United States

Department of

Agriculture

Rural Business–

and Cooperative

Programs

Research

Report 221

Cooperative Theory,

Practice, and Financing:

A Dairy Cooperative

Case Study
Abstract Cooperatives are the aggregates of economic units, such as farms. The cooperative is

neither a horizontal integration of its member-farms nor a vertical integration between

member-farms and the cooperative, but rather a third mode of organizing coordination.

Cooperatives are owned, controlled, financed, and used by members for mutual benefits, with service at cost and proportionality being two basic principles. Farmers organize marketing cooperatives to access markets, exercise countervailing power vis-àvis other market participants, promote competition, and thus enhance market

efficiency. Cooperation as practiced by dairy farmers in marketing milk is an enduring

business model that is in full accord with the economic theory of what cooperatives are

and what cooperatives do. Members supply equity capital needed for the cooperative

to carry out its core business of marketing members' milk. Capital financing, in general,

is not a contentious issue for dairy cooperatives. For other cooperatives that have difficulties in raising capital from members, the issue is really a reflection of a certain gap

between member purposes and cooperative functions. The solution lies in assessing

what members want the cooperative to do and how much they are willing to finance it;

the cooperative should operate accordingly for members' best interests. Social entrepreneurs have renewed interests in adopting cooperatives as an economic development tool to empower people to work toward their own economic destiny. Over the

long term, cooperatives must be self-sustainable in order to be economically viable.

Key Words: Cooperatives, dairy, milk, cooperative theory, competitive yardstick, countervailing power, capital, financing, social entrepreneurs.

Cooperative Theory, Practice, and Financing: 

A Dairy Cooperative Case Study

K. Charles Ling

Agricultural Economist

USDA Rural Development

Research Report 221

April 2011

Cover photo courtesy Kroger and Michigan Milk Producers Association.
Preface This study speaks to some recurrent issues regarding cooperative capital financing,

such as those raised by participants at the USDA Rural Development Public Forum on

Cooperative Research in 2005.

Cooperatives face many capital financing challenges. By the very nature of being a

cooperative, its equity capital is provided by members and is limited by their financial

means and their willingness to support the cooperative's undertakings. This may narrow the cooperative's scope of operation and expansion.

Furthermore, there are equity redemption issues. Members' equity capital held by the

cooperative represents a substantial sum of their money. This competes with members' capital needs on the farm. Members tend to not favor a long equity revolving period, because the present value of revolved equity is diminished after being discounted.

When a cooperative's business is doing well, some members may perceive that its

market valuation is higher than the book value and want to have access to the gain.

This may force selling off the cooperative or converting it to a public corporation.

To overcome these challenges, alternative capital financing methods have been variously implemented, such as new-generation cooperative capitalization, issuing preferred stock, accumulating (unallocated) retained earnings, and changing State laws to

allow non-member capital.

This report addresses some of the challenges faced by cooperatives and the issues

raised by the alternative financing methods used. First, the classic literature on the

economic theory of what cooperatives are and what they do in the market economy is

reviewed. Then, a case study is presented on dairy cooperatives as a group to showcase the theory in practice. The case study serves as a knowledge base for answering

questions regarding cooperative capital financing issues.

i
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Economic Theory of the Cooperative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Cooperative Basics I: Cooperation for market efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Purposes of cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Countervailing power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Pro-market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Competitive yardstick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Cooperative Basics II: Cooperatives are the aggregates of economic units . . . . .4

Summary of cooperative basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Cooperative Practice—Dairy Cooperatives as a Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Mission and functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Market performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Common stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Preferred stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Retained earnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Allocated equities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Retained patronage refunds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Capital retains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Base capital plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Members provide almost all equity capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Summary—Dairy Cooperative Practice and Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Financing Challenges of Dairy Cooperatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Member loyalty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Active members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Retired members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Inactive (former) members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Core businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Own and operate milk handling facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Value-added processing and marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Milk marketing-related and other member services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Extraneous businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Investment in seemingly related businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Investment in extended business ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Investment in developing dairy export markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Equity financing alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Public stock corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Preferred stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Limited liability company (LLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Joint venture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

“New-generation” cooperative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

ii
Addressing Cooperative Equity Financing Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

List of Tables

Table 1—Aggregated balance sheet of 94 dairy cooperatives, 2007 . . . . . . . . . .10

Table 2—Comparison of cooperative theory and dairy cooperative practice . . . .11

Table 3—U.S. dairy product commercial exports, fat and skim-solids basis,

2006-2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Table 4—U.S. farm sector balance sheet selected items, 2006-2010 . . . . . . . . .21

iii
Highlights Dairy cooperatives as a group are the most prominent among farmer cooperatives in

terms of sales revenue and the important roles they play in the dairy industry, a major

sector in agriculture. Their mission, functions, organization, governance, operations,

market performance, financing, etc., are in full agreement with the economic theory of

what cooperatives are and what cooperatives do (the classic raison d'être of cooperatives). The case study shows that financing the core business of marketing members'

milk is generally not a contentious issue for dairy cooperatives. Capital financing could

become an issue if a dairy cooperative embarks on ventures that are considered by

members to be extraneous businesses.

Underpinning the case study are two epoch-marking treatises on the theory of the

cooperative. “Economic Philosophy of Co-operation” by E. G. Nourse was the first academic paper on the theory of cooperation, published in the American Economic

Review. Ivan Emelianoff's book, Economic Theory of Cooperation: Economic Structure

of Cooperative Organizations, was the first work in the economic literature to give the

cooperative its precise economic definition.

Nourse's economic philosophy of cooperation may be summed up in a nutshell:

Cooperatives make it feasible for farmers to jointly market their products. The cooperative may evolve to a scale large enough to effectively bargain with other market participants and/or to avail itself of scale economies in processing and marketing operations.

Subject to the same market disciplines and supply-demand-price dynamics as any

business, the presence of the cooperative challenges other market participants to

operate efficiently and thus strengthens the competitive market mechanism. When the

market for members' products has become truly competitive, the cooperative may

want to assume only a stand-by position but maintain the legal institutions and organizational capacity to re-enter the field, if necessary.

Emelianoff's theme was that for economic analysis of cooperatives, the economic

structure of cooperative organizations should be clearly defined and that the definition

should be free from the encumbrance of sociological, legal, technical, social-philosophical and ethical considerations. He established this definition: “Cooperative organizations represent the aggregates of economic units.” In the agricultural context, farms

are such economic units.

Being aggregates of member-farms, cooperative associations have these characteristics in common: 

● The equity capital of a cooperative is the sum of advances needed for financing anticipated transactions of individual members of the cooperative.

● The member-owners of a cooperative are independent farmers who have chosen to coordinate certain activities via a cooperative.

● The surplus or deficit of a cooperative is the account payable to, or receivable

from, the member-patrons of the cooperative on their current transactions.

● The sum for patronage refunds to members is the sum either underpaid (overcharged) to members, or—in case of a deficit—overpaid (undercharged) to

members on their transactions through the marketing (or purchasing) cooperative.

● The dividend on capital, if any, is the interest payment for using capital

advanced by members, not a distribution of income.

● All the economic functions of a cooperative are ultimately the economic functions of the member-farms performed through the cooperative as their collective branch. Therefore, all economic services of cooperative association are

performed at cost.

iv
The theory as expounded by Nourse is from the perspective of market performance of

cooperatives. Emelianoff's thesis delineates the economic structure of cooperatives

and the governance, financial, and functional corollaries. Market performance and economic structure of dairy cooperatives are shown to be as prescribed by Nourse and

Emelianoff. (Table 2 in this report (page 11) summarizes their salient points and makes

a side-by-side comparison to dairy cooperative practice.) Cooperation as practiced by

dairy farmers in marketing milk is an enduring business model that is in full accord with

economic theory.

Just like any other business firm, dairy cooperatives require an adequate level of capital to market members' milk. Besides bargaining/negotiating for milk prices and terms

of trade, they may own and operate milk-handling facilities, do value-added processing, and/or provide milk marketing-related and other member services, as the case

may be. However, member equities are the source of capital of dairy cooperatives. A

cooperative's ability to raise capital is thus constrained by members' financial

resources. Equities of dairy cooperatives comprise common stock, preferred stock,

retained earnings, and allocated equities (such as retained patronage refunds, capital

retains, base capital, etc.)

Members are usually supportive of the financing need if the capital requirement is for

the cooperative to carry out the milk marketing functions they want it to perform. A

cooperative may face financing issues if it attempts to invest in extraneous businesses

unless the members are convinced that the new ventures would:

● solidify the market for members' milk, or

● help market members' milk, or

● add value to members' milk, and

● benefit members the most among all available alternatives of investing the

capital.

Some dairy cooperatives have tried alternative equity financing methods to leverage

cooperative members' capital commitment. They have tried structuring subsidiaries as

public stock corporations or as limited liability companies, having joint ventures with

other firms or organizing as a new-generation cooperative. A few have issued preferred stock for quite some time, mostly to members.

The solution to capital financing issues lies in assessing what members want the cooperative to do and whether they are willing to adequately finance it. A cooperative must

be self-sustainable in order to be economically viable over the long term.

The experience learned from the case study of dairy cooperatives provides some

answers to the frequently asked questions concerning cooperative capital financing,

such as those raised by presenters at the USDA Rural Development Public Forum on

Cooperative Research in 2005. The issues are addressed by individual subject matter

in the table below.

v
Financing issues

Member equities:

Cooperative equities are furnished by members

and therefore are limited. How does a cooperative gain

access to capital without incurring long-term debt, without selling off the cooperative, or without going public:

● When the cooperative needs more capital?

● When members agitate to gain access to the

perceived high market value of the business?

● When pressure mounts to shorten the equity 

revolving period?

New-generation cooperatives:

Are they the answer to cooperative financing

issues?

Preferred stock:

What effects might issuing preferred stock have on

a cooperative's practice?

Retained earnings:

Many cooperatives expand non-member businesses to accumulate retained earnings as permanent equity. What might be the long-term effects of

this practice on governance?

Some abridged answers

Members organize or join a cooperative to market their farm production. They should provide the

cooperative with capital at a level that is commensurate with the functions they want the cooperative to

perform and the benefits they want to derive from it.

If market value of the cooperative is higher than

the book value, it means the cooperative's earnings

and potential future earnings are higher than can be

expected, given its level of equity capital. Members

gain access to this higher earning ability by receiving higher pay prices, premiums, and patronage

refunds. Selling off the cooperative to gain the value

of the business is tantamount to “killing the goose

that lays the golden egg.”

Eventually it is up to members to decide if they

want the cooperative to be viable or if they prefer

other alternatives.

A new-generation cooperative requires members to pay equity up front to acquire the delivery

rights. This cooperative model has its own issues,

especially those concerning delivery rights and

property rights.

In addition, many new-generation cooperatives

are organized for business opportunities that resemble venture-capital investment. They tend to

process one product or a narrow range of products.

This presents additional risks as compared with a

cooperative that is organized to market members'

product(s) through a variety of marketing channels.

The effects preferred stock may have on a

cooperative's practice depend on what rights are

specified. Preferred stock that pays dividends and

has preference in assets over common stock in the

event of the dissolution of the cooperative—the

most common type of preferred stock—probably

would not have any impact.

Cooperatives may have non-member business

for various reasons. In any case, retained earnings

belong to the cooperative and thus are jointly owned

by members. However, a cooperative would not be

conforming to the Capper-Volstead Act requirement

if its non-member business were to exceed 50 percent of total sales.

vi
Outside (non-member) capital:

What changes in governance, organizational

structure, and practice may be brought about by the

new cooperative laws enacted by some States that

allow outside equity capital?

Untapped equity in rural America:

How plausible is the contention that there is a lot

of untapped equity in rural America that cooperatives

just do not have access to and that should be

allowed to be invested in cooperatives?

There is a large variation regarding voting

power and earning distribution, etc., among the few

State laws that allow cooperatives to have investors.

Differences in governance and earning distribution

rules will influence cooperative organizational structure and practice. It is better to analyze them on a

case-by-case basis. Furthermore, not every cooperative newly incorporated under these State laws has

investors.

If the farm sector equity is any indication, it is

not clear how much of it is untapped or available for

off-farm investment. The equity-to-asset ratio of the

farm sector is between 88 and 90 percent during the

5-year period 2006-2010. About 96 percent of the

assets are in land and real estate and farming

assets. Only around 4 percent of the assets are in

financial assets, and they may not be available for

off-farm investing. No comparable financial data for

rural America is readily available, but recent assessment of the state of the rural economy shows that it

faces significant challenges. It is highly unlikely that

there is a lot of untapped equity to be found in the

rural area.

vii
Cooperative Theory, Practice, and Financing: 

A Dairy Cooperative Case Study

K. Charles Ling

Agricultural Economist

USDA Rural Development

Rural Business and Cooperative Programs

Introduction

Cooperatives need capital in their normal course

of operation. Furthermore, marketing value-added

products and the capital-intensive nature of modern

operations also bring up financing issues. In addition,

modern technology is usually embodied in new plants

and equipment that require a large volume of throughput to achieve economies of scale and also a large sum

of capital investment. 

There is always an internal tension between a

cooperative's need for equity capital to carry out its

functions and the members' need for financing their

farming operations and for living expenses. It is not

unusual to hear laments that “our cooperative is not

able to leverage its strong brand for potentially lucrative market growth due to the constraints of member

equity financing.”

Indeed, cooperative financing was prominently

mentioned as one of the major subjects that require

research attention by most presenters at the USDA

Rural Development Public Forum on Cooperative

Research (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2005). The following list summarizes the cooperative financing

issues raised at the forum:

1. The chief obstacle facing farmer cooperatives

is the lack of access to sufficient capital to fund

their organizations in this new, expanded and

globalized marketplace. Because equity capital

is furnished by members and therefore is

rather limited, how does a cooperative gain

access to capital without incurring long-term

debt?

2. When a cooperative is successful (profitable),

its perceived market valuation may be worth

more than the book value. This may agitate

some members to demand cashing in the

appreciated value. How does a cooperative

accommodate such demand and provide a

vehicle for members to gain access to the value

of the business without selling the cooperative

or going public?

3. Some cooperatives face equity redemption

issues. Others have attempted to restructure

the cooperative in order to have more room for

raising capital. Are there alternatives short of

selling the cooperative or going public?

4. The advent of new-generation cooperatives

that would confer delivery rights commensurate with tradable membership shares seems

to offer a promising alternative for financing

cooperatives. Are new-generation cooperatives

the answer?

5. One of the ways to access capital is by issuing

preferred stock. What effects might this have

on a cooperative's practice?

6. Many cooperatives are expanding non-member business to generate profits that can be

held in permanent equity within the cooperative. What might be the long-term effects of

expanded non-member business on cooperative governance?

7. Cooperative laws in some States have been

changed to allow outside (non-member) equity capital. What changes in governance, organizational structure, and practice may be

brought about by these new laws?

8. Some contended that there is a large amount

of untapped equity in rural America that cooperatives do not have access to and that should

be allowed to be invested in cooperatives.

How plausible is this contention?

1
To set the stage for addressing these cooperative

financing issues, it is useful to refresh our understanding of the cooperative basics—the unique characteristics of the cooperative form of business: what cooperatives are, what they do, how they do it, what their role

is in terms of market performance, and how their operations are financed. To show the relevance of cooperative theory in practice, dairy cooperatives are used as a

case study. The lessons learned will provide some useful insights for answering the above questions.

Economic Theory of the Cooperative

For reviewing cooperative basics, the narratives

of two epoch-marking treatises on the economic theory

of the cooperative are presented: one on the cooperative's roles in the marketplace and the other on the

economic structure of the cooperative.

“Economic Philosophy of Co-operation” by E. G.

Nourse was the first academic paper on the theory of

cooperation, published in the American Economic

Review (Nourse, 1922; Hess). This piece, supplemented

by the oft-quoted “brief remarks” he made years later

(Nourse, 1945), is the basis of the first narrative.

The second narrative is drawn from the ideas of a

book by Ivan Emelianoff, Economic Theory of

Cooperation: Economic Structure of Cooperative

Organizations. This book was the first in the economic

literature to give the cooperative its precise economic

definition, and his work marked the beginning of a

new era in the development and evolution of cooperative theory.

Cooperative Basics I: Cooperation for market

efficiency

Nourse's primary focus was on the role agricultural cooperatives played in the marketplace. This

arose from his observation that the attempt to apply

the cooperative form of organization to economic

needs and problems in agriculture was critically

important.

Purposes of cooperation. The following examples

are taken from Nourse's paper to illustrate how

farmers organize cooperatives to perform various

market functions jointly and efficiently in various

market situations—functions that cannot be

satisfactorily carried out alone by individual farmers:

1. Cooperation for market access—An example is

a small fruit-producing area far from any large

market. The product is perishable, hence both

risk and marketing expense are high. Total

product volume is not large enough to attract

a private distributor. Facing this situation, producers have the option of organizing a cooperative association to market their products.

These cooperatives have frequently demonstrated the ability to achieve successful results

where private, outside entrepreneurship fails

to perform.

2. Local to regional coordination—A local cooperative creamery may initially be effective in

meeting the competition of other small, private creamery operations. However, when

competing creameries have grown to be entities of great size, the competition must be met

by a distributing organization of equal scope.

This will often be achieved through a federation of the cooperative creameries across a

region which may embrace an entire State,

several States or parts of a State.

3. Region-wide associations—In many instances,

growers in horticultural regions have organized and integrated highly efficient businesses that serve producers across an entire production region by assembling, processing, and

distributing their products. These agencies

have eliminated wasteful competition both at

the local shipping point and at the central

markets. Furthermore, they are the instruments of the producer and owner of the goods,

and hence are likely to be more aggressive in

the effort to reduce expense and wastage in

the handling process and to improve quality

and enlarge outlets.

(Author's note: Cooperative organizations covering entire production regions have been most prevalent in California because of the characteristics of the

State's economic geography. This type of cooperative

organization was called “the California plan” and was

promoted on a national scale in the 1920s by Aaron

Sapiro, with varying degrees of success and failure

(Sapiro; Larsen, et al.).)

Countervailing power. The above examples show

how cooperatives are organized and grow to enable

farmers to exercise “countervailing power” in the

marketplace, although the term was not coined until

the 1950s, when economist John Kenneth Galbraith

cited the type of cooperatives made famous by Sapiro

as an example for his explanation.

Nourse certainly recognized the importance of

countervailing power if cooperatives are to have a

2
strong market position. As he stated: “Possibly the

keynote of the philosophy lies in the idea that a means

must be found for giving agriculture a type of organization whose productive and bargaining units respectively will expand in step with the growing needs of

the agricultural techniques (and its accompanying capital demands) and of the size requisite to an effective

bargaining position in contact with the units of commercial organization with which they must deal.”

Pro-market. Nourse said that the theoretical

implication of agricultural cooperation “is

preeminently that of functional reorganization rather

than comprehensive economic regeneration.” In other

words, the farmer takes the essential facts of the

market as given and, working together with other

producers through the cooperative, seeks to be in the

most effective market position to compete. Thus, the

distinctive economic philosophy of this business form

is viewed “as a means to improve the lot of both

farmer and consumer by improving the efficiency of

the economic machine.”

Cooperatives enable farmers to effectively compete in the marketplace and garner market signals that

put them in a position of prompt and sensitive

response to the reaction of the consuming public and

guide their farming business decisions. According to

Nourse, the cooperative objective is twofold (Nourse,

1945):

1. “It is to make the most economical and efficient market channel by which whatever volume of product farmers see fit to produce

gains access to the attention and the purchasing power of all who might use such a product. (For supply-buying cooperatives, most

economical access to the best sources of the

goods they need.) Thus, a true supply-anddemand price is allowed (and aided) to

express itself for the guidance of producers.”

2. “It aims to reflect these market conditions back

most promptly and fully to producers in ways

that will both guide and, so far as possible,

assist them in changing their methods so as to

continue production and to prosper or to shift

to more suitable lines of production.”

Competitive yardstick. In Nourse's view, the

cooperative is a means for promoting and maintaining

competition in the marketplace. The supply-demandprice dynamic “provides a powerful stimulus to the

association to devise further economies of method

which will enable them to maintain the level of net

returns to the grower. Such competition also spurs the

private agency to outdo the cooperative in its

efficiency in order to hold its business.”

He used the term “yardstick” years later (Nourse,

1945), when he said the place for the agricultural cooperative in the Nation's business “is primarily that of

'pilot plant' and 'yardstick' operation. Its objective is

not to supersede other forms of business but to see

that they are kept truly competitive.”

The cooperative is to “occupy certain strategic

points, and there to set a plane or pace of competition

which will assure for the farmer efficient service at

true long-run cost.” When such services (manufacturing, distributing, transporting, financing, etc.) are furnished efficiently and economically (which means in a

truly competitive manner), “there is no occasion for

the farmer to occupy the field and divert some of his

capital and some of his managerial time and effort to

these tasks and away from his main enterprise of farm

production.”

Farmers should remain vigilant. Nourse cautioned: “It is of the upmost importance, however, that

farmers shall have both the legal institutions and the

organizational 'know-how' to step into these fields

when and to the extent that service is inadequate or

unduly high in cost. It is important also that they

remain in each of these fields with an organization sufficiently large to attain high efficiency so that farmers

shall be protected against any subsequent lapse in the

quality of service or temptation to profiteer in charges

by the non-cooperative service agencies.

“But it is just as important that the cooperatives

recognize when they have in fact attained their real

objective by demonstrating a superior method of processing or distribution or by breaking a monopolistic

bottleneck, and that they should then be content merely to maintain 'stand-by' capacity or a 'yardstick' operational position rather than try to occupy the whole

field or a dominating position within it. In some cases,

they may be well advised in entirely terminating operations once they have stimulated regular commercial

or manufacturing agencies to competition amongst

themselves.”

Nourse's economic philosophy of cooperation

may be summed up in a nutshell: Cooperatives make

it feasible for farmers to jointly market their products.

The cooperative may evolve to a scale large enough to

effectively bargain with other market participants

and/or to avail itself of scale economies in processing

and marketing operations. Subject to the same market

disciplines and supply-demand-price dynamics as any

business, the presence of the cooperative challenges

3
other market participants to operate efficiently and

thus strengthens the competitive market mechanism.

When the market for members' products has become

truly competitive, the cooperative may want to assume

only a stand-by position but maintain the legal institutions and organizational capacity to reenter the field, if

necessary.

Cooperative Basics II: Cooperatives are the

aggregates of economic units

While there had been many references regarding

cooperative principles, the question “what is a cooperative?” was never clearly answered until Ivan

Emelianof took up the task to do it.

In Economic Theory of Cooperation: Economic

Structure of Cooperative Organizations, Emelianoff carefully reviewed the worldwide literature on cooperative

theory from the late 19th century until 1939. He came

to the conclusion that for economic analysis of cooperatives, the economic structure of cooperative organizations should be clearly defined and that the definition

should be free from the encumbrance of sociological,

legal, technical, social-philosophical, and ethical considerations. 

Against this backdrop, Emelianoff established

this definition: “Cooperative organizations represent

the aggregates of economic units.” This “bare bones”

definition crystallizes the essence of what cooperatives

should have in common.

“Aggregate” is commonly defined as: “Any total

or whole considered with reference to its constituent

parts; an assemblage or group of distinct particulars

massed together” (American Heritage Dictionary).

Further, as defined by Emelianoff: “An economic unit,

or economic individual, is an economic body admittedly complete and sufficiently integrated for individual existence and independent (in conditions of an

exchange economy—interdependent) economic functioning.”

In the agricultural context, farms are such economic units. The nature of cooperative associations as

aggregates of member-farms is clearly discernible in

the embryonic forms of such associations. For example, a buying club of farmers may want to purchase

certain goods together, such as fertilizer.

The buying club would have someone take

orders from member-farmers and place orders with a

vendor, as well as perform other related chores. If the

vendor requires a deposit, members may advance

money to the buying club for the deposit requirement

in proportion to their respective buying volume.

There may be an elected committee to facilitate

decisionmaking if the number of members is large.

Each member may have one vote if their purchasing

volumes are about the same. Otherwise, some forms of

proportional voting may be adopted to conciliate

large-volume members.

When the fertilizer (for example) is delivered,

members pay the balance of their obligations. After the

transactions have been completed, payment to the vendor and other expenses are subtracted from the sum of

money paid by members. Any surplus is returned to

members in proportion to the volume of fertilizer they

have purchased. 

This buying service is conducted at cost; every

aspect of a member's transaction through the buying

club is in proportion to their patronage (buying) volume. The buying club may be disbanded after fulfilling its joint-buying purpose.

This scenario shows that the buying club represents the aggregate of its member-farms, through

which they purchase fertilizer. If the buying club metamorphoses into a permanent purchasing cooperative

association, the picture may look more complicated.

However, the underlying nature of the cooperative as

an aggregate of member-farms remains the same.

In this new scenario (i.e., a permanent purchasing

cooperative), the person who manages buying orders

and other chores will be the manager of the cooperative (usually a hired professional). The committee of

members becomes the board of directors. Advanced

payments by members to the cooperative become equity capital for financing the operation and for carrying

inventories and owning facilities.

Year-end surplus is returned to members as

refunds in proportion to patronage volume, but a portion may be retained as revolving capital. The principles of proportionality and service at-cost remain

intact, but their practices may be less evident because

the operation has become more complex.

Although the above example is based on purchasing cooperatives, the same line of reasoning also

applies to marketing cooperatives. The difference

between purchasing and marketing cooperatives is:

instead of procuring goods, a marketing cooperative

markets products produced by member-farms.

In either case, the member-farms coordinate their

activities through the cooperative, but each fully

retains its economic individuality and independence. 

A cooperative may be described as a center of

member-patrons' coordinated activities, or as an

agency owned and controlled by members through

4
which they conduct their business. In this respect, it is

identical with the special departments or branches of

individual member-farms. 

For example, a dairy cooperative is the collective

marketing arm of its member dairy farms; a farm supply cooperative is their supply purchasing department;

and a livestock-genetics cooperative is the breeding

service branch for its members. As some would say, “A

cooperative is an off-farm extension of the farming

business.”

Being aggregates of member-farms, cooperative

associations have these characteristics in common: 

● The equity capital of a cooperative is the sum

of advances needed for financing anticipated

transactions of individual members of the

cooperative; it is not the same as the entrepreneurial capital of an investor-owned corporation.

● The member-owners of a cooperative are independent farmers who have chosen to coordinate certain activities via a cooperative. They

are not the same as the stockholders of an

investor-owned corporation, who are a diverse

set of shareholders joined solely by common

investment.

● The surplus or deficit of a cooperative is the

account payable to, or receivable from, the

member-patrons of the cooperative on their

current transactions; this is not the same as the

profit or loss of an investor-owned corporation.

● The sum for patronage refunds to members is

the sum either underpaid (overcharged) to

members, or — in case of a deficit — overpaid

(undercharged) to members on their transactions through the marketing (or purchasing)

cooperative; the sum for patronage refunds is

not the profit of the cooperative or its income.

● The dividend on capital, if any, does not represent a profit or any income of the cooperative;

it is the interest payment for using capital

advanced by members. By contrast, investorowned corporations pay dividends to shareholders out of earnings.

● All the economic functions of a cooperative are

ultimately the economic functions of the member-farms performed through the cooperative

as their collective branch or collective department. Therefore, all economic services of a

cooperative association are performed at cost.

Emelianoff emphasizes: “None of such traits can

be unreservedly used as an unerring test of a truly

cooperative organization, since these traits only indirectly disclose the economic character of the cooperative aggregate...The only comprehensive and indisputable test of the cooperative character of

organizations is their aggregate structure.”

The unique aspects of cooperative character,

however, are often not readily apparent. There are

many reasons for this, some examples being:

● Cooperatives only reflect the characters and

aspirations of their membership, which are

diverse and manifest the diversity of the population, the geographical regions and the commodities involved. Such differences directly, or

indirectly, have a certain bearing on the character of an association and its cooperative

ideals. The variability of the external characteristics of cooperatives is kaleidoscopic and

infinite. Differences in their external and

superficial features obscure cooperatives' ultimate economic character of being aggregates

of their member-farms.

● Most cooperatives are incorporated. The legal

vestments of incorporated cooperative associations also cloak their economic structure as

aggregates of member-farms to such a degree

that they are often mistaken to be the same as

investor-owned corporations. This is one of the

principal sources of confusion in understanding cooperative organizations.

● A lack of distinction between the concept of an

investor-owned corporation as a profit-seeking

economic unit and the concept of a cooperative

as an agency of its member farms is another

factor that confuses many. Use of common

accounting terminology for both business

models adds to this confusion. As the above

list of cooperative characteristics shows, such

conventional terms as “profit,” “capital,”

“shareholders,” “dividends,” etc., should be

used with reservations when describing cooperatives.

● In governance, a cooperative board of directors — including its board election rules, composition, function, responsibilities, and interaction with management — is not the same as

the board of an investor-owned corporation

(especially the publicly traded ones).

Consequently, the role of the top manager of a 

5
cooperative is also somewhat different from

that of an investor-owned corporation (even if

they have the same title).

Emelianoff's definition that cooperative organizations represent the aggregates of associated economic

units provides a clear insight into how cooperatives

organize and function. 

In a paper dealing with the issue of economic

coordination some 45 years later, James Shaffer echoed

(though without citing) Emelianoff's definition of

cooperatives as aggregates of member-farms. Because

member-farms are independent entities, represent

independent profit centers, and act independently

(except that they jointly own the cooperative), the

cooperative association is neither a horizontal integration of its member-farms nor a vertical integration

between member-farms and the cooperative. He

asserted that “the cooperative is a third mode of organizing coordination.”

Summary of cooperative basics

The first narrative on the cooperative basics, following Nourse's work, is from the perspective of market performance of cooperatives. To sum up:

● Cooperatives are organized for efficiently carrying out specific business functions for member-producers.

● Cooperatives can be of any size (and can be

local, regional, or national in scope) that

allows them to function efficiently in the marketplace.

● Cooperatives afford farmers the organizational

sizes that are necessary for exercising countervailing power to effectively deal with other

market participants.

● Cooperatives are pro-market; they let the market supply-and-demand price be the guidance

for producers.

● Cooperatives are a means for farmers to promote and maintain competition—as the competitive yardstick.

● In those fields where the market has become

truly competitive and farmers can be well

served by other firms, cooperatives may want

to cede the field and assume only a stand-by

position (to preserve members' capital, time,

and efforts for use on the farm), while maintaining the legal institutions and organizational capacity to step in if there is a relapse of

market inadequacy.

The second narrative, based on Emelianoff's theory, delineates the economic structure of cooperatives

and the governance, financial, and functional corollaries. In summary:

● Cooperative organizations represent the aggregates of economic units.

● A cooperative is an agency owned and controlled by members through which they conduct their business.

● Each member-farm fully retains its economic

individuality and independence.

● The board of directors is elected from among

member-farmers.

● Proportionality and service at-cost are two

basic principles.

● Members provide advances (i.e., equity capital) for financing the cooperative.

● The surplus or deficit of a cooperative is the

account payable to, or receivable from, the

member-patrons.

● Patronage refunds are the money returned to

members who have been underpaid or overcharged.

● Dividend on capital, if any, is interest payment

for using members' capital.

● Being an aggregate of member-farms, the

cooperative is neither a horizontal integration

of its members nor a vertical integration

between the cooperative and its members. It is

a third mode of organizing coordination.

Together the two narratives constitute a comprehensive framework for understanding cooperatives—

what they are, what they do, how they do it, and their

role in the marketplace. In the next section, dairy cooperatives are examined to relate their practice to the theoretical framework and illustrate how well the theory

fits the reality, and vice versa.

Cooperative Practice—

Dairy Cooperatives as a Case Study

Dairy cooperatives' sales of milk and dairy products represented 42 percent of total commodity marketing by all agricultural cooperatives in the United

States in 2007, making them, as a group, the most

prominent among all agricultural marketing cooperatives (Deville, et al.).

Dairy cooperatives also occupy major market

shares within the dairy industry, especially at the first6
handler level and in the manufacture of “hard” dairy

products (butter, cheese, and milk powders). In 2007,

there were 155 dairy cooperatives in the nation. A total

of 49,675 member-producers, or 84 percent of the

nation's licensed dairy farms, delivered 152.5 billion

pounds of milk, or 83 percent of all milk marketed

(Ling, 2009).

Cooperatives marketed 71 percent of the nation's

butter, 96 percent of nonfat and skim milk powders, 26

percent of natural cheese, and 42 percent of dry whey

products. Their shares of “soft” and cultured products

were less significant: 4 percent of ice cream, 13 percent

of ice cream mix, 11 percent of yogurt, and 14 percent

of sour cream. They processed 7 percent of the

Nation's packaged fluid milk products in 2007.

Mission and functions

Dairy farmers organize cooperatives to jointly

and efficiently market their milk. Milk is a “flow”

product (cows are milked twice or thrice daily) and is

highly perishable; it must be picked up from the farm

and delivered to the market (milk plants) soon after it

is produced. By working together through their cooperatives, farmers want to have better control over the

movement of the milk through the marketing channel

and attain higher value for the milk.

The functions and services the farmers demand

of their respective cooperatives vary, depending on the

specific market situation the members of a cooperative

face and their particular needs. Dairy cooperatives

may be charged by members with the responsibility of

performing one or more (or all) of the following marketing functions:

● Provide an assured market — Typically there

is a written or tacit agreement between a member and the cooperative that the cooperative is

the exclusive marketing agent of the member's

milk.

● Negotiate milk pay price and terms of trade

with milk buyers (investors-owned processors).

● Collect and ensure payment from milk buyers.

● Check weights and tests -— To ensure that

milk payment a member receives is accurate

and commensurate with the quantity and

quality of the milk delivered. 

● Arrange for milk hauling -— Arrangement

must be made to have milk picked up from the

farm in a timely fashion and delivered to the

plant of first-receipt. This can be performed by

the cooperative's own haulers, by contract

haulers or by haulers retained by members.

The cooperative may also be responsible for

setting or negotiating hauling rates.

● Provide field services — Cooperatives typically have field service personnel to assist with

on-farm production problems and regulatory

and inspection issues for the farm to achieve

quality milk production.

● Disseminate market information —

Information on the situation and outlook of

the milk market is provided to members for

use in making dairy farming business decisions.

● Other marketing-related services that help

members deal with all the minutiae related to

producing and marketing quality milk.

In addition, dairy farmers may ask their cooperative to leverage its group strength to procure various

other services to help sustain their farming operations

and farm life. Some of the services may be for the

cooperative to offer or help arrange:

● Milking supplies and equipment or farm supplies.

● Insurance products — Such as disaster insurance for the farm, health and/or life insurances for the farmer and the farm employees

and their families, and farm workers' compensation.

● Retirement programs.

● Risk management services to deal with market

uncertainties.

● Farm business consulting services — such as

farm expansion feasibility studies and business plans.

● Operating capital and facility capital financing.

● Financial planning services.

● Livestock marketing services — mainly for

culled cows and calves.

● Other services that may help members' farming operations.

Organization

Dairy cooperatives can be of any size (and can be

local, regional, or national in scope), depending on

whatever scale the membership considers to be the

most appropriate for marketing their milk.

A small local cooperative may have a few member-farms and market less than 1 million pounds of

milk a year. A regional one may have hundreds or

thousands of members in more than one State with

7
milk pounds in the millions or even billions. The

Nation's largest dairy cooperative has about 10,000

member-farms that spread over all 48 contiguous

States and together deliver tens of billions of pounds

of milk.

All dairy cooperatives are known to be centralized organizations with direct membership. A limited

number may have other dairy cooperatives as association members, but the practice is usually for accommodating the fact that the cooperative is the marketing

agent of all or part of the milk, dairy products, or services of these association members.

Dairy cooperatives operating in the same market

may form marketing agencies in-common to rationalize milk hauling and shipment for reducing transportation costs, to share market information, or to collectively bargain with buyers for higher prices for milk

or dairy products marketed.

Governance

Members of dairy cooperatives exercise ownership and business controls through a board of directors

that is elected from among member-farmers.

Candidates for the board are typically nominated by a

committee of elected members who are not directors.

Elections of the directors are usually done at the annual membership meeting.

If a cooperative is large, in terms of membership

or geographical area, members may be grouped into

districts (or areas/regions/divisions/locals, as the case

may be). Then the directors may be nominated from

the district and elected at the cooperative's annual

meeting. Districts are usually drawn such that members in the same district are more or less homogeneous, and voting at the district level is typically by

one member/one vote. The number of directors each

district is entitled to may be different due to proportionality considerations based on milk volume. Some

boards may have at-large members.

Also in a large cooperative, a delegate body elected by members may be needed to channel information

and make decisions on behalf of the membership. The

delegate body may be empowered to represent the

membership in all decisions, except for matters that

specifically require votes by the entire membership.

A limited number of dairy cooperatives are

known to have non-member directors, typically in the

States where they are required by law. Non-member

directors usually play an advisory, non-voting role on

the board.

An executive committee of elected officers and

selected board members may be constituted to facilitate decisionmaking when the board is not in session.

The board may also appoint several committees to

carry out specific board functions, such as audits,

finance, membership, and marketing committees.

The board controls the cooperative's business on

behalf of members and makes major decisions, sets the

policy, and determines the overall direction of the

cooperative for the management to carry out in its

day-to-day operations. The separation of the responsibility of the board (governance) and the role of management (managing) is often emphasized. Another

very important function of cooperative board members

is serving as a conduit of communication between the

management and the rank-and-file members.

Operations

Dairy cooperatives perform various marketing

functions to carry out the most important task of providing an assured market for members' milk. They

may engage in one or more of these activities:

● Bargaining—Find a market for members' milk

and bargain/negotiate with milk buyers for

milk prices and terms of trade.

● Fluid processing—Own or retain plant capacity to process some or all member milk into

fluid products. Fluid plants may also process

soft and cultured products.

● Niche marketing—Own or retain plant capacity to process some or all member milk into

specialty (niche) products.

● Making hard products—Own or retain plant

capacity to manufacture hard dairy products.

Manufacturing plants also provide a home for

milk when it is in excess of market demand

and transform the milk into storable products

for further processing or later distribution.

Of the 155 U.S. dairy cooperatives, 108 may be

classified as bargaining cooperatives because bargaining was their only, or main, marketing activity. Four

were fluid processing cooperatives whose business

was predominantly in processing and distributing

fluid products. Nineteen were niche marketing cooperatives. The remaining 24 may be called diversified

cooperatives, having bargaining and one or more processing/manufacturing functions as their main operations.

Besides assuring a market for members' milk,

dairy cooperatives may also perform some or all of the

other milk marketing functions listed in the mission

and functions section above. In addition, they may

procure farm supplies or provide other services for

8
members.

Dairy cooperatives also provide services to milk

buyers in accordance with the terms of trade negotiated, such as delivering milk on schedule, maintaining

quality control and related laboratory services, preconditioning or standardizing milk, and/or fulfilling fullsupply contracts.

Market performance

A cooperative affords dairy farmers the organizational size that is necessary for exercising countervailing power to effectively bargain and deal with milk

buyers and other market participants.

The dairy industry has evolved such that dairy

cooperatives and processors have developed into what

may be characterized as symbiotic relationships, and

there is a high degree of “division of labor.”

Because dairy cooperatives are organizations of

farmers, they have the comparative advantages of

working closely with members for assembling milk,

providing field services, and performing farm-related

functions. It is these advantages that accord them the

predominant market share at the first-handler level.

Along with this dominance in milk procurement

is the responsibility of balancing milk supply. Many

dairy cooperatives maintain plant capacity to manufacture reserve and surplus milk into storable products

like butter, milk powders, and cheese. Consequently,

they have major market shares of these hard products.

Like a reservoir, these cooperative plants absorb milk

in excess of demand and provide supplemental milk to

the market when it is needed.

Many processors rely on dairy cooperatives for

milk supplies that are tailored to their requirements

such as volume, quality, composition, and delivery

schedule—what are called full-supply contracts—so

they can focus their attention on the sectors where they

are dominant: making fluid, cultured, and soft products (and lately cheese) and further processing and

packaging dairy products for the consumer market.

These sectors tend to be capital-, technology-, and service-intensive and are exposed to high product and

market risks.

Farmers, who are generally risk-averse and have

many demands on their financial resources on the

farm, probably prefer to stay out of these sectors rather

than compete head-on with processors (their milk customers), as long as the market performs well and their

farming business can be sustained.

Still, there is a substantial number of dairy cooperatives operating in these sectors, although as a whole

their market share is not high. The upshot is that

although dairy cooperatives are generally less active in

these sectors, they have the size, organization, and

wherewithal to enter the market if the situation calls

for it.

As far as dairy cooperatives are concerned,

Nourse's prescription regarding market performance

of cooperatives still fits the reality very well.

Financing

Based on the complete financial data of 94 dairy

cooperatives for the fiscal year ending in 2007, total

assets of these cooperatives were $12 billion (or $8.41

per hundredweight (cwt) of milk, table 1). Current

assets accounted for 60.4 percent ($7.3 billion, or

$5.08/cwt), and fixed and other assets accounted for

the other 39.6 percent ($4.8 billion, or $3.34/cwt).

These 94 cooperatives represented 61 percent of all

dairy cooperatives and marketed 142.9 billion pounds

of milk, or 94 percent of cooperative milk volume.

Total liabilities were $8.7 billion. Of which, 72.3

percent was current liabilities ($6.3 billion or

$4.40/cwt), and 27.7 percent ($2.4 billion or $1.69/cwt)

was long-term debts. Equities, the balance of assets

and liabilities, were $3.3 billion ($2.32/cwt).

Dairy cooperatives typically pay members for

their milk twice a month. A large proportion of the

current assets and the current liabilities are for such

pending periodic cash payments to members. This is a

unique characteristic of the balance sheet of dairy

cooperatives. Therefore, it is important to focus on the

ratio of long-term debts to equity in evaluating financial strength, which was 72.6 percent for the 94 cooperatives.

Equities can be grouped into four categories:

common stock, preferred stock, retained earnings, and

allocated equities.

Common stock. In 2007, common stock only

accounted for 0.1 percent of total equities (table 1).

This is because common stock of cooperatives is

usually issued for witnessing membership and carries

minimal nominal value.

Preferred stock. Preferred stock as reported was 7

percent of total equities. A substantial portion of the

preferred stock was issued by some cooperatives to

members for witnessing retained patronage refunds or

for witnessing members' additional investment in the

cooperative and may be considered as allocated

equities. It is not clear who holds the remaining

preferred stock (probably representing less than 5

percent of total equities); the holders could be non9
members as well as members.

Retained earnings. Retained earnings could be

earnings derived from non-member businesses, but

may also include allocated equities that some

cooperatives choose not to separately specify in the

financial reports, retained net savings that are going to

be allocated later, or earnings that are difficult to

attribute to specific member transactions. Therefore,

retained earnings that are not likely to be subject to

allocations (or considered by some to be “permanent”

equity) should be less than the reported 10.8 percent of

total equities. In any case, retained earnings belong to

the cooperative and therefore are owned by members.

In most cases, non-member businesses of dairy

cooperatives are incidentals to the dairy operation.

These may include:

● Processing into storable products other firms'

surplus (distressed) milk that needs to find a

home.

● Sales of goods sourced from other firms in

dairy stores or other sales outlets.

● Sales of dairy or farm supplies that may

include customers who are non-members.

In a limited number of cases, retained earnings

are profits from investment activities that may or may

not be related to the core business of serving members'

marketing and farming needs.

Allocated equities. The 94 cooperatives reported

that 82.1 percent of their equities ($1.91/cwt) were

allocated to members. Allocated equities are members'

capital from one or more of these sources:

Retained patronage refunds: Retained patronage

refunds are net savings that are allocated to members

based on patronage but are retained to finance the

cooperative's operations after a cash portion has been

paid to members. Members must treat the entire

patronage refunds (retained as well as cash payment)

as income for tax purposes. Cooperatives usually

revolve retained patronage back to members after a

certain period of time.

Capital retains: Some cooperatives use capital retains

to finance the operations or more often, for special

10

Table 1—Aggregated balance sheet of 94 dairy cooperatives, 2007

----$ ,000---- ----$/cwt---- ----% of category----

Assets:

Current assets 7,258,423 5.08 60.4

Net PP&E & other assets 4,609,394 3.23 38.3

Investments in other cooperatives 152,067 0.11 1.3

Assets not categorized 935 0.00 0.0 ___________________________________________________________________

Total assets 12,020,819 8.41 100.0

Liabilities & equity:

Current liabilities 6,290,839 4.40 72.3

Long-term & other liabilities 2,409,129 1.69 27.7

Liabilities not categorized 677 0.00 0.0 ___________________________________________________________________

Total liabilities 8,699,968 6.09 100.0

Equities

Common stock 1,857 0.00 0.1

Preferred stock 232,595 0.16 7.0

Retained earnings 358,473 0.25 10.8

Allocated equities 2,727,249 1.91 82.1 ___________________________________________________________________

Total equities 3,320,174 2.32 100.0 ___________________________________________________________________

Total liabilities and equities 12,020,142 8.41

Number of dairy cooperatives reporting 94

Member milk (million pounds) 142,865
projects such as building new plants. Money is

withheld from milk payment at a certain rate per

hundredweight of milk. Members must treat capital

retains as income for tax purposes. Capital retains are

also revolved back to members after a certain period of

time.

Base capital plan: Some larger diversified dairy

cooperatives have adopted base capital plans to

establish a more stable equity pool. Under such a plan,

a target base capital level is established at a rate per

hundredweight of milk marketed during a

representative period. The base capital may be funded

by retained patronage and/or capital retains, or by

other means of member contribution. Once a member

attains the prescribed base capital level, future 

patronage earnings allocated to the member are paid

in cash.

Members provide almost all equity capital.

Counting common stock, preferred stock (that is

issued to members), retained earnings, and allocated

equities, almost all equities (probably more than 95

percent) of dairy cooperatives are supplied and owned

by members.

Summary—Dairy Cooperative Practice

and Theory

Market performance and economic structure of

dairy cooperatives are in full accord with the economic

theory of cooperation as expounded by Nourse and

11

Cooperative Basics I: Market Performance

Cooperatives are organized for efficiently carrying out 

specific business functions.

Cooperatives can be of any size (and can be local, 

regional, or national in scope) that allows them to

function efficiently in the marketplace.

Cooperatives afford farmers the organizational sizes for

exercising countervailing power.

Cooperatives are pro-market; they let the market supplyand-demand price be the guidance for producers.

Cooperatives are a means for farmers to promote and

maintain competition—as the competitive yardstick.

In those fields where the market has become truly 

competitive and farmers can be well served by other

firms, cooperatives may want to cede the field and

assume only a stand-by position (to preserve members'

capital, time, and efforts for use on the farm), while

maintaining the legal institutions and organizational

capacity to step in if there is a relapse of market

inadequacy.

Market Performance of Dairy Cooperatives

49,675 dairy farmers in 155 cooperatives marketed 83

percent of U.S. milk in 2007.

The smallest local cooperative has a few members

marketing less than 1 million pounds of milk per year; the

largest one has about 10,000 members in the 48

contiguous States and markets tens of billions of pounds

of milk.

Dairy cooperatives may grow or have grown to the size

necessary for effectively bargaining with milk buyers for

better prices and terms of trade.

Dairy cooperatives and their member-farmers are subject

to the disciplines of the market in a free economy.

To be competitive, processors must match the 

effectiveness and efficiency of dairy cooperatives.

Dairy cooperatives have comparative advantages in

procuring milk and have major shares in making hard

products (71 percent of butter, 96 percent of nonfat and

skim milk powder, and 26 percent of cheese—the latter

decreased from 34 percent in 2002). Their shares are 

less significant in sectors that are capital-, technology-,

and service-intensive and that carry high product and 

market risks (7 percent of fluid milk, 4 percent of ice 

cream, 11 percent of yogurt, 14 percent of sour cream. 

Their share of cheese has also declined in recent years).

However, dairy cooperatives have the wherewithal to 

take up the slack if the market fails to perform well.

Table 2—Comparison of cooperative theory and dairy cooperative practice
Emelianoff. Dairy cooperatives' mission, functions,

organization, governance, operations, market performance, financing, etc., all conform to the theoretical

prescriptions, as table 2 shows. Cooperation as practiced by dairy farmers in marketing milk is an enduring business model that is in full agreement with the

economic theory of what cooperatives are and what

cooperatives do.

Financing Challenges of Dairy

Cooperatives

Equities of dairy cooperatives are provided by

members. Therefore, a cooperative's ability to raise

and retain capital is constrained by members' financial

resources and their willingness to advance funds to

the cooperative. Managing this unique way of equity

financing inevitably generates some internal tension

between members and the cooperative. However,

members are usually supportive of the financing need

if the capital requirement is for the cooperative to

carry out its milk marketing functions. Resistance to

contributing more equity capital tends to occur when

the cooperative embarks on ventures that are considered by members to be extraneous or beyond its stipulated core business of marketing members' milk.

Member loyalty

For an average member-producer delivering 3.1

million pounds of milk a year in 2007, total allocated

equity retained by the cooperative amounted to an

estimated $59,000 per member (by using the $1.91/cwt

12

Cooperative Basics II: Economic Structure

Cooperative organizations represent the aggregates of

economic units.

A cooperative is an agency owned and controlled by 

members through which they conduct their business.

Each member-farm fully retains its economic individuality

and independence.

The board of directors is elected from among memberfarmers.

Proportionality and service at-cost are two basic 

principles.

Members provide advances (i.e., equity capital) for

financing the cooperative.

Patronage refunds are returned to members who have 

been underpaid or overcharged.

Dividend on capital, if any, is interest payment for using

members' capital.

Being an aggregate of member-farms, the cooperative is

neither a horizontal integration of its members nor a

vertical integration between the cooperative and its

members. It is a third mode of organizing coordination.

Economic Structure of Dairy Cooperatives

A dairy cooperative is the aggregate of dairy memberfarms.

A dairy cooperative is owned, controlled, and used by

members as the milk-marketing arm of their dairy

farming business.

Member dairy farms are independent economic units, 

each making its own business decisions.

Directors are members; dairy cooperatives may have

non-member directors who usually are non-voting

advisors and may be mandated by State laws.

These principles are applied in every facet of operations

that relate to member business.

Almost all equities are member capital; ownership of a

fraction (a portion of preferred stock) is not discernable

from the financial statements.

Patronage refunds are net savings returned to

members.

Dividends, if paid, are usually on preferred stock, and

typically at less than 8 percent.

There may be some degree of coordination among

members as they voluntarily and collectively adapt to 

market situations. However, this is not the same as 

vertical or horizontal integration.

Table 2—Comparison of cooperative theory and dairy cooperative practice (Continued)
rate). Because retained equities also include those yet

to be revolved back to retired members and inactive

(former) members, equities actually retained for active

members should be somewhat lower than this estimated amount. Still, the sum of capital committed by a

member to the cooperative is very substantial.

Members must treat retained capital, when allocated, as income for tax purposes and pay taxes out of

their own funds. Although the retains are revolved

back to members as permitted by the cooperative's

earnings, the revolving period is usually at least a few

years. (One cooperative is known to have a revolving

period of 6.5 years, probably the shortest among all

dairy cooperatives.) Therefore, the present value of the

retained capital is diminished due to the fact that taxes

on them have to be paid upfront and that the revolving

funds to be received in the future are discounted.

Members' perceptions and attitudes towards

retained equities may vary with their respective membership status—whether they are active members,

retired members, or inactive (former) members, even

though they all usually receive the revolved equities

on the same revolving schedule, which is determined

by the board of directors.

Active members. Active members may realize the

necessity to adequately capitalize the cooperative's

operations in order to ensure their milk is effectively

and efficiently marketed. Still, retained equities

compete with capital needs on the farm. It is only

natural that members want as little retains and as short

a revolving period as possible. Recent USDA data

show the magnitude of capital needs on dairy farms.

Among all farm operators, dairy farmers are the most

heavily in debt because of the type of inputs used and

assets owned. At the end of 2007, 67 percent of dairy

farms owed debt that was worth, on average, over

$226,000 per farm. Dairy operations accounted for only

2.9 percent of all farms but owed 13.3 percent of

reported farm-level debt (Harris, et al.).

Retired members. Retired members may be content

with receiving retained equities that are revolved on a

steady and regular basis; they may consider such

payments as something akin to retirement annuities.

However, some may express dissatisfaction that no

dividend is paid on the retained equities and the

cooperative uses their capital free of charge. And if

equity revolving becomes erratic, usually due to the 

cooperative encountering certain financial difficulties,

they may become disgruntled.

Inactive (former) members. Inactive members may

be farmers who have discontinued membership in the

cooperative and made other milk marketing

arrangements, who have exited from dairy farming

and transitioned into other farming enterprises, or

who have discontinued farming altogether.

Conceivably, they are the least satisfied with equities

being retained. They may need capital for use in other

endeavors. As their loyalty to the cooperative has

waned or becomes nonexistent, they may deem it

meaningless to have the retained equity sitting idly

(from their perspective) in the cooperative.

Core businesses

Like any other business, dairy cooperatives

require an adequate level of capital to cash-flow business activities. In addition, it may be necessary for the

cooperative to own milk-handling equipment and

facilities. They also have to maintain a certain level of

equities to satisfy the covenants of lending institutions,

because in the course of doing business some debt

financing is usually necessary.

Own and operate milk-handling facilities. In

addition to bargaining for milk prices, most major

dairy cooperatives also perform milk hauling and

operate dairy plants. An adequate amount of capital is

needed to invest in the necessary equipment and

facilities and to finance plant operations and finishedproducts marketing.

Members generally are receptive to the capital

requirements for these activities, because the expenditures are for the functions that address their main concern: that their milk is assured of a market. Milk is

moved from member-farms to the market in a timely

fashion. Milk supply that is not sold to milk buyers is

processed into storable commodity products, such as

butter, milk powder, and cheese. Other value-added

products also may be processed from the milk.

Value-added processing and marketing.

Producing commodity products usually generates low

margins. The margins have been further pressured

since the early 1980s as the Federal price-support

safety net has been lowered. Furthermore, since the

beginning of this millennium, the formulas for pricing

regulated milk stipulate fixed margins for 

13
manufacturing butter, milk powder, cheddar cheese,

and dry whey. These fixed margins are difficult to

change even in times of rapidly rising input costs.

For these reasons, for more than two decades

many dairy cooperatives have gradually shifted away

from making commodity products and put more

emphases on operations that add value to milk and

milk products, such as making specialty or niche varieties of dairy products, aging or further processing

cheese, or extracting milk components for use as ingredients in manufacturing food or beverage products.

However, making value-added products requires

additional investment in equipment, technology, personnel, marketing, operations, etc. Some cooperatives,

while otherwise successful in making the transition,

encountered cash-flow issues because the demand for

capital was more than their members could afford. In

such a case, a merger with a cooperative that had a

broader membership and financial base usually could

rejuvenate the business for the benefit of all members.

Some other cooperatives exited commodity processing altogether to concentrate on bargaining operations—usually when their plants needed modernization; a few invested in plants operated by business

partners to ensure a home for members' milk.

Still other cooperatives probably did not realize

the market had changed, or started the transition too

late, or did not have an adequate strategic plan for the

transition. They stumbled along, showing erratic

financial results and losing members' support in the

process. Eventually, they succumbed to the financial

stress and filed for bankruptcy, sold off the cooperative, or merged with other cooperatives.

Milk marketing-related and other member

services. Field services, market information, and

other marketing-related services are usually offered to

members as a part of the cooperative's milk-marketing

efforts and are accounted for as a part of the cost of

doing business.

Other member services—such as insurance,

retirement program, risk management, etc.—are usually self-sustaining programs and only require minimal

financial support from the cooperative.

Extraneous businesses

Dairy farmers usually will support a cooperative's need for financing if the capital is for a venture

that would:

● Solidify the market for members' milk, or

● Help market members' milk, or

● Add value to members' milk, and

● Benefit members the most among all available

alternatives of investing the capital.

A cooperative could face financing issues if it

invests in ventures that members do not consider to be

within the realm of these criteria. Two examples are:

investment in seemingly related businesses and investment in extended business ventures. As for the dairy

export business, members seem to be ambivalent. On

the one hand, they certainly have benefitted from

growth in dairy exports. On the other hand, the investment required to develop the export market seems to

give them pause.

Investment in seemingly related businesses.

An example is a dairy cooperative that is considering

whether to acquire a dairy business, which has the

following attributes:

1. The dairy products it manufactures are outside

the cooperative's current product lineup or

competence.

2. Its location is outside the cooperative's membership area.

3. It does not, and will not, use the cooperative

members' milk (because of the distance)—

dairy inputs for making its products are procured locally and are subject to the local supply-and-demand dynamics.

4. Its major market area for the finished products

is distant from the cooperative's trade territory. Thus, its synergy with the cooperative's

existing business is minimal.

5. Its production operations require proper

expertise to supervise, and the cooperative

does not possess this expertise in its existing

business.

6. Its consumer products require top management's close attention, which could be lacking

if the cooperative's management and control

system is not properly structured and staffed.

On the surface, the proposed acquisition appears

to be an extension of the cooperative's business of marketing milk and processing dairy products. In reality, it

is an investment in an unrelated business; its only relation with the cooperative's existing business is that

both are in the dairy industry. It can be said that the

investment is not going to help solidify the market for

members' milk, help market members' milk, or add

value to members' milk. Further, the return on investment is uncertain.

14
The cooperative may be in solid financial condition and have an adequate amount of member capital

to properly market its members' milk. However,

investing in the proposed venture is likely to overextend the cooperative's financial resources and jeopardize its sound financial foundation. Because members are usually content as long as their milk is picked

up and properly marketed, more member capital contribution for the new venture in all likelihood will not

be forthcoming. Under the circumstance, if the board

and the management insist on taking on the new venture, they soon are likely to find the venture is causing

financial stress, or even the eventual demise of the

cooperative. (This is the experience of a cooperative

that has recently gone bankrupt.)

Investment in extended business ventures.

Some dairy cooperatives may market products that are

not derived from milk but are necessary for

completing the dairy-related product line, in order to

enhance the market position of members' products.

Others may use their processing plants to package

products such as juices, bottled water, and other nondairy drinks to more fully utilize equipment capacity

and spread the fixed cost. These products usually are

incidental to the cooperatives' main dairy business and

therefore do not require a significant amount of

additional financial resources to support them.

The extended business venture scenarios most

often occur outside the dairy cooperative sector, but

the lessons could be enlightening for dairy farmers. A

typical case is a cooperative that has a successful consumer brand and wants to leverage the brand beyond

its core expertise and business. For example, a fruit

cooperative could extend its juice brand into other

beverages, or a tree-nut cooperative could extend its

brand into other snack foods, etc. The assumption is

that consumers would faithfully translate their brand

loyalty into buying the new categories of products.

However, investment in the extension of the

brand may or may not be beneficial to cooperative

members. It depends on whether the investment

would: 

● help solidify the market for members' products, or

● help market members' products — depending

on how members' products are incorporated in

the product mix, or

● add value to members' products — depending

on how the extended categories of products

are formulated, and

● benefit members the most among all available

alternatives of investing the capital.

Furthermore, competing in the consumer market

beyond marketing members' products would require

ample additional capital for market research, product

development, process design, sales and promotion,

and marketing logistics, etc. Often, members' equity is

not sufficient to support the extended business venture.

Some cooperatives try to find additional equity

capital from outside investors. Other cooperatives

could convert into investor-owned firms (most likely

as publicly traded companies). Either way, converting

the composition of equity capital sources would also

change the character and the priority of the organization. In planning such conversions, members should

consider whether in the pursuit of profit to placate

investors, their production will still be adequately

priced and marketed. Members of dairy cooperatives

in the United States have not pursued conversion to

investor ownership, as have some cooperatives in

other commodity sectors. They expect dairy cooperatives to market their milk effectively and efficiently,

and little more.

Investment in developing dairy export markets. 

The United States has not been a major exporter of

dairy products on a sustained basis. However, in 2007-

08, due to tighter global stocks, drought-induced production declines in Oceania, rising demand in foreign

countries, and the weaker dollar, the United States was

able to take advantage of significant export opportunities (USDA/ERS; Ling, 2008). Commercial exports, on a

milk-fat basis, more than doubled from 3.4 billion

pounds of milk equivalent in 2006 to 8.7 billion

pounds in 2008, or an increase of 5.3 billion pounds in

2 years (table 3). On a skim-solids basis, exports

increased by 3 billion pounds of milk equivalent, from

23.6 billion pounds in 2006 to 26.6 billion pounds in

2008.

Export demand raised milk price to an unprecedented high level for an extended period from spring

2007 through fall 2008. The all-milk price reached its

record high of $21.90 per cwt in December 2007. This

provided incentives for milk production to expand.

Meanwhile, the factors that were favorable to U.S.

dairy exports lapsed. When the worldwide recession

hit in late 2008, milk price plummeted. The all-milk

price dropped to $11.30 per cwt in June and July 2009,

a decline of more than $10 per cwt from the 2007 peak.

15
Milk price has since recovered, but price volatility can be expected to continue because of the evershifting supply-and-demand situation. Drawing from

the experience of high milk prices during the 2007-

2008 dairy export boom, some have suggested that to

maintain sustained prosperity, the U.S. dairy industry

should strive to be a consistent supplier in the export

market (e.g., Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy).

International dairy trade absorbs about 5 percent

of milk produced globally. The trade is primarily in

major manufactured dairy products—butter, cheese,

and dry milk powders—with some trade in fluid milk

products, ice cream, yogurt, and dry whey products

(USDA/ERS). Although the trade volume of dry whey

products is significant, its value is relatively low.

There are basically two approaches to international trade (Field):

1. Trading products in the international dairy

market. The bulk of the trade is in commodities such as butter, cheese, and dry milk powders.

2. Being a direct participant in the market of a

target country. Some multinational firms may

have investment in dairy processing facilities

and even in dairy farms in the target country

to produce products for the local market. Some

of the dairy ingredients used in local processing may be imported from other countries by

the multinational firm.

Most U.S. dairy exports are in bulk commodities.

Because the domestic market is vast, and historically

the domestic price level has been high relative to the

international prices, the dairy industry tends to regard

the export market as the last-resort outlet, while the

world treats the United States as a residual supplier.

Even the spike in exports in 2007-2008 did not change

this basic relationship, although such recent export

experience may gradually transform U.S. dairy

exporters into more consistent suppliers.

Some of the factors that are required of a consistent exporter are (Field):

● In-country contacts and market understanding.

● Competitive pricing.

● Appropriate product range.

● Strong partners (distribution, technology).

● Proactive approach to business development,

sales, and marketing.

● Scale and focus of business.

In other words, to be a consistent exporter would

require considerable effort and financial resources to

develop and maintain the export market. To have

members' support, the challenge is to convince them

that investing in the undertaking would help solidify

the market for members' milk, help market members'

milk, or add value to members' milk, and benefit members the most among all available alternatives of

investing the capital.

As for becoming a direct participant in the market of a target country, it probably will not happen

soon. Although dairy exports have recently shown

encouraging growth, the share of U.S. domestic consumption is still overwhelming. It would be difficult to

convince members that investing in dairy plants and

farms abroad is a judicious use of members' equity,

unless it could be shown that such investment is necessary for the purpose of protecting and expanding the

market for members' milk and milk products.

16

Table 3—U.S. commercial exports of dairy products, 2004-2009

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

-----Billion pounds-----

Milk equivalent, fat basis

Milk production 170.9 176.9 181.8 185.7 190.0 189.3

Commercial exports 3.4 3.3 3.4 5.7 8.7 4.5

Export share 2.0% 1.9% 1.9% 3.1% 4.6% 2.4%

Milk equivalent, skim-solids basis

Milk production 170.9 176.9 181.8 185.7 190.0 189.3 

Commercial exports 16.0 19.3 23.6 24.5 26.6 22.4

Export share 9.4% 10.9% 13.0% 13.2% 14.0% 11.8%

Source: USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, November 2010 and various previous issues.
Equity financing alternatives

There is no doubt that equity capital is often the

constraining factor in the ability of a cooperative to

make new investment. Some cooperatives have tried

alternative equity financing methods to leverage cooperative members' capital. Examples are forming a public stock corporation, issuing preferred stock, or forming a limited liability company, joint venture, or

“new-generation” cooperative, etc.

Public stock corporation. There is one known case

of a dairy cooperative offering common stock in one of

its subsidiaries in the late 1980s. The cooperative

converted its fluid business subsidiary into a publicly

traded stock company, the idea being to use investor

financing and stock as tools for expansion and growth,

while members maintained the majority ownership of

the business. However, in less than 3 years, the

cooperative bought back all outstanding stock from

minority owners.

It can be difficult for a cooperative to operate a

public stock corporation subsidiary because there are

fundamental conflicts between benefits for memberproducers and investors' focus on returns on investment. In the dairy business, the conflict between producer milk pay price and profit for investors may be

difficult to reconcile. Furthermore, with investor capital, the subsidiary and even the cooperative may lose

Capper-Volstead status in inter-state commerce.

Preferred stock. A cooperative may issue preferred

stock to raise more funds from members or to tap nonmember capital. Preferred stocks that pay dividends

and have preference in assets over common stock in

the event of the dissolution of the cooperative are the

most common type. Some preferred stocks may be

considered as equity capital, while others may look

more like debt capital, depending on how the rights of

the shareholders are specified.

Limited liability company (LLC). An LLC is a

State-approved, unincorporated association, just like a

partnership except that it protects its owners and

agents from personal liability for debts and other

obligations of the LLC. Earnings pass through to the

owners (no non-qualified retains) and enjoy single-tax

treatment. An LLC may operate on a cooperative basis.

Or it may allocate earnings and losses and assign votes

among its owners any way they want to.

Some producers believe that an LLC provides

greater flexibility for tapping investor capital.

However, the combination of producers and investors

in an LLC would encounter the same issues as in a

publicly traded subsidiary operated by a cooperative.

Joint venture. An LLC may be a useful model for

established cooperatives to form joint ventures with

other cooperatives or firms. On the marketing side, a

joint venture LLC may be used by a cooperative and

its partner to develop and market certain dairy

products. The cooperative supplies dairy inputs and

the partner provides technical or marketing know-how

to the LLC.

The joint-venture partners share the financing

and the risk of the business activities of the LLC. This

organizational model reduces the cooperative's capital

requirement and risk exposure, while a market outlet

for milk is secured.

Many recent joint ventures formed by cooperatives with other business entities are organized as

LLCs.

“New-generation” cooperative. A new-generation

cooperative usually requires significant equity

investment as a prerequisite to membership and

delivery rights, in order to ensure that an adequate

level of capital is raised and the plant capacity is fully

utilized. The delivery right is in the form of equity

shares that can be sold to other eligible producers at

prices agreed to by the buyer and seller, subject to the

approval of the board of directors. The transferable

delivery right is appealing to members because it

allows them to cash in on any increase in the value of

their cooperative when they retire.

Interest in new-generation cooperatives surged in

the 1980s and 1990s, largely in response to the market

condition prevailing during that time period.

Cooperative development leaders believed that this

form of cooperative organization would solve the

problem of depressed farm income by engaging in

value-added processing.

Many new-generation cooperatives have been

successful. However, the attributes of the new-generation cooperative model also have created some problems, mainly related to delivery-right and propertyright issues (Torgerson). After the turn of the 21st

century, interest cooled down substantially.

There was only one dairy cooperative known to

have been organized using the new-generation model.

In 1995, Dakota Dairy Specialties was established to

make specialty cheese. But its remote location, the capital investment needed to renovate its plant, and the

skill required to make and market specialty cheese

17
posed major problems, and the new-generation model

proved no help. It suffered the same fate as the struggling cooperative it was formed to replace. By 1999,

Dakota Dairy Specialties ceased to operate.

Addressing Cooperative Equity

Financing Issues

Dairy cooperatives may be characterized as epitomizing the economic theory of what cooperatives are

and what cooperatives do (the classic raison d'être of

cooperatives). Their experience as shown in this report

can serve as an example for addressing equity financing issues that were raised in the introduction of this

report.

1. Question. Because equity capital is furnished

by members and therefore is rather limited,

how does a cooperative gain access to capital

without incurring long-term debt to fund the

organization in this new, expanded and globalized marketplace?

Answer. Members organize or join a cooperative to market their farm production. It is in

their interest to provide capital for the cooperative's operation. But they need to be convinced that the cooperative's venture is necessary to solidify the market for their products,

sell more of their products, or add value to

their products. They must also agree that the

benefit of the endeavor is the best alternative

for investing the capital.

Members of a newly formed cooperative may

need some assistance in the initial stage of its

formation. Over time, though, the cooperative

must be self-sustaining.

In both cases, the information about market

reality and a well thought-out business plan

that the cooperative intends to follow should

be made clear to the membership. After weighing all available options, it is up to members to

decide if they want a viable cooperative to

market their products and support it with an

adequate level of equity capital, or if they prefer other alternatives or business models.

2. Q. How does a cooperative provide a vehicle

for members to gain access to the value of the

business, which some of them perceive to be

higher than its book value, without selling the

cooperative or going public?

A. If market value of the cooperative is higher

than the book value, it means the cooperative's

earnings and potential future earnings are

higher than can be expected, given its level of

equity capital. This usually reflects certain

attributes the cooperative possesses, such as:

unique and highly desirable products; profitable market niches; valuable intellectual

properties (technology, manufacturing and

marketing know-how, brand names, etc.); and

superb governance, management and staff.

Members gain access to the cooperative's value

of higher earning ability by receiving higher

pay prices, premiums, and patronage refunds.

Selling the cooperative to gain the value of the

business is tantamount to “killing the goose

that lays the golden egg.”

The agitation for accessing the perceived market value of the cooperative most often comes

from members who are near retirement or

whose farming business is otherwise

approaching the end of the line. However,

some active members may also prefer the

instant payout. Other members may want the

cooperative to continue marketing farm production for the current generation and the generations to come. Basically, it is up to members

to decide whether retaining the cooperative or

selling it is in their best interests.

3. Q. Facing equity redemption issues or in need

of more capital, are there alternatives short of

selling the cooperative or going public?

A. Members have substantial equity invested

in the cooperative for marketing their products

effectively and efficiently. Equity investment

should be commensurate with the functions

they want the cooperative to perform on their

behalf. Constrained by insufficient equity capital or having difficulties raising more capital,

the cooperative may have to retrench.

Through the years, many dairy cooperatives

exited from manufacturing and processing

dairy products when their plants needed modernization and the required milk volume and 

18
capital investment for the new plant “outsized” the cooperative. They transformed the

cooperative to focus on bargaining operations

to fulfill members' primary goal that their milk

be assured a market and receive a fair pay

price. Many other cooperatives merged to have

a larger pool of milk volume and capital,

which could be deployed more efficiently as a

result of economies of scale.

Bargaining cooperatives usually require less

capital to operate. In 2007, bargaining-only

cooperative members had just $0.42 of equity

per cwt of milk marketed through their cooperatives, while members of niche-marketing

cooperatives had $4.78 per cwt and members

of diversified and fluid processing cooperatives had $2.79 (Liebrand).

It is up to members to decide what they want

the cooperative to do and how much they

want to support it, or if they prefer other alternatives or business models.

4. Q. Are new-generation cooperatives the

answer to cooperative financing issues?

A. The primary difference between a newgeneration cooperative and a traditional one is

that members of a new-generation cooperative

have to pay the required equity upfront to

acquire delivery rights; a traditional cooperative accumulates equity over time through

retained patronage. While this and other

attributes have helped many new-generation

cooperatives achieve successes, they also

encountered their own set of issues, mainly

relating to delivery rights and property rights.

One further issue that has not been discussed

is the venture-capital character of the investment in new-generation cooperatives. Many

new-generation cooperatives are organized to

take advantage of an investment opportunity

that promises enticing returns by processing

one product or a narrow range of products.

The venture is capital intensive and requires a

large start-up fund. The expected returns on

investment may be high, but so may be the

risk.

An example is a cooperative organized by corn

producers to invest in an ethanol plant that

will use members' corn as feedstock. In this

case, members' equity in the cooperative is

very much like venture capital and members'

corn is tied to a single use. Both of these attributes entail substantial risks, including risks

that are related to unsettled ethanol technology, uncertain ethanol market outlook, volatile

corn-ethanol-petroleum market dynamics, and

shifting priorities of public policies (subsidies,

tariffs, etc.). This mode of operation is very different from a grain cooperative that is organized to market members' corn through a variety of marketing channels, perhaps with

supplying ethanol plant(s) as one of its enterprises.

So, new-generation cooperatives have their

pros and cons but probably are not a panacea

for cooperative financing issues. Furthermore,

consideration should be given to whether a

cooperative (new-generation or otherwise) is

most appropriate for organizing a particular

new venture or if some other business model is

more suitable.

5. Q. What effects might issuing preferred stock

have on a cooperative's practice?

A. Preferred stock may specify nearly any conceivable right for shareholders. What effects

preferred stock may have on a cooperative's

practice depend on what rights are specified.

Preferred stock that pays dividends and has 

preference in assets over common stock in the

event of the dissolution of the cooperative—

the most common type of preferred stock—

probably would not have any impact. If the

preferred stock confers certain voting rights,

the effect would depend on what specific

issues the preferred stock holders are entitled

to vote on.

6. Q. What long-term effects can (unallocated)

retained earnings from non-member business

have on cooperative governance?

A. Cooperatives may have non-member business for various reasons. In any case, retained

earnings sourced from non-member business 

19
are owned by the cooperative and, therefore,

jointly owned by members. Disposition of

retained earnings is at the discretion of the

board of directors. However, a

cooperative would not be conforming to the

Capper-Volstead Act requirement if its nonmember business exceeds 50 percent of total

sales.

In the case of dairy cooperatives, retained

earnings represented 10.8 percent of member

equities in 2007 (table 1). However, besides

earnings that are sourced from non-member

business, a substantial portion of these earnings may include: allocated equities that some

cooperatives choose not to separately specify

in the financial reports; retained net savings

that are going to be allocated later; or earnings

that are difficult to attribute to specific member transactions.

7. Q. What changes in governance, organizational structure, and practice may be brought

about by the new cooperative laws enacted by

some States that allow outside (non-member)

equity capital?

A. There is a large variation among the few

State laws that allow cooperatives to have outside investors. They vary from reserving the

voting power to member-patrons only, to setting a minimum level of voting power for

member-patrons. Requirements regarding

earning distribution between member-patrons

and investors also differ substantially.

Differences in governance and earning distribution rules and the type of investors involved

(e.g., for-profit investors, non-profit economic

development organizations, etc.) will have different influences on cooperative organizational

structure and cooperative practice. It is probably better to analyze them on a case-by-case

basis.

Not every cooperative newly incorporated

under these State laws has investors; some

choose not to have investors and operate as a

traditional cooperative.

8. Q. How plausible is the contention that there

is a large amount of untapped equity in rural

America that cooperatives do not have access

to and that should be allowed to be invested

in cooperatives?

A. If the farm sector equity is any indication, it

is not clear how much of it is untapped or

available for off-farm investment. The equityto-asset ratio of the farm sector is between 88

and 90 percent during the 5-year period 2006-

2010 (table 4). This is in contrast to around 96

percent of the total assets that are in fixed and

farming assets (about 84 to 85 percent of the

assets are in land and real estate and 11 to 12

percent are in farming assets). Only around 4

percent of the assets ($74 billion to $85 billion)

are in financial assets, and they may not be

available for investing in new off-farm ventures unless the expected return from the new

investment could out-perform the opportunity

cost of on-farm working capital requirement or

the opportunity return of existing financial

investments. Borrowing against the assets to

invest in new off-farm ventures may not be a

promising proposition.

Of course, the farm sector does not represent

the entire rural economy, but comparable

financial data for rural America is not readily

available. Recent assessment of the state of

rural economy shows that it faces significant

challenges (Council of Economic Advisers). In

any case, it is highly unlikely that there is a

large amount of untapped equity to be found

in rural areas.

Conclusions

Dairy cooperatives are prime examples of the traditional model of a cooperative that is owned, controlled, financed, and used by members. Focusing on

the business of marketing members' milk, dairy cooperatives benefit members by enhancing returns to their

milk production efforts; members supply equity capital needed for the cooperative to carry out its function

as their collective milk marketing arm.

The cohesiveness between member purposes and

cooperative functions makes dairy cooperatives, as a

group, perhaps the most prominent agricultural marketing cooperatives. This is because milk is highly perishable and its daily production must have an assured,

ready market. To most dairy farmers (84 percent of

20
U.S. total in 2007), marketing services provided by

their cooperatives are indispensible for the dairy farming business. It is for this reason that equity capital

financing, in general, is not a contentious issue for

dairy cooperatives if the fund is for the core business

of marketing members' milk. This case study shows

that dairy cooperatives are seldom used as a vehicle

for investing in ventures that are unrelated to member

business.

The close bond between producers and their

dairy cooperatives may or may not be replicated in

other agricultural commodity sectors, depending on

the characteristics of the commodity and its market.

Because no two commodities are the same, the needs

of respective producers in marketing them also vary.

Cooperatives may be more essential to producers of

commodities that have to be marketed shortly after

being produced (such as vegetables, fruits and, of

course, milk) or that have no ready market outlet other

than the cooperative, than they are to producers of

commodities that are storable and have a longer marketing season (such as grains and oil seeds) or that

have multiple market outlets.

It stands to reason that raising or retaining equity

capital is more challenging for a cooperative that is

regarded by its members as but one of the competing

market outlets for their products than for a cooperative

that is indispensible to members.

It can be even more challenging for a farm supply

cooperative that has to compete with other supply

stores in the local market. There are hundreds, or even

thousands, of supply items, and it is unlikely that the

cooperative can be the best-value provider of every

piece of merchandise. “Cherry-picking” by members

in making purchases is inevitable. However, it is difficult to raise equity capital from members in this circumstance. (A food cooperative competing with other

stores may encounter the same issue.)

Regional farm supply cooperatives may have

economies of scale in product sourcing or in operating

manufacturing facilities, especially for major supply

items such as seeds, feed, fertilizer, chemicals, and

petroleum products. They could pass along cost-savings derived from scale economies to members and

thus better meet competition. However, operating

upstream manufacturing plants has its own risks (such

as volatile raw material prices) that require the cooperative to have ample capital to cushion the shocks. The

challenge for these cooperatives is to have a solid and

broad membership base that sees the value of supporting the cooperatives with adequate equity capital.

All these point to the fact that the cooperative

capital financing issue is really a reflection of a certain

gap or disconnect between member purposes and

cooperative functions. It is less of an issue the narrower the gap and a more serious issue the wider the gap.

The solution to the issue then lies in assessing what

members want the cooperative to do and whether they

are willing to finance it with equity capital in the

amount commensurate with the benefits they expect to

receive—and the cooperative should operate accord21

Table 4—U.S. farm sector balance sheet selected items, 2006-2010F

2006 2007 2008 2009P 2010F

---------$ billion---------

Farm assets 1,924 2,055 2,016 2,044 2,096

Real estate 1,626 1,751 1,703 1,727 1,777

Financial assets 74 79 82 84 85

Farming assets1 224 225 231 232 233

Farm debt 204 214 243 245 245

Farm equity 1,720 1,841 1,773 1,798 1,861

Selected ratios: ---------Percent---------

Real estate/assets 84.5 85.2 84.4 84.5 84.8

Financial assets/assets 3.8 3.8 4.0 4.1 4.0

Farming assets1/assets 11.7 11.0 11.5 11.4 11.1

Equity/assets 89.4 89.6 88.0 88.0 88.8

Debt/equity 11.8 11.6 13.7 13.6 12.6

Debt/assets 10.6 10.4 12.0 12.0 11.2

F = forecast and P = preliminary. 1Livestock and poultry, machinery and motor vehicles, crops stored, and purchased inputs.

Source: Farm Income and Costs: Farm Sector Income Forecast, Economic Research Service Brief Rooms, updated August 31, 2010.
ingly for members' best interests. In some cases, they

may decide whether the cooperative is the most suitable business model for what they want to accomplish.

In recent years, the cooperative model has gained

new attention from social entrepreneurs and economic

development practitioners. Being owned, controlled,

and used by members for mutual benefits, cooperatives are an appealing tool to empower people to work

toward their own economic destiny. They can be

adapted to be community-based organizations to serve

economic opportunity-deprived or service-deprived

areas. Because such cooperative organizations are

formed to address public policy or social issues, it is

appropriate to have initial capital funding assistance

from public or philanthropic sources. Over the long

term, however, they must be self-sustainable in order

to be economically viable. Some exemplary precedents

are rural electric cooperatives (National Rural Electric

Cooperative Association) and the Farm Credit System

(Farm Credit Administration).

22
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23
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Rural Development,

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cMeetingTranscript.pdf.

24
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Rural Business–Cooperative Service

Stop 3250

Washington, D.C. 20250-3250

Rural Business–Cooperative Service (RBS) provides research,

management, and educational assistance to cooperatives to

strengthen the economic position of farmers and other rural

residents. It works directly with cooperative leaders and Federal

and State agencies to improve organization, leadership, and

operation of cooperatives and to give guidance to further

development.

The cooperative segment of RBS (1) helps farmers and other

rural residents develop cooperatives to obtain supplies and

services at lower cost and to get better prices for products they

sell; (2) advises rural residents on developing existing resources

through cooperative action to enhance rural living; (3) helps

cooperatives improve services and operating efficiency; (4)

informs members, directors, employees, and the public on how

cooperatives work and benefit their members and their

communities; and (5) encourages international cooperative

programs. RBS also publishes research and educational

materials and issues Rural Cooperatives magazine.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits

discrimination in all of its programs and activities on the basis

of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where

applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status,

religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, genetic information,

reprisal, or because all or part of an individual's income is

derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited

bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who

require alternative means for communication of program

information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact

USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Assistant

Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of the Assistant Secretary for

Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Stop 9410,

Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call toll-free at (866) 632-9992

(English) or (800) 877-8339 (TDD) or (866) 377-8642 (English

Federal-relay) or (800) 845-6136 (Spanish Federal-relay). USDA

is an equal opportunity provider and employer.