Following an explosion last week at the Landus Cooperative site in Jefferson, officials have announced resuming operations later this year.

Landus Cooperative Executive Vice President of Communications and Marketing Kerrey Kerr-Enskat says grain operations are expected to resume by the harvest season to receive and dry grain. She points out there will be available storage capacity to meet the needs of area farmers. 

Landus CEO Matt Carstens was thankful no one was hurt in last Friday’s dust explosion incident and appreciated the work by local fire and rescue crews. “True to ‘The Landus Way’ of acting with agility, courage, teamwork, and speed, we are now forging ahead with the planning to rebuild our Jefferson location to be bigger and better than before.”

The initial incident happened just after 8am last Friday when a dust explosion caused what Greene County Sheriff and Jefferson Fire Chief Jack Williams described as catastrophic damage, blowing the tops of the neighboring grain bins off and severely damaging the catwalks and scaffoldings. A second incident happened Saturday around 7:15pm when the head house of the grain elevator started on fire.

Kerr-Enskat says an assessment of the circumstances leading to Friday’s incident is underway and any potential corrective actions that are identified will be implemented. She adds, their agronomy services remain uninterrupted and the Beef Feed Center has resumed its normal operations, while the SoyChlor Plant is expected to resume production later this week.