It’s still National Cooperative Month, which is when USDA traditionally releases its top 100 list of agricultural cooperatives.
According to USDA, Iowa has the most agricultural cooperatives of any state at 16, up from 11 a decade ago. Minnesota ranks second among the states, with 13. It is followed by Nebraska with nine, Illinois and Wisconsin with five each, then California, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio, which are all tied with four.
Looking at business volume where a cooperative has its headquarters, Minnesota ranks first among the states, with $68.8 billion. Missouri is second at $16.2 billion and Illinois is third at $13.2 billion.
The top two cooperatives are Minnesota-based – CHS Inc. and Land O’ Lakes, both of St. Paul. Dairy Farmers Incorporated, based in Kansas City, Missouri, is ranked third and GROWMARK of Illinois comes in fourth. Rounding out the top five is Ag Processing Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska.
Like the nation’s ag co-op sector as a whole, the top 100 cooperatives also enjoyed a third consecutive year of record sales. They reported revenue of $174 billion in 2013, an increase of almost 9 percent over the $166 billion reported in 2012.