Facing a decline in population, inflation and dwindling customers, the Geneseo branch of the Central Prairie Co-op will change from being open year-round to seasonal. On Tuesday morning, farmers and ranchers from around the community found out about the change at a standing-room-only, open meeting at the co-op, which is one of the few businesses left on Geneseo’s Main Street.
Geneseo, which boasts of slightly more than 230 residents, is in northern Rice County, about 15 miles from both Lyons and Bushton, where the company has other co-ops.
“It’s been an incredibly tough decision,” said Mike Corbus, the chief executive officer of Central Prairie Co-op, which is based out of Sterling, about 25 miles from Geneseo. “Change isn’t always easy. We’re not going to be here all the time for efficiency. Interest rates have gone through the roof. There are a lot of expenses.”
Central Prairie Co-op was formed in 2014 by the merger of the Farmers Cooperative Elevator Company of Nickerson and the Farmers Cooperative Union of Sterling. Although the co-op has stakeholders, it relies on its board of directors for guidance.
The company, which has decreased its footprint in the last several years, currently has 16 facilities that handle a variety of services from grain storage to gas stations to seed cleaning to merchandise sales.
Several of the 20 or so farmers who attended the meeting wanted to know why the company had not approached them before they made up their mind to change the Geneseo facility from full-time to seasonal.
“The full-service co-op has gone to a less-service co-op,” said David Kratzer, a fourth-generation farmer from Rice County. “Everybody here goes back generations. It’s a difficult situation.”
Many farmers in the group were frustrated, feeling that the company was not taking their base into consideration.
“It’s basically a cooperative that is supposed to be owned by the producers. In this case, the managers are telling the producers what to do,” said Jim Gray, a rancher in Rice County. “It’s extremely hurtful.
One farmer in the group said the company was not thinking about the individual people they were affecting, “You’re not taking into account that this business doesn’t affect just the farming and ranching community but the entire community.”
Shane Eck, the chief operating officer of the co-op told the group that times have changed, and they can no longer continue to operate the way they used to. The original Geneseo facility was built around 1887, one year after the town was founded. Back then, the town had around 400 residents, hitting its peak in 1950 with a population of roughly 660.
When these facilities were built, there were a lot of farms, a lot smaller, and they didn’t have the means to travel to get other services,” Eck said.
Both Eck and Corbus reminded the crowd that many farmers are going to the internet or other larger locations to buy what they need.
“(We) have other competitors that are cheaper, more efficient,” Corbus said. “As a co op, we’ve lost that business.”
Eck said that if the co-op does not make the ‘right’ decisions, they will no longer survive as a business.
“If it’s not profitable, it’s not a service that can be done,” he said. “It (Geneseo) will be open for harvest and seed. We are not closing.”
The company is also seasonalizing its Lorraine branch in Ellsworth County. Frederick, Whiteside and Alden are already on a seasonal schedule. Lorraine has a population of about 130; Frederick has less than 10; and Alden is at about 120 residents. The co-op will continue to offer year-round services in its other locations, including Partridge, Lyons, Sterling, Hutchinson and Little River.
As reported in The Hutchinson News
