INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.— Two familiar faces in agriculture are joining hands to better serve contracted hog farmers in parts of Indiana and Ohio. 

Co-Alliance and Signature Farms each based in Indiana have formed Legacy Feed, LLC, a feed manufacturing and swine management company.

Legacy Feed will build a state-of-the-art feed mill with room to store 1.5 million bushels of grain and capacity to produce 300,000 tons of pelleted hog feed.

The new company will also provide swine management services to assist hog producers for Co-Alliance and Signature Farms with raising healthy pigs within a 70-mile radius of the operation planned in Millville, Ind., said Co-Alliance Marketing Specialist Lindsay Sankey.

Millville is in Henry County between New Castle and Hagerstown. Sankey said construction of the $21 million facility will begin in the spring.

“It’s quite an investment,” she said. 

She said Co-Alliance and Signature Farms are combining resources to meet a need for a large grain storage and feed operation in east central Indiana. Sankey said the facility will serve producers who raise hogs for Co-Alliance and Signature Farms.

“There was not a business of this type or a feed mill of the size we’re about to build to meet our needs so we are joining together to meet that need,” she said. 

Indianapolis based Co-Alliance and Signature Farms headquartered in Milroy purchase hogs from contracted suppliers and sell the animals to companies for processing. 

Co-Alliance Cooperative is a member owned supply and marketing operation with farmer members and customers across Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. The company specializes in hog production, swine management, agronomy, propane, fuels, grain, seed and feed.

Signature Farms is a swine management company supplying processors with hogs raised by farmers under contract throughout Indiana and northwest Ohio.

Kevin Still, President and CEO of Co-Alliance Cooperative, said efficiencies are among the things aimed at being achieved from the venture. 

“Legacy Feed brings together two strong businesses with a successful history in swine production.  This new business will allow Co-Alliance to provide a more diversified offering in our eastern geography.  I anticipate this strong combination will provide synergies and help us create more value in the swine production space,” he said.  

Signature Farms Operations Manager Eric Freeman also forecast positives from the tying of the knot between the companies.

“Combining Signature Farms’ strong legacy of swine management services with Co-Alliance’s proven success record in swine feed manufacturing will allow our teams to provide a leading swine production company in which our customers and employees thrive and provide opportunity for growth,” he said.

Sankey said construction of an office at the site to house bookkeepers for the operation will occur in 2024.

Legacy Feed will be headquartered in Indianapolis.

In November, Co-Alliance revealed it was spending $15 million on a new fertilizer hub also in Henry County.