Frenchman Valley Co-op buys aerial spraying company

Frenchman Valley Cooperative will soon be adding aerial application services to the resources it provides. FVC announced Thursday that it had purchased Steggs Aerial Spraying.

“FVC is excited to add Steggs’ exceptionally knowledgeable employee group to our team as well as the services they provide in Holyoke, Imperial and the surrounding areas,” a release from the co-op stated.

Jeff Steggs said he is looking forward to the transition.

“After over 35 years of owning and operating our aerial application business in the Imperial and Holyoke area, we are very pleased to be able to transition what we built into the hands of local ownership,” he said in the release. “Frenchman Valley Co-op will prove to be an excellent successor to what we began.”

FVC Agronomy Division Manager Cleve Anderson said the acquisition will allow the co-op to assist in the aerial application of fungicides and insecticides for the first time.

“This is our first purchase of an airplane,” he said. “We were wanting to provide that service.”

While there is a fairly large demand for the services, Anderson said it’s seasonal.

“We will be up and running this spring,” he added.

Doug Ohlson, FVC general manager, said he is pleased with the acquisition.

“The addition of aerial application services to the Frenchman Valley Co-op agronomy portfolio is very exciting,” he said in the release. “Our company will strive to maintain and build on the level of service and integrity developed by the Steggs family over their long history of aerial application services in western Nebraska and northeastern Colorado.”

FVC was founded in 1912 and has 25 locations in southwest Nebraska, northwest Kansas, the Nebraska Panhandle, northeast Colorado and Wyoming.

The co-op provides services in agronomy, feed, grain member services, petroleum and grain procurement.