Use the topics and tools included in The DIRTT Project to jump-start the succession planning process for your operation whether you are just beginning or need to get on track.
For the latest list—based on 2022 data—47 of the 100 cooperatives are in agriculture. In all, 59% of the $319 billion in generated revenues of co-operatives are from those ag-focused co-ops: $187.6 billion.
“There are some things that we've adopted over the years that really aren't particularly useful and I think in some cases even detrimental to our performance,” says Dave Mitchell.
Michael Swanson says we’ve likely seen the peak for food inflation last summer. What drove the 14% food inflation since the COVID pandemic has been four factors: transportation, labor, shipping and packaging.
“Food inflation is a hot topic,” Michael Swanson says noting that overall prices in the category are running at 6% higher than a year ago, whereas typically year-to-year food inflation is 1%.
“This is indicative of farmer interest and individual investor interest. We are starting to see prices we last saw between 2012 and 2014,” Dickhut says.
“We just celebrated 10 years as a company,” says CEO Jim Blome. “And we showed that in 15 months we pioneered a regulatory path, launched a product, and took it all the way from the grower to the food company.”
The Forage First Families First program is collecting stories of farmers who are facing hardships and aiming to connect those dairy and beef farms with donations of La Crosse forage seed for next spring.
The pollinator-themed playground is sponsored by farmer-owned cooperative Land O’ Lakes Inc., spreads across 4,800 square feet, and it’s adjacent to the Kids’ Farm and Conservation Pavilion.
Key finding: Increasing population is key to increasing tonnage. In addition, narrow-row silage production increased tonnage without compromising quality as measured in milk tons per acre.