Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) is restructuring its livestock feed operations and closing three of its six plants.

“The market conditions in the feed business have been challenging for some time.” says Patrick Bergermann, an associate vice-president of Ag and Home with FCL. “We’ve had a lot of consolidation on the producer side. We’ve had consolidation on the manufacturing side. Certainly, it was in that light that we had to look at our own operations and make sure we were set up for sustainability.”

Ten employees will be impacted in Melfort and another ten at Brandon. A third facility in Edmonton is closing and its operations will be transferred to the Wetaskawin Co-op in September. The Melfort plant will wind operations on August 15th, while Brandon will close on October 15th.

The three remaining Co-op Feeds plants in Saskatoon, Moosomin and Calgary will be upgraded with significant capital investment. New bagging equipment will be installed to support better stitched, open-mount bags.

“While we don’t make these (consolidation) decisions lightly . . . . we’re better able to serve our local co-ops and their producers customers across Western Canada well into the future,” says Ron Healey, vice-president of Ag and Consumer Business.

FCL manufactures cattle, horse, sheep and poultry feed in bags and bulk orders.