The boards of Keystone Cooperative and Caledonia Farmers Elevator (CFE) have unanimously agreed to put a merger to their farmer-members. Members of both cooperatives will vote throughout November and at a special meeting Dec. 15, 2026.
The members decide, and the terms are not public yet
CFE, founded in 1918, is a farmer-owned cooperative serving west and central Michigan. It has five Michigan locations, including its main site in Caledonia, and sells grain, feed, livestock nutrition, crop production products, tires and retail goods.
Keystone is a 100% farmer-owned cooperative based in Indianapolis, with 245 facilities and more than 1,800 employees. Its divisions are energy, agronomy, grain, animal nutrition and swine.
The joint announcement does not give the exchange terms, the vote threshold, the name or governance of a combined entity, or either co-op’s sales.
Scott Logue, Keystone president and CEO, framed the deal as a fit of purpose.
“This partnership is a natural fit for two organizations that share a commitment to serving agriculture,” he said in the announcement. “Together, we will leverage the power of our cooperative advantage to strengthen our operations, invest in our future and deliver greater value to our farmer-owners, employees and Michigan communities.”
Joel Stoepker, CFE’s CEO, pointed to what his members would get.
“By joining together, we believe we can build on CFE’s strong legacy while creating new opportunities for future generations of farmers,” he said in the announcement. He added that CFE has been impressed by “Keystone’s commitment to cooperative values, employee development, and long-term investment in agriculture.”
Keystone has grown by combination and infrastructure investment
Keystone was formed by the March 2024 merger of Co-Alliance and Ceres Solutions, with 99% in favor. At formation, Keystone counted 20,000 farmer-owners, 1,700 employees, $3.1 billion in sales and 195 locations. Then-CEO Kevin Still said the goal was to “keep that local feeling but still leverage size and scale.”
The co-op has also been spending on facilities. In April, Keystone said it had completed more than $10 million in upgrades at its Bremen and Fritchton, Ind., and Eldorado, Ohio, centers. The upgrades added liquid chemistry and fertilizer loadout, with the aim of serving growers within a 30-mile radius faster and with more precise mixing. A new dry fertilizer hub at Eldorado was in permitting, which would take Ohio investment past $12 million.
Leadership turned over this fall. Logue, who came to Keystone through its 2021 acquisition of Harvest Land Cooperative, became CEO Sept. 1 after serving as chief operating officer. The CFE proposal comes less than two months after he took over.
