Key transactions & industry newsWeekly Update 10/16/2026

Oct 14, 2026 – Ara Partners, a global private equity and infrastructure firm focused on the energy and industrial transition, announced that it has acquired a majority interest in Pacific Ag, North America’s largest crop residue supply and logistics company. The acquisition builds on Ara Infrastructure’s waste-to-value strategy and enables Pacific Ag to continue expanding its leading position in the agricultural supply chain. (PRNewswire)

Ara Partners’ acquisition of a majority interest in Pacific Ag through its infrastructure strategy brings institutional capital into a niche but essential piece of the U.S. agricultural supply chain, the collection and redistribution of crop residue such as corn stover and wheat straw left in fields after grain harvest. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Ag now serves farmers and customers in more than 30 states alongside its affiliate Reinert Hay Company, removing excess residue that growers would otherwise pay to manage through tilling, removal, and nutrient management, and converting it into feedstock sold to dairies, animal protein producers, and mushroom farmers who use it as a growing medium. The business model works because of the physical network behind it, with Pacific Ag operating a national harvesting fleet, storage, and logistics infrastructure that collects material directly from the field and delivers it to downstream customers, a capability that took nearly three decades and a series of regional acquisitions to assemble. That is the framing Ara is using to justify an infrastructure classification for what is, on the surface, an agricultural services company, pointing to the scale of the network, differentiated access to essential end markets, and long-standing relationships with both growers and customers that are difficult for a new entrant to replicate. The deal fits within Ara Infrastructure’s waste-to-value strategy, and with roughly $10.6B in assets under management across private equity, infrastructure, and energy, Ara brings the capital to extend Pacific Ag’s footprint to more farms nationally and to build out decarbonization-related end markets that the company has identified as a growing part of its customer base.