United Prairie LLC, a full-service agronomic retailer serving farmers in central Illinois, announced today it will acquire Northern Illinois Alliance, a retail agronomy joint venture between Illinois-based Elburn Cooperative and CHS Inc., the leading U.S. farmer-owned cooperative. The boards of the two entities recently voted in favor of the sale, which is expected to be finalized by March 1, 2016.

"Both Northern Illinois Alliance and United Prairie have similar approaches to meeting our customers' needs and we agree that doing what's best for them is our first priority," said Tim Gocken, general manager, Northern Illinois Alliance. "Coming together allows us to combine valuable technology and resources so we can continue to help our growers optimize their yields season after season."

"We are excited about bringing our two organizations together and building off of what each has started," said Tim Hughes, general manager, United Prairie. "It's in our farmers' best interests to grow this business. It allows us to be most efficient with our current resources, as well as invest in even more precision ag products and technology because we can utilize those over a larger footprint."

The pending merger of Elburn Cooperative and CHS on March 1 provided a unique opportunity to build out and strengthen the agronomic offerings for farmers in this area of east central Illinois. Northern Illinois Alliance brings 30,000 ton of dry storage, 15,000 ton of liquid storage and 50 car-rail siding, along with dry fertilizer blending services and 24-hour access for 32 & 28% nitrogen loading to United Prairie's current scope.

No interruption of service to customers is expected during the transition.

94.1 WGFA