Landus’ investment in the Fort Dodge site reflects a commitment to local farmers, who were asking for a centrally located agricultural hub to boost their efficiency and productivity.

“The decision to invest here [the Fort Dodge area] was driven entirely by feedback from the farmers in that region who have been demanding more,” said Matt Carstens, president and CEO of Landus. “We have heard them, and we are excited to bring our Landus offerings to this area and continue to put our farmer-owners at the center of everything we do.”

In early August 2023, Landus announced that it had purchased land and assets located centrally between Fort Dodge, Humboldt, Badger and Clare, along U.S. Highway 169. This site, which was formerly owned and operated by Sparboe Companies, sets the stage for Landus to upgrade the facilities and provide a modern grain and agronomy location here.

“This past fall we took in some bushels at this grain facility,” said Tyler Schultes, director of sales for the western region of Landus. “Now we’ve shifted our focus to agronomy so we’re ready for spring.”

-Submitted photo courtesy of Landus Cooperative
In early August 2023, Landus announced that it had purchased land and assets located centrally between Fort Dodge, Humboldt, Badger and Clare, along U.S. Highway 169. This site, which was formerly owned and operated by Sparboe Companies, is setting the stage for Landus to upgrade the facilities and provide a modern grain and agronomy location here.

The cooperative continues to upgrade this site, which Sparboe built in 1974. At its peak, this former poultry facility included nine barns that held 1 million birds. Sparboe shut down this location in 2016, and the property was vacated for a number of years until Landus purchased the site, which included a feed mill, a large chemical shed, a large warehouse and a farmhouse.

Landus has been transforming the 44,000-square-foot warehouse to include a drive-through chemical bay. This will make it easier to load various crop inputs, whether they are hot-loaded into tenders or packaged. This level of efficiency becomes more important as farmers upgrade their application equipment and farms become larger.

“Just as speed and space are key on the grain side of the business, there’s a need for quick turnaround time and getting more acres covered faster on the agronomy side,” Schultes said. “At our Fort Dodge location, you’ll be able to drive a semi-truck and trailer inside the warehouse, where we can load liquid fertilizer and herbicides. It’s a safe, efficient use of labor and time.”

Completion of the anhydrous ammonia facility at the site is slated for the summer of 2024, so it’s ready in time for the fall 2024 agronomy season, he added.

Landus will operate the grain facility at the Fort Dodge location seasonally. The company is also growing the agronomy team at the facility. Austin Hayek, who grew up on a farm near Duncombe and is a Webster County supervisor, serves as the location lead.

-Submitted photo courtesy of Landus Cooperative
In early August 2023, Landus announced that it had purchased land and assets located centrally between Fort Dodge, Humboldt, Badger and Clare, along U.S. Highway 169. This photo shows the interior of the facility, which was formerly owned and operated by Sparboe Companies.

“Farmers in the area had been asking for another player in the market, and they’ve been very receptive to this facility,” Schultes said. “Because of the site’s close proximity to U.S. Highways 169 and 20, this also connects this location to our wider Landus footprint, which includes 62 locations across grain, agronomy and feed.”

Landus expands Boone-area facility, focuses on fertilizer

During the past two years, Landus has reinvested more than $200 million to modernize facilities throughout its geography. In central Iowa, Landus is creating more grain storage for Boone-area farmers, plus it’s also making major agronomy investments at its rural Boone location northeast of the Farm Progress Show site.

In December 2023, Landus announced that the Boone location will be expanded with improved grain handling capacity and speed ahead of harvest 2024. Planned upgrades will include:

• Two new grain bins totaling 3 million bushels of additional storage.

• An additional 7,000 bushel-per-hour dryer, which will increase total on-site drying capacity to 15,000 bushels per hour.

• A new 30,000 bushel-per-hour leg and receiving pit.

Construction of the grain handling upgrades will begin this spring. The project is projected to be operational ahead of harvest 2024, according to Landus.

These upgrades will also complement the major agronomy investments already underway at the Boone location. A state-of-the-art fertilizer manufacturing and repack facility will enable the

Landus team to take links out of the agronomy supply chain and better connect farmers to locally manufactured products.

In late June 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that USDA Rural Development had awarded Landus a $4.9 million grant through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (FPEP). USDA offered this grant opportunity after fertilizer prices nationwide more than doubled between 2021 and 2022 due to a variety of factors, including high energy costs, the war in Ukraine, strong global demand, high agricultural commodity prices and a lack of competition in the fertilizer industry.

The FPEP program is designed to increase innovative, domestic fertilizer production by spurring competition. When USDA announced that Landus was one of the grant recipients, it noted that the cooperative will build a greenfield fertilizer manufacturing and repackaging facility to manufacture a slow-release, leaf-based nitrogen fertilizer, which can increase overall nitrogen efficiency in corn.

“If you drive five hours in any direction from our Boone site, you touch 30% of all the corn and soybean acres in the United States,” said Jonathan King, an agronomy lead/optimization and procurement lead. “This fertilizer manufacturing and repack facility is a unique project that will help us service new markets.”