other year). Decreased marketings of farm products, especially grains and oilseeds, and a decreased volume of farm supplies combined to drop Iowa to third place. Decreased marketings of milk, cotton, fruits and vegetables and other commodities, as well as lower sales of farm supplies, caused California to slip to fourth place in the state rankings.
Wisconsin co-ops, with increased sales of milk, livestock and farm supplies, moved up into second place. Wisconsin co-ops increased their net business volume to $8 billion in 1999 (table 1) from $6.5 billion in 1997.
Cooperatives in these 10 states accounted for $59.2 billion, or 59.7 percent, of the $99.1 billion in total net business volume handled by the nation's 3,466 agricultural cooperatives in 1999. This compares with $62.1 billion (58.2 percent) of the $106.7 billion generated by the nation's co-ops in 1997. The 10 leading co-op states also accounted for 53.8 percent of the total co-op memberships and 56.5 percent of all co-ops in 1999, compared with 53 percent of memberships and 57.5 percent of co-ops in 1997.
Marketing sales (derived from sales of crops and livestock) accounted for 76.1 percent of the business volume handled by co-ops in the top 10 co-op states in 1999, up from 75.3 percent in 1997. Minnesota co-ops, with $7.1 billion in 1999, led all states in farm marketing, followed by California ($6.8 billion) and Wisconsin ($6.5 billion). Co-op marketing in Minnesota accounted for 76.1 percent of their total net business volume, up from 75.2 percent in 1997.
In California, marketing accounted for 86.9 percent and sales of farm supplies accounted for only 8.9 percent of the total business volume in 1999. Service revenues and other income accounted for the remaining 4.2 percent.
Iowa led all states in volume of farm supplies sold, followed by Minnesota and Illinois, the same as in 1997. Cooperative supply sales in Iowa totaled more than $2.3 billion, $1.9 billion in Minnesota and $1.5 billion in Illinois. Iowa was the leading state in cooperative sales of feed, crop protectants and fertilizer. Illinois co-ops led all states in seed sales, Minnesota led for petroleum sales and Wisconsin in other farm supply sales.
Leaders in number of co-ops
Minnesota, North Dakota and Texas were the leading states in number of cooperatives (as determined by co-op headquarters locations), the same rankings as reported in 1997 and 1995. The top 10 co-op states were home to 1,957 (56.5 percent) of the nation?s co-ops in 1999 (fig. 2), down from 2,180 co-ops and 57.5 percent in 1997. Among the 10 leading states, Minnesota and South Dakota had about an equal number of marketing and farm supply cooperatives. Texas had the largest number and proportion of service co-ops (mainly cotton ginning) and Wisconsin the largest proportion of farm supply cooperatives. Minnesota, however, had the largest number of farm supply co-ops. Illinois and Iowa had about the same proportion of marketing and farm supply co-ops.
Among the top 10 co-op states, Minnesota (35) and Wisconsin (30) led in the number of dairy cooperatives. California, with 67 fruit and vegetable cooperatives, accounted for 29 percent of the nation's 231 fruit and vegetable cooperatives. North Dakota had the largest number of grain cooperatives (119), followed by Kansas (113), Illinois (110) and Iowa (106). These four states accounted for 63.7 percent of all grain cooperatives in the top 10 co-op states and 50 percent of the 896 U.S. grain cooperatives.
Leaders in co-op memberships
Kentucky led all states in number of cooperative memberships with 231,862. Memberships in the 10 leading states totaled 1,707,787 and accounted for 53.8 percent of the total U.S. cooperative memberships in 1999 (fig. 3), up from 53 percent in 1997. Among these states, Kansas (87.2 percent), followed by Illinois (59.9 percent), had the largest percentage of memberships in marketing cooperatives.
Virginia (81.6 percent) and Missouri (76.5 percent) had the largest percentage of memberships in farm supply cooperatives. Wisconsin (10.4 percent)was the leader for memberships in related-service cooperatives (those that perform services such as livestock breeding, trucking, storage, etc.). Overall, 52.1 percent of the total memberships in the top 10 states were in farm supply cooperatives.
Among the 10 leading states in co-op memberships, Kentucky had the highest number of memberships per co-op, with 5,655. Virginia was second with 2,954 and Missouri ranked third with 2,011. North Dakota ranked 10th with 442.
Net business volume per membership among the 10 leading states in total memberships was highest in Minnesota ($49,791) followed by Iowa ($44,026) and Wisconsin ($38,981). Kentucky ranked tenth with $3,334 per membership. Among the 10 leading states in net business volume, California accounted for 296 memberships per co-op and $145,951 per membership. The net business volume per membership in California was nearly triple of that reported for Minnesota.
Total net business volume (excluding business done between cooperatives) in 1999 was $99.1 billion, down from $106.7 billion in 1997 and $104.7 billion in 1998. This includes marketing (the value of products sold, bargained for or handled on a commission basis), farm supplies (sales of fertilizer, crop protectants, petroleum, feed and other supplies to members and patrons) and receipts from services, such as trucking, storage, ginning, drying and artificial insemination, and other income.
Information on farmer cooperative activity in individual states is collected every other year through USDA's annual survey of farmer cooperatives. Data requested are on memberships by state, origin of farm products marketed and destination of supplies and equipment. These data are tabulated to show memberships and commodity business volumes at the state level. [end]
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