Why do you think cooperatives are much more important than in the marketing of dairy products than in livestock marketing?

The importance of farm cooperatives varies with commodities. Cooperatives are important in today’s farming and dairy economy. More than 3800 farmers’ cooperatives reported a business volume of 106 billion. Membership in farmer cooperatives totals about 3.2 million, indicating that many farmers belong to cooperatives than any other industry. Dairy products accounted for more than 60 of cooperatives marketing associations’ sales.

Cooperatives return more than 1 billion to their farmers in the dairy industry. Marketing cooperatives sell farmers’ products. They are an example of farmers vertically integrating into the food marketing channel. These cooperatives collect, sale, sore, package and perform their other functions. Their objective is to secure maximum profits for the products for the former owner.

Marketing cooperatives accounted for approximately 30% of all farm cash receipts.

Thus the cooperative market share is highest for milk and lower for livestock and livestock products.