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coop tours: south district study of cooperatives The Ohio Cooperative Development Center planned, organized and conducted an all day cooperative study tour on May 17, 2001 for agriculture, natural resources and community development extension agents in the South District counties of Ohio. The study tour was aimed at providing an overview of cooperative businesses structure and how it can be used with the agents' groups to form an organization. Stops on the tour included United Producers, a livestock marketing and credit cooperative; Mid States Wool Growers Cooperative, a wool marketing cooperative; and Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. and Buckeye Power, a state rural electric association and generation and transmission plant. The goal was to learn how the cooperatives operate compared to other business forms in the same industry. United Producers, Inc. (UPI) is a cooperative owned by producers across the corn belt, Southeast and Midwest areas of the country. UPI serves as more than a marketing cooperative to its members, Producers Credit Corporation and Producers Technologies, Inc. are both subsidiaries that provide additional services to the members. Producers Credit Corporation offers an extensive line of financial instruments to assist the common producer and Producers Technologies, Inc. provides risk, production, insurance and additional financial services to the members. For additional information, including history on UPI, please visit their website at www.uproducers.com. Mid States Wool Growers Cooperative Association is a wool marketing cooperative association that started in 1918 to market wool for sheep producers in the Midwest. Today, the cooperative has a state-of-the-art wool grading and storage warehouse in central Ohio that uses advanced technology to separate and group the members' wool. The cooperative markets 6 million pounds of wool annually from 10,000 producers across the Midwest utilizing their Ohio, Kansas and South Dakota facilities. This is an example of the need for producers to work together and provide a service that was not readily available to them. For more information on Mid States start in 1918, visit www.midstateswoolgrowers.com. Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (OREC) and Buckeye Power, Inc.
both involve the rural electric utilities in the cooperative model. OREC
is the state service/trade association of the rural electric cooperatives
in Ohio. The rural electrics were developed because rural residents needed
electric and Investor-owned Firms were not willing to provide the service
because of the distance between customers. Buckeye Power, Inc. is the
generation and transmission cooperative plant that provides electricity
for the rural electrics in Ohio. The plant is owned by the 24 rural electric
cooperatives in Ohio that serve consumers in 77 of Ohio's 88 counties.
To learn more about the rural electric utilities in Ohio visit the OREC/Buckeye
Power website If you are interested in conducting or participating in a similar tour or have additional questions, feel free to contact Travis West, Coordinator, Ohio Cooperative Development Center at (740) 289-2071.
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