Iowa Cooperatives Lead Nation in Business Volume
USDA's 1997 statistics show Minnesota in second place, longtime leader California in third
Charles A. Kraenzle
Director, Statistics Staff
USDA Rural Development
Editor's note: Information for this article was collected by members of the statistics staff of USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service: Celestine C. Adams, Katherine C. DeVille, Jacqueline E. Penn and Ralph M. Richardson.
Iowa surged into
first place in business volume among the nation's cooperatives during 1997,
taking over the top spot held by California for the previous 10 years.
Iowa cooperatives, with $10.9 billion
in business volume, led all states in 1997. Minnesota co-ops, with $9.8 billion,
ranked second and California co-ops, with $9.1 billion and the leading state in
1995, placed third. California co-ops had led the nation in business volume
since 1987. lowa was the nation's leading farm co-op state from 1979 to 1985.
Prior to 1979, California coops had led the nation since 1951, when USDA began
compiling state-by-state data. In 1995, Iowa was the second leading co-op state,
followed by Minnesota.
Increased marketings of farm
products, especially grains and oilseeds, and increased volume of farm supplies
helped Iowa and Minnesota co-ops move up to the top among the states. Wisconsin,
with $6.5 billion, and Illinois, with $6 billion, remained as the fourth and
fifth leading states (Table 1 and Figure
1).
Cooperatives in these five states
accounted for $42.4 billion, or 39.8 percent, of the $106.5 billion in total net
business volume handled by the nation's 3,791 agricultural cooperatives in 1997.
This compares with $36.1 billion (38.5 percent) of the $93.8 billion generated
by the nation's co-ops in 1995. They also accounted for 32.4 percent of the
total co-op memberships and 36.2 percent of all co-ops in 1997, compared with
28.7 percent of memberships and 31.8 percent of co-ops in 1995.
Marketing sales (derived from sale of
crops and livestock) accounted for 72.2 percent of the business volume handled
by co-ops in these five states in 1997, down from 77.5 percent in 1995.
California co-ops, with $8.2 billion, led all states in farm marketings,
followed by Iowa ($7.9 billion) and Minnesota ($7.4 billion) in 1997. In fact,
marketings accounted for 89.9 percent of California co-ops' total business
volume, down from 92 percent in 1995.
In Iowa, marketings accounted for
72.7 percent and sales of farm supplies accounted for 24.9 percent of the total
business volume in 1997. Service revenues and other income accounted for the
remaining 2.4 percent.
California co-ops' sales of farm
supplies ($0.4 billion) accounted for only 4.3 percent of total business volume
in 1997.
Service revenues and other income
($0.5 billion), the highest of all states, was even higher at 5.8 percent.
Leaders in number of co-ops
Minnesota, North
Dakota, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin were the leading states in number of
cooperatives (as determined by co-op headquarters locations), the same as
reported in 1995. These five states were home to 1,372 (36.2 percent) of the
nation's co-ops in 1997, down from 1,447 co-ops and up from 36.1 percent in 1995
(Figure 2).
Among the five leading states,
Minnesota 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), while Wisconsin showed the largest proportion of farm supply
cooperatives. Minnesota, however, had the largest number of farm supply co-ops.
New York (63), Minnesota (45) and
Wisconsin (31) led all states in number of dairy cooperatives. California (71)
and Florida (27) accounted for 37.8 percent of all fruit and vegetable
cooperatives. Grain cooperatives were most predominant in Iowa (133), North
Dakota (133), Kansas (124), Illinois (123), and Minnesota (107). These states
accounted for 61.1 percent of all grain cooperatives, up from 60.5 percent in
1995.
Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin,
and Missouri led all states in number of cooperative memberships with 1,050,799,
or 32.4 percent, of the total cooperative memberships in 1997 (Figure
3). Among these states, Illinois exhibited the largest percentage of
memberships (62.4 percent) in marketing cooperatives. Missouri showed the
largest percentage of memberships in farm supply cooperatives, and Wisconsin the
largest in service co-ops. Overall, nearly one-half of the memberships in the
five states were in farm supply cooperatives.
Iowa led all states in volume of farm
supplies sold, followed by Minnesota and Illinois. Cooperative supply sales in
Iowa totaled more than $2.7 billion, Minnesota $2.2 billion and Illinois $1.7
billion. Leading states in marketing volume were California, Iowa, and Minnesota
with $8.2 billion, $7.9 billion and $7.4 billion, respectively. Iowa was the
leading state in cooperative sales of feed, crop protectants, fertilizer and
petroleum. Illinois co-ops led all states in seed sales and Wisconsin led all
states in sales of other types of supply sales.
Information on farmer cooperative
activity in individual states is collected every other year through USDA’s
annual survey of farmer cooperatives. Data are requested 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.
Total net business volume (excluding
business done between cooperatives) in 1997 reached $106.5 billion, equal to the
record set in 1996. 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. 
Strong Co-op Themes
Emerge
at Conference
More than 150 leaders from cooperatives, universities and government got a
healthy dose of ideas for innovative roles and actions for cooperatives at the
Farmer Cooperative 2000 Conference, held in Minneapolis, Minn.
Sponsored by the University of
Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives and the Farm Foundation, the conference was
designed to serve as a catalyst for invigorated thinking about the future of
farmer cooperatives. Speakers from cooperatives and government, along with
university researchers and educators, assessed the powerful forces associated
with an increasingly globalized and industrialized agriculture. They also
considered what approaches farmer cooperatives should embrace to realize their
full potential.
It was clear from the conference
discussion that there is no shortage of models and ideas for farmer cooperative
strategies. Several common themes emerged from the discussion.
For a more detailed summary on the conference, go to the U.W. Center for Cooperatives' Web site at www.wisc.edu/uwcc.
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