Three area cooperatives will be merging this year, after a vote from their members. Farmers Cooperative Association of Canby, Lyon County Farm Service of Ghent, and Prairie Pride Cooperative of Marshall announced the decision on Friday. The vote outcome was announced to cooperative members at special meetings on Thursday.

The three cooperatives provide farming, energy and auto services and products to thousands of customers in southwest Minnesota. All together, the cooperatives have locations in Canby, Minneota, Ghent, Marshall, Slayton and Ivanhoe.

“We are pleased that a majority of members voted in support of the proposed unification, which we believe will bring additional value to members and the long-term viability of our cooperative,” said Mark Pesek, Farmers Cooperative Association Vice President. “We also want to thank our members for participating in the process and exercising their right to vote.”

“This opportunity presents a lot of benefits for our members, customers, employees, businesses and communities,” said Al Steffes, Prairie Pride Cooperative Board President.

“We are committed to building on the rich heritage of our cooperatives, to create an even stronger, unified cooperative that is here for the long term to support members and customers,” said Fred Rabaey, Lyon County Farm Service Board Chairman.

Pete Schmitz, general manager of Farmers Cooperative Association, said the merger of the three cooperatives will both save money and help insure cooperative patrons’ equity into the future. The new cooperative would have an estimated $73 to $75 million in consumer and farm supply sales, Schmitz said.

The move has both short and long-term benefits for the cooperatives, said Prairie Pride General Manager Emmett Thomsen. In addition to protecting equity, unifying would give the cooperatives the ability to find and keep the best-quality employees.

Before Thursday’s announcement, the Boards of Directors of each cooperative approved a unification agreement, and cooperative members submitted ballots that were certified by accounting firm Hoffman and Brobst. Minnesota law required that a quorum of cooperative members vote, and that two-thirds vote to approve the unification.

However, preparations for the merger proposal went back a lot further than this month’s vote.

“This has been in the works for almost two years,” Thomsen said.

The new cooperative will start operations on Aug. 1.

“There’s a tremendous amount of integration that has to be done before then,” said John Head, general manager of Lyon County Farm Service. Some of that integration will include forming a new joint board of directors and choosing a name for the new cooperative. Cooperative members were encouraged to submit ideas for the new name, he said.