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these transactions was a consolidation of petitioner’s soy
processing capacity with that of Land O’Lakes and Boone
Valley.
Petitioner agreed to the consolidation plan based on a
study it had commissioned on methods of improving its
soybean processing efficiency and maximizing savings to
patrons. In a letter to petitioner’s members printed in
its 1983 annual report, Mr. Kenneth Nielson, petitioner’s
president at the time, and Mr. Francis Gwin, chairman of
petitioner’s board of directors, described the
consolidation as follows:
[The consolidation plan] will be a good
thing for farmers, eliminating some of the
duplication of efforts and creating a stronger
cooperative soy processing entity to improve
producers’ return.
Petitioner’s 1983 annual report further describes the
reasons for the consolidation as follows:
Although its own plants are well-located
geographically and operationally, to compete with
industry, Farmland took a leadership role in the
unification study. President Ken Nielson said
the unification plan would eliminate duplication
of some farmer-owned facilities and services and
create a new organization of a size better able
to compete to farmers' economic benefit.
At year end Farmland’s soy operations joined
those of Land O’Lakes and Boone Valley in the
newly unified Boone Valley cooperative Processing
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