Trupointe Cooperative, Inc., and Cargill, Inc., have signed a letter of intent to create a joint venture with their facilities located in Milford, Bremen and La Paz, Ind.

Upon completing due diligence and signing a final agreement, the two companies will combine Trupointe’s crop inputs assets in Milford with Cargill’s grain elevators in Bremen and Lapaz. The joint venture – to be named TruHorizons – is also planned to include building a $30-million grain elevator in Milford, for completion by harvest of 2016.

Trupointe, an agricultural cooperative based in Piqua, Ohio, with 4,100 members, serves western Ohio and eastern Indiana. This summer the co-op opened its Milford Agronomy Hub, which offers crop nutrients, crop protection products, seed and traits, crop scouting, precision agriculture, application services and more. The addition of the grain facility on site has been part of design plans since Trupointe acquired the site.

“The combination of our crop inputs business in Milford, Cargill’s two grain handling facilities and the planned Milford grain elevator will provide great resources for area farmers to manage their farms and market their crops,” said Larry Hammond, president and chief executive officer of Trupointe.

Ben Breazeale, general manager of Cargill’s eastern region, said a partnership between Trupointe and Cargill is a great fit. “Our company cultures are very aligned, and both have a history of being focused on safety, integrity, accountability and the success of our customers,” Breazeale said.

The new Milford elevator would include an eight-pack concrete house, two steel bins and an attached ground pile with total space of 4.3 million bushels. Additionally, the Milford site has the unique advantage of being situated on both the CSX and NS main-line railroads, giving both the grain and agronomy businesses efficient access to world markets.

The name TruHorizons is a combination of Trupointe Cooperative and Cargill AgHorizons, which is Cargill’s U.S. business that has a network of grain elevators and farm service centers from Colorado to Ohio, Minnesota to Texas.