The Ohio AgriBusiness Association is pleased to feature our Sustaining Sponsors in the 2026 Spotlight Series. This week, the focus is on Platinum Sponsor: Heritage Cooperative, Inc.
Location (Main Headquarters): 59 Greif Parkway, Delaware, OH 43015
Year established: 2009 (our legacy in Ohio agriculture dates back more than 100 years, to 1919)
Number of locations: More than 60 locations across Ohio
Number of employees: More than 530
We are a farmer-owned agricultural cooperative based in Delaware, Ohio, serving more than 5,000 members and 15,000 customers across the state. We bring grain, agronomy, energy, animal nutrition, and retail under one roof so our members can run more of their operation through partners they own and trust. Everything we do starts from a single idea: when our members succeed, we succeed.
We work across five connected businesses:
What makes your company unique? We are owned by the farmers we serve, governed by an 11-member board of grower-directors elected across four regions. That ownership changes how we make decisions: we invest for our members' long-term success, not a quarterly number. We are also one of the few cooperatives in the state that can take a member from seed in the ground to grain off the field, with energy, feed, and retail in between, all backed by our own agronomic research and ROI-focused recommendations rather than a one-size-fits-all sell. And we are one of the nation's larger cooperatives, regularly recognized on the NCB Co-op 100 list of leading cooperatives.
Our roots run more than a century deep. The Farmers Commission Company, originally the U.S. Commission Company, was established in 1919, and the Champaign Farm Bureau Service Company, later Champaign Landmark, Inc., began in 1932. In 2009 those two organizations consolidated to form Heritage Cooperative. We kept building from there.
We started with deep strength in agronomy and grain across western Ohio. The 2017 merger with Agland Co-op extended our reach into central and eastern Ohio and grew our energy business. In 2022 we acquired Witmer's Feed and Grain, which expanded our feed footprint across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, and Maryland and grew the specialty feed lines we still carry today, including Edge and Show It. Through all of it, our growth has been about diversifying what we offer so we can steady our members against risk and serve more of their operation, not just getting bigger for its own sake. Alongside the expansion, we have invested heavily in technology and facilities, from the Heritage Portal to modernized grain and agronomy sites.
What’s next for your company? We recently announced an $11 million state-of-the-art agronomy facility in Upper Sandusky, consolidating two Wyandot County locations into one modern 27-acre operation, expected to be fully operational by fall 2027. It will speed up fertilizer blending, seed treatment, and crop protection delivery, and it includes an H-Plot research area for product trials and grower outreach. Beyond that project, we are continuing to expand the Heritage Portal so members can manage more of their grain business from anywhere, modernizing facilities across our footprint, and growing our feed and nutrition business. The throughline is the same as always: invest where it helps our members win.
How has OABA membership benefited your company or the agribusiness industry? OABA keeps our people sharp and our industry's voice strong. Their training, certification programs, and workforce development help us build and retain skilled employees, from agronomists to custom applicators, and their advocacy at the statehouse protects the conditions Ohio agribusinesses need to operate and grow. For a cooperative our size, that combination of professional development and policy advocacy is hard to replicate on our own.
What is one reason you would encourage others to become an OABA member? OABA is the connective tissue of Ohio agribusiness. Whether you are a single location or a statewide operation, membership plugs you into the training, advocacy, and relationships that move the whole industry forward, and it gives you a seat at the table on the issues that affect your business..
Ask anyone here and they will tell you the cooperative is really its people. Across our roughly 600 employees, our team brings over 4,100 years of combined experience serving Ohio agriculture, including Sherry Johnson, our longest-tenured teammate, who has been with us for almost 52 years. That depth, built over decades of working with the same families and farms, is what members are really counting on when they call on us.
Community is part of how we operate, not a side project. We support the Ohio FFA Foundation, Ohio Farm Bureau's Cultivating a Cure, and local 4-H and FFA junior fairs across our footprint. We helped found Fueling the Cure in 2009, a cancer-research effort that unites Ohio cooperatives to donate a dollar for every bulk propane delivery stop, now totaling more than $2 million for research at Ohio State and The James. We also pursue nutrient stewardship through the industry's 4R program. More than a century in, we are still doing the same job: helping Ohio farmers and their communities succeed, and reinvesting in the places we call home.
Click here to learn more about the program or contact Lauren Prettyman at lprettyman@oaba.net. Sustaining sponsors will automatically be promoted as such at all OABA events and will not be approached for sponsorship opportunities throughout the year.
Note that because the OABA Educational Trust is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, sponsorships related to this trust are separate from OABA.