Land O'Lakes, Inc., Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives and Farmland Industries announced today they have signed a formal letter of intent to form a new agronomy marketing joint venture company that will distribute plant food and crop protection products to member cooperatives and other customers.

The joint venture company will be equally owned and governed by Land O'Lakes and United Country Brands, a new company that will be formed with the proposed unification of Cenex Harvest States and Farmland. A volume-based formula with a cash buy-up option will be used to achieve 50/50 ownership.

The company will be led by co-presidents Stan Riemann, Farmland executive vice president and president of Farmland's Crop Production division; and Al Giese, president, Cenex/Land O'Lakes Agronomy Company.

Giese will be primarily responsible for plant food marketing, which will be headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Riemann will concentrate on the ag chemical side of the business, based in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. Riemann will also continue to lead the Farmland (ultimately United Country Brands) fertilizer production business. It is expected that both divisions will have an employee presence in both office locations.

The agronomy marketing joint venture company will include the current Cenex/Land O'Lakes Agronomy Company, Land O'Lakes eastern agronomy operations, and Farmland's wholesale agronomy business. Operations are expected to begin along with Country Brands, which is scheduled for a March 1, 2000, start date, pending a member vote on November 23.

Land O'Lakes, Inc., based at Arden Hills, Minnesota, is a national food and agricultural cooperative owned by farmers, ranchers and local cooperatives in 29 states. It is a leading marketer of dairy products across the U.S.; serves international customers with a variety of food products and animal feed ingredients; and provides family farmers and member cooperatives with an extensive line of feed, seed, plant food and crop protection products.

Farmland Industries, Inc. is a North American farmer-owned cooperative with 1998 company sales in all 50 states and nearly 90 countries. Farmland is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Focused on meeting the needs of its 600,000 farmer-owners in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Farmland is a highly diversified company with major business lines in crop production and crop protection products, livestock feeds, petroleum, grain processing and marketing, and the processing and marketing of pork, beef and catfish products.

Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives, based at Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota., is a producer-to-consumer cooperative system owned by farmers, ranchers and their local co-ops from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Northwest and from the Canadian border to Texas. This fully integrated agricultural foods cooperative operates oil refineries/pipelines and provides a wide variety of products and services ranging from grain marketing to food processing. Through a broad range of working partnerships, Cenex Harvest States also markets and distributes petroleum products, agronomic inputs and feed to rural America, as well as grain and processed food products to customers around the world.

Company news release
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