Agriculture cooperative to expand at eastern Nebraska site

SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) – An eastern Nebraska agriculture cooperative has announced plans to add a more than 53,000-square-foot dry fertilizer plant at its Schuyler location.

Frontier Cooperative Co.’s new fertilizer plant will be a benefit to area farmers, said Jon Brabec, the company’s senior vice president of marketing and sales. The plant will sit along a Union Pacific Railroad line, allowing dry fertilizer to come in on trains before it’s loaded onto semitrailers and delivered to farmers.

It’s expected to be operational around September 2016, the Columbus Telegram (http://bit.ly/1M9tuEa ) reported.

Brabec said the new plant will ensure the cooperative has enough fertilizer on hand to serve its customers, which he said is the “No. 1 thing.”

Schuyler was chosen for the project because of its access to the railroad and location, Brabec said. He declined to say how much the expansion project would cost.

The Brainard-based company merged with Husker Coop in January 2014 and has 23 locations in eastern Nebraska. Frontier has an estimated 4,190 patron members. It offers products and services in grain, agronomy, feed, seed and energy.

Frontier, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, currently is in the midst of a five-year expansion plan that will grow the cooperative’s services and better position the company for the future, Brabec said.

A full-service agronomy center in North Bend and 800,000-bushel grain storage facilities in Ceresco and Osceola are among the other projects currently underway or recently completed.