Issue 6
March 1997

Winter wheat growers form new ventures
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.


 An organization of 550 farmers from Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma recently announced the incorporation of a new grower-owned cooperative, called the 21st Century Grain Processing Cooperative. The new cooperative plans to process primarily hard red winter wheat for its members, who may participate by buying shares of stock in the new cooperative. Meetings are being held in the Kansas area this February, to provide an opportunity for farmers to join the new winter wheat cooperative.

In a separate venture, growers in Colorado have formed a plan to purchase Gerard’s French Bakery, a wholesale bakery of fresh and fozen products in Longmont, near Denver. The grower group, formed under the name Mountain View Harvest Cooperative, will purchase an aggregate of 400 shares in the new venture at a cost of $12,500 per share, for a total value of about $5 million, according to Milling & Baking News. For each share invested in the venture, farmers will deliver 1,000 bushels of wheat for the Longmont baking operation, which was founded in 1975 and has annual sales between $5 million and $10 million.

The Colorado group purchased a nearby 200,000-bushel elevator to handle grain for the co-op. With 10 separate storage bins, the elevator may be important in producing and marketing identity-preserved grains. The elevator will supply wheat to a nearby mill, which will in turn produce conventional bakery flour for the Colorado group’s bakery venture, as well as organic flours.

Copyright Prairie
Grains Magazine
March 1997