It has been months of hard work, but as of Friday, April 1, Farmers Cooperative Company and West Central Cooperative will become Landus Cooperative. Member’s voices were heard loud and clear in the historic vote taken last December on the merger, and as the companies move into the future, they are asking customers for understanding and patience, particularly on Thursday, March 31, during the initial transition. “While we plan to make the integration as easy and streamlined for customers as possible, there will be some changes in service on Thursday,” said Milan Kucerak, who is slated to become CEO of Landus Cooperative when final documents are signed on April 1. He advises they are expecting some slight delays in service on the afternoon of March 31, as month-end processes are begun early for the merger. Agronomy deliveries or pick-ups on Thursday afternoon will be recorded as April business activity on April statements, while seed, crop protection and ammonia movement will continue as normal. Custom application services will be scheduled ahead of March 31 to avoid delays. The cooperatives will not be accepting grain deliveries past noon on Thursday afternoon. Grain will be priced and payments issued until 2 p.m., then they will close those services for the day. They are asking all customers to place feed orders early. They will not be processing any new animal nutrition/feed customer orders after noon on the 31st for same-day manufacturing. Deliveries will continue and afternoon activity will be reflected on April statements. Kucerak says they appreciate the customers’ partnership and patience in the overnight transition as well as the merging of all systems taking place over the next few months.
