BUSHELS OF TROUBLE

A group of Midwest farmers claim a grain buyer with two large elevators in Indiana steered them into complicated and fraudulent marketing contracts.

- Dan Looker

Most farmers trust their local elevator’s grain buyer. Most of the time, they can.

But a group of farmers in Indiana and Ohio argues that trust was a costly mistake, according to ongoing legal action taken against the buyer and his employer, the now defunct firm of Central States Enterprises (CSE), operating in New Haven and Montpelier, Indiana. CSE was a Florida-based business, with two large grain elevators in northern Indiana.

In February 2025, 20 farmers sought to join what could be a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, accusing CSE and its vice president of operations, Larry Shepherd, of putting the farmers into complicated marketing contracts to make up for Shepherd’s losses from speculating in commodity futures. Their complaint alleges that 80% of the marketing contracts weren’t signed by both the farmers and CSE. It also alleges the farmers were unaware of fraudulent contracts or were misled into believing they could opt out.

From Floods to Financial Fallout

The problems began in a soggy spring in 2019, when rains and flooding led to prevented planting in fields of corn, soybeans, and wheat. About a fifth of acres in parts of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan went unplanted, the USDA estimated.

Price volatility followed. The lawsuit alleges that Shepherd began speculating in CBOT futures and he placed growers into accumulator contracts to offset his losses. An accumulator is a type of forward contract that requires the farmer to deliver increasing amounts of grain as prices rise. (More on how accumulator contracts work on the following pages.)

As prices rose, the amount of grain growers had to contractually deliver increased under the accumulator contracts. Almost two dozen farmers weren’t able to meet their obligation, according to John Schwarz II, an attorney representing the farmers.