News

MFA closing five locations in Missouri

MFA is closing five Missouri Agri Services retail locations in Bronaugh, Columbia, Essex, Fulton and Springfield. The company says customers of the affected locations will be served at nearby MFA locations.

“This decision comes from a multi-year analysis of how MFA can best deploy its assets,” said Craig Childs MFA senior vice president of retail operations, quoted in a news release. “Resources from these five locations will be employed at nearby MFA Agri Services locations for continued service to area farmers.”

Childs added that MFA is communicating with its customers to provide details about the changes.

“In Columbia and Springfield, we were working in facilities that had been convenient for agriculture in the past, but over time, urbanization has affected our operations. As the urban area expanded, it made trucking grain into the facilities difficult. It also has become challenging to move agricultural inputs from the facilities to the farm. At Columbia, we began to address the situation in the early 2000s by building an agronomy facility east of town,” he said.

Childs added that MFA improved and expanded its grain system in Centralia to better accommodate grain from area farmers.

The last day of operations for the Columbia and Fulton facilities is July 17. Essex, Bronaugh and Springfield locations will close by July 31. The closures will result in the elimination of four positions. Employees and operations at MFA’s Columbia headquarters will not be affected.

MFA operates 135 of the centers in Missouri and neighboring states and has business agreements with 24 affiliated cooperatives.