Identifier

MA 50

Dates

1944-1989

Extent

1.42 linear feet (1 records center box, 1 document case)

Abstract

Sokota Hybrid Producers, Inc. made available to farmers in South Dakota and the surrounding states hybrid seed corn. Composed mainly of Board of Directors minutes from its incorporation in 1944 to its dissolution in 1986, articles of incorporation, by-laws, purchase agreement, financial material, and trademark information.

Historical Note

Sokota Hybrid Producers, Inc. made available to farmers in South Dakota and the surrounding states hybrid seed corn.

Sokota began in 1924, when Clifford Franzke, a South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station agronomist, started inbreeding local varieties of corn in an effort to produce a hybrid which could withstand the Dakota weather. In 1942, a new hybrid seed was released to farmers by the experiment station. Fred Baldridge, a retired farmer, began to standardize grading of the hybrid seed.

In 1944, Sokota Hybrid Producers incorporated as a cooperative and 24 farmers purchased certificates of equity to get the organization going with E.G. Sanderson as president.

W.L. Davis, who was a vocational agricultural instructor at Brookings high school, became manager in 1945 and the cooperative was able to erect its own plant in south Brookings. Davis served as the manager of Sokota for nearly 35 years.

Sokota continued to grow and prosper through the years, by the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sokota, had a breeding program nearly three times bigger than any program South Dakota State University had undertaken.

Sokota Hybrid Producers, Inc. was sold in 1985 to North American Plant Breeders.

Content Notes

The Sokota Hybrid Producers, Inc. records are composed mainly of Board of Directors minutes from its incorporation in 1944 to its dissolution in 1986. Most of the minutes include an agenda and the minutes. Some may include newsletters, correspondence, and reports. The collection also includes articles of incorporation, by-laws, purchase agreement, financial material, and trademark information.

The financial material is composed of corn payments, revolving fund certificates, grower and producer ledger sheets, and other certificates related to the financial portion of Sokota.

Also included are newspapers clippings on the history of Sokota, South Dakota codified laws in relation to cooperatives, and a photocopy of the first check written.

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Language

English

Publisher

South Dakota State University Archives and Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library, Brookings, South Dakota.

Rights

Copyright restrictions apply in different ways to different materials. Many of the documents and other historical materials in the Archives are in the public domain and may be reproduced and used in any way. There are other materials in the Archive carrying a copyright interest and must be used according to the provisions of Title 17 of the U.S. Code. The Archive issues a warning concerning copyright restrictions to every researcher who requests copies of documents. Although the copyright law is under constant redefinition in the courts, it is ultimately the responsibility of the researcher to properly use copyrighted material.

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