Cargill to expand soy crushing plant, meal production in Kansas

The project currently has a budget of about $50, said the agribusiness group. The expansion of the Wichita site is expected to be finished by 2017.

“Our Wichita facility is in a great location to buy soybeans and supply soybean meal to our livestock producers and customers,” ​said John White, facility manager for Cargill’s Wichita Grain and Oilseeds Supply Chain business.

“We will be upgrading the plant’s processing equipment, automation and controls, utilities and much more to keep pace with current and future farmer supply and customer demand,” ​he said. “We expect to increase our production by 30% when the project is completed.”​

The plant being modernized has been in use since the 1960s and is located near another Cargill facility that continues the processing of most of the soybean oil it produces, official said.

The related facility recently finished a $10m product line expansion, they added.

Kansas soy​

Kansas planted about 4m acres of soybean in 2014 and harvested about 3.96m acres that year, said officials with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

This year saw about 3.7m acres planted and it is expected that around 3.65m acres of that will be harvested.

While Kansas is not the largest state producer of soybeans, it is among the top in terms of harvested amounts, officials added. ​