CHS Plans $700 Million Wisconsin Soybean Plant With 80 Million Bushel Capacity

CHS plans to invest approximately $700 million in a new soybean processing facility near Evansville, Wisconsin. The farmer owned cooperative says the plant will be able to process 80 million bushels of United States grown soybeans each year, creating a significant new outlet for crops produced in the Upper Midwest.

The project remains a plan rather than an operating asset. CHS announced it on September 14, 2026, said construction was expected to begin in the following weeks, and set a target of fall 2028 for completion. Those dates depend on the normal approvals, engineering work, construction execution and market conditions that accompany a project of this size.

At full operation, CHS expects annual output of about 1 billion pounds of soybean oil and 2 million tons of soybean meal. The company also expects roughly 80 permanent jobs, with additional contractor and skilled trade work during construction.

The scale matters because the plant would expand the cooperative's soybean processing capacity by more than two thirds. CHS currently processes about 119 million bushels of soybeans at facilities in Fairmont and Mankato, Minnesota, so Evansville would materially enlarge its oilseed network rather than simply replace existing production.

Location is central to the economics. Southern Wisconsin combines soybean production with demand for meal from livestock operations, while rail links and major road corridors can move meal and oil to domestic customers and export channels. A nearby processor can also give growers another marketing option and reduce the distance some crops travel before crushing.

The planned output serves several markets. Soybean meal is primarily a protein ingredient for animal feed, while soybean oil can move into food manufacturing and renewable fuel supply chains. CHS has not disclosed how the future plant's output will be divided among those uses, so any final product mix will depend on customer contracts and market conditions.

The headline capacity should therefore be treated as a design target, not guaranteed production. CHS itself identifies project approvals, funding, engineering, commodity prices, trade policy and demand conditions among the factors that could change the schedule or expected benefits before the facility opens.

If delivered on the stated timetable, the Evansville plant would add a large new conversion point between Midwest soybean farms and food, feed and fuel buyers. Its commercial importance lies in both the extra crushing volume and the greater competition it could create for regional soybeans.