Central Harvest States released an e-mail on June 5th to employees that the farmer owned cooperative intends to sell or close the grain elevators in Kasson, Ostrander and Wykoff after the 2026 fall harvest season is over. This closure will most impact the smaller farm operations in the Dodge County area. CHS is one of the largest farm cooperatives in the Unites States with headquarters in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. CHS owns and operates various food processing and wholesale, farm supply, financial services and retail businesses. It also distributes Cenex brand fuel in 19 midwestern and western states as one of North America's largest c-store networks. The company’s statement was that the move is intended to optimize its assets.
“There is a significant opportunity for large-scale facilities, export corridor facilities and domestic processing markets to drive more value in the grain supply chain, which is prompting more farmers to deliver directly to those facilities, drawing bushels away from these smaller grain facilities,” wrote CHS Senior Director of Operations Jim Morken and Senior Vice President of Operations Mike Johnson in an email to staff on Friday, which was shared with the Post Bulletin. “Thin grain merchandising margins and a critical need to enable the most efficient operations across the network also contributed to this decision.”
The cooperative began in 1931 as the Farmers Union Central Exchange in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Later, the company changed the name to Cenex, and in 1998, merged with Harvest States Cooperatives, taking on the name Cenex Harvest States, adopting "CHS" as its brand name. In 2003, it changed its legal name to CHS Inc
The Kasson facility can receive 40,000 bushels of grain per hour during peak harvest and dry 12,000 bushels of corn per hour. Total storage capacity is 3 million bushels, which would account for about 15,000 acres of corn production from Dodge County, Minnesota. The grain facility will be closed after all the grain from the 2026 harvest has been processed and shipped out. CHS has stated that they will be looking for buyers for the facility as the operations wind down for the year. The feed store has already been sold to KFS of Hope, and will continue to operate with a new owner.
