Cargill Inc. said the 1029 Poland Center Road location will shut its doors by Nov. 29. The company — an agriculture, food and financial services provider — said seven employees will be affected, though Tim Decker, manager of the Kennedy plant, said the workers will have the chance to find employment elsewhere at Cargill.

In a news release Tuesday, Cargill officials said customers will continue to be served through other feed mills.

“In an effort to streamline operations and better serve customers more efficiently and effectively in the northeast market, Cargill has made the decision to close its Jamestown, N.Y., animal feed manufacturing facility effective November 29, 2019, and will service customers out of other Cargill feed mills going forward,” the company said. “Cargill will work with existing customers throughout this transition to ensure they receive products and services without disruptions. The Jamestown facility closure will affect approximately seven positions; where possible and appropriate Cargill is working with employees to identify potential employment opportunities at other operational sites.”

Some of Cargill’s major businesses are trading, purchasing and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, such as palm oil; trading in energy, steel and transport; the raising of livestock and production of feed; and producing food ingredients such as starch and glucose syrup, vegetable oils and fats for application in processed foods and industrial use.

Agway pictured in June 1974 shortly before an open house to celebrate the new feed mill. P-J file photo

Cargill Animal Nutrition finalized the purchase of Agway Inc.’s Feed and Nutrition unit in March 2004. At the time, Agway had feed mills in the town of Poland and Batavia, as well as three other sites in New York and three more in Pennsylvania.

Plans for the Kennedy plant were announced in late 1972. Agway, an agricultural business that offers feed for livestock and poultry as well as seed, fertilizers and herbicides, announced in the early ’70s that the location would be the 23rd regional plant in the cooperative’s feed distribution.

In a Dec. 15, 1972, story in The Post-Journal, feed plants were described as being “compact, highly automated units located in key farming areas to facilitate direct delivery of feed to farms within economical trucking distance.”

Between 1971 and 1972, Agway’s feed plants produced more than 2 million tons of formula feeds and feed ingredients.

Following construction on 52 acres on Poland Center Road, the Kennedy plant held an open house in June 1974. It was built along the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, which has allowed the delivery of feed ingredients to the facility.

The plant is located not far from Interstate 86, which was being built around the same time in the mid-1970s. The iconic Agway lettering on the side of its building — now spelling Cargill — has long been visible to motorists on the interstate.

When it first opened, the plant employed 25 workers in two shifts. The facility was projected to produce 115,000 tons of dairy, poultry and other feeds a year.

The plant was necessary at the time as Agway hoped to build regional feed plants as more farmers switched from buying bagged to bulk feed.

The Kennedy plant is also notable for being the first major project aided by the then-new Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency. As part of a $1.95 million agreement, Agway opted to deed the property to the IDA and rent it back at a fee. The 20-year lease agreement allowed Agway the option of buying the facility at the end of that time.