This week, the Land O'Lakes Inc. cooperative announced it will build a state-of-the-art animal feed manufacturing facility in Roanoke, Va. The plan is to open the facility in December 2018.

That comes as a surprise since the cooperative had signed a letter of intent to acquire Southern States Cooperative Inc.'s animal feed business last November. For those details, see Lol to acquire Southern States animal feed business. And earlier last year, Southern States had entered into a supply agreement with Land O’Lakes through its WinField United crop inputs and insights unit.

Noting discontent with the progress in the acquisition, Beth Ford, Land O’Lakes’ chief operating officer, explains: “The company is looking to move more quickly in this strategic market than the discussions with Southern States allowed.

“The Southeast is the single biggest growth opportunity for our Purina animal nutrition business,” she adds. “While the new facility is being constructed, we’ll serve our important current and future customers from product made at our existing facilities and distributed through warehouses at Virginia and Kentucky.”

Plans are still evolving, so details aren’t yet available. Purina already manufactures horse, cattle and other animal feed products for Southeast customers.

Source: Land O’Lakes