What does a co-op ship and receive?
It all depends what kind of Co-op it is. A Co-op is simply an organization owned by its members, such as a fruit growers Co-op. If it’s a farmers grain Co-op the products handled may be grain and/or fertalizers. Here in Saskatchewan we have local Co-ops that have grocery and hardware stores as well as agro centers, gas stations and bulk fuel sales. You buy a membership in your local Co-op tn you get a percentage of your purchases backevery year either as a cash rebate or equity in the Co-op. So if you model a Co-op operation such as this you can ship and receive almost any products.
I was thinking a farmers Co-op. Would it ship or receive fertilizer? Also, could it receive tractors?
A google might help. As per Wikipedia: A cooperative (also co-operative or coöperative; often referred to as a co-op or coop) is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance’s Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.[1] It is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit.[2] A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or who work at it. Cooperative enterprises are the focus of study in the field of cooperative economics.
So basically, your co-op could recieve anything shipped by rail that the collective farmer owners would need to run their farms. Heating oil, diesel fuel, fertalizer, seeds, animal feed, etc. etc. Shipping could be what ever the crops are from that area. Sticking to a WI theme it could be wheat, corn, hay, soybeans, potatoes, I think even sugar beats were grown and harvested at one point in big ol WI. But don’t limit yoursel
Most of the Coops I have been around, and model, are various types of grain elevators, large and small, with addtional services for the rural community such as fertilizer, feed, fuel, etc.
Bob
grain
Where I live there is a co-op that does different things besides grain. They used to own a refinery that also produced fertilizers. There is another co-op that is a power company to rural areas. They don’t make their own electricity. They just buy from the local power plant(s).
Just my two cents.
When I was a kid on the farm in Montana the farmers union was more like a hardware,supplies store along with some fertilizer and livestock supplies. There were also grain co-ops too which dealt almost purely in grain and seed. Grain in, seed out to the farmers. The elevators of course were served by rail, The farmers union was pretty much truck served. We also had a “bulk plant” which was an oil dealer served by rail. The bulk plants trucks would deliver Gas,diesel,grease and oil to the farmers within a 25 mile radius or so.BILL
There were a few that I came across on a bunch of road tours around here that even sold tractors. Another thing is that some offered services such as fertilizers and such and had special tractors and such for the application there of----
There is one Co-op that has a financial institution involved as well as a seed cleaning business. Yep. Just about anything could be done with these----
Here in Minnesota there are a string of gas stations that are run by a Co-op, Cenex (Farmers Union, Central Exchange). Although most are in rural areas, I know there is (or at least was as of a few years ago) one in the Twin Cities metro area - in South St. Paul near the stockyards, only about 10-12 miles from downtown St.Paul.
It’s interesting (to me anyway) that farm / co-op organizations can have a political slant. Here, the Farmers Union is generally pro-Democrat and the Farm Bureau is generally pro-Republican. So from a modelling point of view, to know which one to feature on a layout, you’d need to know a little about that area’s political leanings.
Stix, Thats true about political leanings!! You reminded me that my late uncle used to jokingly call one of our nieghbors “comrade” for the strong support he gave the Farmers Union, although we all traded there. I hven’t been a part of that community for many years now and the photos above reminded me of the more modern services offered. I don’t remember CeNex around as a kid though, but they are here in Idaho too. BILL
It’s a good thing you posted these pics BC. I have to change my reflections a bit from previous post. I actually grew up fairly close to 2 co-ops. The one I was reffering to was more like the one mentioned a few posts ago, and was in fact a Cenex. They owned the gas station and a few other things. They had a smallish steel pole style warehouse building a decent sized LP storage area with a few smaller tanks and one typically sized pill shaped tank. They had to have done other stuff there too, I remember larger steel pole buildings behind the gas station/post office and I remember seeing trucks there quite often, although it sort of fails me as to what kind of trucks they were.
The second one I remembered when seeing BC’s pics. I completely forgot about, even though the co-op had the two machines shown and I looked at them every time we went through. The first machine I always remember seeing two versions of, one about that height, the second one was much taller. They had two versions of the 3 wheeler thingy. One had the same equipment as the one pictured, the other one was liquid fertalizerer.
Thanks for the flash backs BC.
Co-ops on the Canadian prairies were a way of life, seems in many small towns that the Co-op was the centre of business activity, there was always the dispute when a new Co-op store opened up, all the other stores closed down (sound familiar Walmart?) I would think the reasons Co-ops never became huge in the US was people tended to associate just a little bit of “socialism” with the system, remember, socialized medicine was initiated in the province of Saskatchewan and is all throughout Canada, now the US is going through growing pains of a national health plan, sort of like a great big Co-op for your health.
Here is my Lincoln County CO-OP at Hawk Point Mo.
Made from: Walthers Cornerstone
Cornerstone Series(R) Sunrise Feed Mill