Golden Growers Cooperative will hold its FINAL Annual Members Meeting on Thursday, March 19th at the Doubletree Conference Center, 825 E Beaton Drive, West Fargo, ND. Members will have the opportunity to elect Directors to serve on the Golden Growers Board. Current directors up for re-election for 3-year terms are: Brady Koehl, Hancock, MN (At-Large Director); Nick Pyle, Casselton, ND (Central District); and Richard Bot, Minneota, MN (South District).

Any member in good standing is eligible to be nominated as an At-Large Director or as a Director in the district where the member is registered. If you are interested and want more information about district elections, visit our website at www.goldengrowers.com or contact us at 701-281-0468 or scotts@goldengrowers.com.

2026 will be Golden Growers LAST Annual Meeting
As you are aware, Cargill will purchase Golden Growers interest in ProGold LLC for $81 million with payment to be issued within 30 days of the end of the lease (December 31, 2026). Final equity distributions to members in the first few months of 2027, the Cooperative will dissolve in late May of that year. Accordingly, there will be no Director elections in 2027 and therefore, no need for an annual member meeting. Although the 2026 elections are for 3-year terms, no Director will serve beyond the date of dissolution.

Annual Meeting Speaker – Bill Patrie
Bill Patrie was the Rural Development Director for the ND Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives and was intimately involved in plans to build the ProGold corn milling plant AND the organization of the Northern Corn Processors Cooperative (ultimately re-named Golden Growers Cooperative). Bill also served as the Secretary for the original steering committee for the cooperative. We thought it would be worthwhile to invite Bill to discuss what occurred in those early days for GGC and ProGold. He will also share his thoughts on the importance of what was accomplished over the thirty plus years of our organization.

At their June meeting, the GGC Board of Directors approved a policy to allow charitable donation of GGC Units.

To allow the charitable donation and to avoid likely administrative issues, GGC will accommodate the donation to a charitable institution if the donation coincides with the listing of the donated units for sale with FNC Securities at the time of donation. In other words, GGC units may not be transferred to a charitable organization without a simultaneous listing with FNC Ag Stock.

Donations of units to a charitable requires the following:
1) The GGC Member donating must obtain the appropriate form directly from Golden Growers, downloaded from the GGC website (here) or from FNC Securities;
2) The member must obtain the contact information and Tax ID for the charitable institution and enter it on the form.
3) Submit the form to FNC Ag Stock to list units to be donated for sale;
4) At the conclusion of the sale, the member must hold either NO units or a minimum of 4,000 units and the charitable organization will hold NO units.

The charitable organization will be responsible for issuing a statement to the member related to the donation.

At the 2026 Annual Meeting, GGC members will elect Directors from the Central and South Districts and one At-Large Director. Nick Pyle (Central District), Richard Bot (South District), and Brady Koehl (At-Large Director) are all eligible for re-election. Despite the pending dissolution of GGC in 2027, director elections will be for 3-year terms.

Members who may be interested should contact the Golden Growers office or review election and nomination information on our website.

Immediately after the 2025 annual meeting, the GGC board elected Nick Pyle as Chairman. Mr. Pyle most recently served as Vice-Chairman. Nick served as a director from 2010 through 2022. He previously served as Secretary from March 2013 to March 2015, and Chaired the Audit Committee from March 2015 to March 2022. After departing the board in 2022, Pyle returned was elected again in 2023.

He has been farming since 2002 near Casselton, North Dakota. Mr. Pyle serves as a director of McIntyre-Pyle, Inc. Mr. Pyle is President and serves as a director of Unity Seed Company, a member of Global Soy Genetics LLC and Director of McIntyre Farms Partnership. Mr. Pyle holds a Bachelor of Science in Business degree in finance from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

Nick’s broad experience on the Golden Growers board combined with his education and management experience makes him an outstanding leader to guide the Cooperative through it’s final years.

Other Officers Elected:
First Vice-Chair – David Kragnes Second Vice-Chair – Brady Koehl
Secretary – Blane Benedict Treasurer – Larry Vipond