By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
After holding informational meetings this summer on the impact and conducting a study, the
Farmers Co-op of Carmen, Oklahoma merger with the Great Bend Co-op is official.
Carmen members voted “yes” Thursday to the merger which will add five locations
in Oklahoma to the Great Bend business.
Great Bend Co-op Chief Executive Officer Chris Wagner said the merger had very little to do with
crossing into Oklahoma. The enticing part of the merger is to create more
savings to members and expanded services and facilities.
"An interim manager that was here, his name was Randy Robeson," said Wagner. "After he left here, he went down to Farmers Co-op of Carmen. He had started discussions on how we could work together and share assets.
"For crop timing, they (Oklahoma) are always ahead of us on wheat. There are times where we (Kansas) are really busy and they're not. There will be that ability to share assets and people to help us be more efficient."
Wagner said quite a few producers from the central Kansas area haul their rye
to the Ames, Oklahoma location, operated by the Farmers Co-op of Carmen. The Oklahoma
acquisition would add Carmen, Ames, Cherokee, Aline and Drummond locations to
the Great Bend Co-op reach.
"Long term, building a business that can attract talent and provide career paths for employees is a large issue to continue to attract people back into rural America," said Wagner. "Whether that is Great Bend or Cherokee, Oklahoma. Those were the ideas that were the foundation to starting the merger talks."
The five locations in Oklahoma will add roughly three million bushels in grain
storage to the Great Bend Co-op.
The merger has a proposed effective date of Oct. 1, 2022.