Exit strategies of farmer co-operatives in the United States: A competing risks analysis

•The empirical study concerns a survival analysis of U.S. farmer cooperatives for the 2004–2017 period.•In contrast to prior studies, we consider four exit strategies: mergers, acquisitions, liquidations, and dissolutions.•We study bivariate relationships of firm-level characteristics to cooperative firm survival to yield baseline scenarios.•We give recommendations for academics, practitioners, and policymakers who help protect farmer cooperatives.