Poultry Co-ops Often Community Lifeblood by John J. Scanlan;

              For cooperatives, contsinuing sales demand at competitive prices depends
upon new and high quality products.
Left, Lynden cannery test kitchen of
Western Farmers Association, Seattle.
benefits—the social benefits, for instance.
In many instances, if these cooperatives were non-existent or were not located where they are, other firms would
not take their place and the operating
funds now spent by cooperatives and
their members and employees locally
would be spent by others elsewhere and
not fed back into the community as they
now are.
Poultry Co-ops—Often
Community Lifeblood
by John J. Scanlan
Chief, Poultry Branch.
T^HE cooperative is our mainstay here."
■*■     "It keeps this town from drying up."
"It is the lifeblood of the community."
These and similar expressions show the
appreciation many townspeople have of
the local poultry cooperative.
Such expressions are not always heard,
however, regarding the contributions that
egg, broiler, and turkey cooperatives
make to the development, progress, and
economic welfare of communities where
located—to both farm and townsfolk.
There are several reasons for this
sometimes lack of full appreciation of
cooperatives' contributions and of the
actual dependence of the community
upon them. Chief among these is the
failure to understand or measure the
economic value—the dollar value—of
the cooperative as a business asset to the
town as well as to the financial welfare
of the farm people.
This article will point out by a number
of examples the value of selected local
cooperatives to their hometowns. This
value is shown by money spent by them
for wages and salaries, taxes, certain operating expenses, and other items. We
are  not  emphasizing  the  less   tangible
Breaking eggs mechanically at Nulaid
Farms, San Leandro, Calif. Such advanced operations enable co-ops to
capture more of the consumer dollar
for   members—and   the   community.
In the examples cited, contributions to
farmers' economic welfare, as they are
reflected back to local businessmen, are
not emphasized although they are,  of
course, the primary objective of cooperatives.  The benefits to the local businessmen, while incidental and secondary—as
are the indirect benefits to non-members,
the "free riders"—are none-the-less im-
igiTrant.   J-=-—
In"sMoroni, Utah, a town of about 800
eople,   an   integrated   turkey   supply-
sarketing cooperative, the Moroni Feed
lompany, is now in its ^th year of operation. Operating year-round, it has a peak
of 230 employees during the heavy turkey
marketing months.  It does a total business in excess of $11 million, has a payroll
of $500,000 a year, and as high as $8,000
a day—all going to the local residents.
It is by far the largest business in the
town and community. In addition to paying taxes  of  $51,500  in  1961,  it paid
$69,000 for power and heat. In 1961 the
Association paid patronage refunds to its
members in the amount of $328,000 and
allotted book credits to them of $574,000.
In 1962 it paid them refunds of $264,000
in cash.
Needless to say, this cooperative is
appreciated both in Moroni and in half a
dozen towns in the immediate area.
About one-third of the county population
would find it necessary to make a living
elsewhere if the association discontinued
operations—townsfolk as well as farmers.
The turkey industry of the community
would be at a competitive disadvantage
and diminish or even disappear if the association did not enable the farmers to
produce turkeys at relatively low cost and
sell them at favorable prices.
In the small midwestern town of
Slater, Iowa, population 729, is the Farmers Cooperative Creamery Association.
Its chief operation is now egg handling.
It employs about 40 local people, many
of them farm women. It pays in salaries and wages over $100,000 a year and
has a payroll as high as $575 a day.
It is the largest business in the town;
it pays in excess of $10,500 a year for
electricity, fuel, and taxes. This cooperative has done much over the years to contribute to community development.
In operation since 1939, at Versailles,
Ohio, a town of 2,200 in west central
Ohio, is the Poultry Producers Association. With a business of nearly $9 million in 1961-62, it had a payroll of
$571,000—as high as $13,000 weekly for
its 180 employees—an average of $14.45
per worker per day. This farmers' firm is
the largest business in Versailles; last
year it spent $35,000 for electricity, interest, fuel, water, and sewage and the tidy
sum of $34,399 for taxes.
In 1962 it paid $57,000 back to- the
farmers out of savings—and a total of
$382,000 over the years. At the same time