The board of directors of Progressive Ag Coop, headquartered in Danville and Wellington, Kan., and Valley Coop, Inc., Winfield, Kan., have approved forming an exploratory committee on evaluating the possible benefits of a merger between the two farmer cooperatives.  A potential timeline will be set at a later date and a feasibility study will be one of the first steps of assessing outcomes of the possible merger.

Progressive Ag Coop board chairman David Wedman commented, "Our goal as a COOP is to provide services for the member producers to help them to be efficient as possible in their operations while keeping local control of our facilities. If feasibility studies show this possible merger will help us to achieve this goal, then we will move forward.”

Valley Coop board chairman Craig Pringle said, “Both coops have strong balance sheets and strong business divisions that complement each very well. We are excited to study how this will bring more value to our members.”

The coops have a diversified crop mix, both have ownership in CoMark Equity Alliance (their grain merchandising firm) and have an agronomy and feed division that would greatly build off each other.

Progressive Ag Coop has 13 locations spread throughout Sumner, Harper Counties in Kansas and Grant County in Oklahoma. Valley Coop, Inc. has six locations throughout Cowley County Kansas. Both coops have operations in grain handling, agronomy, refined fuels and feed services.

Source: Kansas Grain & Feed Assn.