Celebrate South Dakota’s Cooperatives: Member-owned & Member Led for Almost a Century

Posted on: October 5, 2015 | Category: News Releases

October 5, 2015 – By #South Dakota Farmer Union

For many of South Dakota’s rural communities, cooperatives have served as a lifeline to technology, products and services which have allowed local farmers, ranchers and businesses to grow and thrive.

“Co-ops have played an important role in our state’s progress,” explains Doug Sombke, President of South Dakota Farmers Union. “When companies didn’t want to invest in the infrastructure necessary to bring electricity, telephone service, fuel and agriculture inputs to the countryside, our state’s farmers and ranchers banded together to form member-owned cooperatives.”

Supporting the cooperative mission, South Dakota Farmers Union provides policy support, as well as cooperative education, to more than 3,000 South Dakota rural youth each year through school visits, day camps and its leadership camp program.

“Even though I served on our co-op board for more than 20 years and attended numerous annual meetings of all the cooperatives we are members of, I could have done a better job of emphasizing the importance of being actively involved in our co-ops to my sons,” said Sombke, who farms near Conde with his three sons. “We recognize this as a trend, so during Farmers Union Leadership camp, teens actually establish and run cooperatives. This hands-on participation helps develop future generations of active cooperative membership.”

October is Cooperative Month

Throughout the month of October, the grassroots organization celebrated the valuable role cooperatives play in the state by hosting a number of activities, including harvest lunches, for farmers at:

Oct. 6 Prairie Ag Partners, Lake Preston;

Oct. 7 Farmers Union Co-op Association, Ferney;

Oct 15 South Dakota Wheat Growers, Andover;

Oct 19 Gregory Elevator and Rosebud Farmers Union Co-op;

Oct 21 South Dakota Wheat Growers, Wolsey;

Oct 22 South Dakota Wheat Growers, Huron;

Oct 23 South Dakota Wheat Growers, Alpena; and

Oct 26 Southeast Farmers Coop, Beresford.

Throughout the organization’s centennial year, South Dakota Farmers Union published a series of articles highlighting the history and legacy of cooperative development in South Dakota.

Last Modified: 10/05/2015 7:28:21 am MDT