July 22, 2003

 

Interested in Production Cooperatives?

The Center of Cooperatives at North Dakota State University is interested in your opinion and potential interest in a production cooperative.

"Production cooperatives can reduce costs of owning and operating expensive specialized equipment or provide a means of reaching the most efficient size of livestock production," explains center director Bill Nelson. "Many examples of production level cooperatives exist, particularly poultry and dairy cooperatives organized by feed producers/suppliers. There also are examples of machinery-sharing cooperatives ranging from sharing one machine among a few farmers to fairly large cooperatives sharing several machines among the members."

Those willing to participate in a study sponsored by the Cooperative Services unit of USDA by completing brief Internet-based surveys about production cooperatives should visit the center’s Web site at: http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/qbcc/. Various types of production cooperatives will be described and participants will have the opportunity to respond to brief surveys about these cooperatives.

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Source: Bill Nelson, (701) 231-1016, Bill.Nelson@ndsu.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu