Andrea Johnson/MDN CHS SunPrairie in Minot is part of the Dakota Agronomy Partners LLC.

Dakota Agronomy Partners announced in September that it has doubled the size of the company with the recent consolidation of agronomy assets.

The agronomy assets of its three parent cooperatives, CHS SunPrairie, Border Ag & Energy, and Enerbase Cooperative Resources, were all moved under the Dakota Agronomy Partners Grain. According to a press release, this will increase the buying power and storage capacity of Dakota Agronomy Partners and will enable patrons of all three parent cooperatives better access to products at more competitive partners. On their own, each cooperative had limited supply, buying power, storage, manhours available and rolling stock. Dakota Agronomy Partners now has three strategically-placed dry fertilizer mega-plants at their fingertips in Bowbells, Bottineau, and Minot. DAP now has increased buying power for seed, crop protection products, and crop nutrients and is able to buy in much larger quantities for the entire territory.

DAP went from 46 employees to 109 employees, according to a spokesperson. No employees lost their positions due to the merger, according to the spokesperson. “We kept everyone on staff as they know their territory best and are all valuable to DAP,” said Jayme Burkhartd in an email.

According to the press release, another benefit of growing the LLC is becoming much more attractive when looking for qualified people that can help meet the needs of today’s operations. The demand for precision ag and variable rate mapping is increasing and some of the outlying areas are having trouble finding qualified people.

Finally, the newly-expanded footprint of DAP will create some opportunities to share help and custom application equipment from south to north during the busy spring and fall seasons, according to the press release.

“It is hard to believe that this coming February 2019 will be the 20-year Anniversary for Dakota Agronomy Partners LLC. I doubt that any of the original board members that helped form the LLC twenty years ago imagined it would be the agronomy powerhouse that it is today,” said Dan Sem, DAP general manager, in the press release. “The growth DAP has seen these past two decades is the result of an amazing team of individuals whose common goal is to help their growers succeed.”