Ag Co-ops Set Asset Record

• Published in: Rural Cooperatives Vol. 84; no. 6; pp. 18 - 23
• Main Authors: Wadsworth, James, Coleman, Charita, Rivera, Judith
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Superintendent of Documents 01-11-2017
• Subjects: Agricultural cooperatives; Balance sheets; Cobalt; Commodities; Cooperatives; Cotton; Employees; Employment; Equity; Farm buildings; Farmers; Farms; Feeds; Fertilizers; Fisheries; Livestock; Marketing; Marketing cooperatives; Memberships; Net income; Operating revenue; Patronage; Poultry; Rural areas; Silver; Supplies; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 1088-8845; 2169-2203

Investments in property, plant and equipment (fixed assets) by ag coops - including grain elevators, warehouses, farm supply stores, petroleum/convenience stores, fertilizer and feed plants, major food and beverage processing plants, etc. - also increased, to $26.5 billion, up $1.8 billion over 2015. The data was further divided into what is considered "mostly marketing co-ops" (those for which at least 75 percent of sales came from marketing commodities) and "mixed marketing" (co-ops that also sell substantial amounts of farm supplies, in addition to marketing farm commodities). Some co-ops not only market their members' products - including crops, milk, livestock, fruit/vegetables, poultry and fish - but also do value-added processing and promotion, sell farm production supplies and/or provide members with a variety of services. The positive performance of ag coops - even in the face of two years of lower commodity and input prices (2015 and 2016) - shows that the time-tested, member-owned and governed co-op business structure remains as important as ever to rural America.