Fifty-six percent of farmers were either members or nonmember patrons of marketing/farm supply cooperatives in both 1980 and 1986. However, the percent of farmers who held memberships dropped from 40 to 36 percent and nonmember patrons increased from 16 to 19 percent. The biggest change was an increase in percent of members among farmers with sales of $500,000 or more from 56 percent in 1980 to 69 percent in 1986. The percent of farmers with multiple and inactive memberships dropped. The percent of farmers who used cooperatives for marketing declined but increased for those who used cooperatives for purchasing farm supplies. About 508,000 farmers used a cooperative for marketing and more than 1.1 million used a cooperative to purchase farm supplies in 1986. Data for the study were obtained from surveys by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (formerly Statistical Reporting Service), U.S. Department of Agriculture.