EN
The overall objective of the paper is identification of organization of co-operative farms in southern Poland and the influence of this organization in the effectiveness of farming. The work has analyzed the organization of both, crop and animal production, employment, level of property and capital, as well as their structure, revenues, costs and effectiveness of management depending on the firm organization. Three groups of co-operatives were identified on the basis of their scope of activities, i.e. co-operatives involved in agricultural and non-agricultural activities excluding animal farms, enterprises running agricultural and non-agricultural activities including animal farms and the co-operatives which gave up agricultural production. The empirical data for the years 2001-2003 came from 20 agricultural production co-operatives from southern Poland.