Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative 34th Annual Meeting

Fargo, N.D.--Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative representatives and shareholders convened in Dec for their annual meeting. This year the theme was born from many changes that Minn-Dak has seen over the last year. Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative became full owner of Minn-Dak Yeast Company. The truck fleet began using biodiesel fuel for the first time. The truck fleet is now completely under Minn-Dak's management and is run by the agriculture department. "Fiscal 2006 is a year we would like to quickly forget," said President/Chief Executive Officer Dave Roche. He said that a poor growing season contributed to lower yields and therefore smaller payments to shareholder/growers. Mike Hasbargen, Chairman of the Board for Minn-Dak, said "The recent midterm elections shifted power in both the Senate and the House causing us to be more optimistic about the future of U.S. sugar policy." Adding a bipartisan effort is needed to create a good agriculture policy. Some statistics from Minn-Dak's 2006 crop include over 117,000 acres planted, and over three million tons of beets harvested. Yield nearly 26 tons per acre and sugar content was just over 17 percent.