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Farmer-owned supply co-operative AtlasFram Group has announced its best ever results for the last financial year.

The Group’s financial reserves rose to a record £2.5m for the year to 30 June 2011 on turnover that was 21% higher at £168m.

All divisions recorded increased volume as its 1060 members bought more through the co-operative, although the livestock and energy supplies departments performed particularly well.

The formal alliance with ADM Direct also proved successful, giving AtlasFram’s grain marketing department a significant boost.

Richard Anscombe, chief executive said: “The UK is now just a small part of a truly global marketplace and our domestic agricultural sector is becoming less important to increasingly-large international suppliers and end-customers.

“To remain competitive, farmers will have to work together more closely through a strong, stable cooperative which purchases the inputs they require, achieves the best returns for their combinable crops and provides impartial advice to enable them to operate more profitably.”

Gleadell Agriculture has announced it is to buy the specialist pea and bean seed company Dunns (Long Sutton) Ltd.

The company said it had reached “agreement in principle” to buy the holding company of Dunns, Tabmellow Ltd, subject to the necessary legal procedures and expected the deal to be completed within the next three months.

"The companies have traded together for over ten years and see clear benefits for Dunns from the support provided by Gleadell’s shareholders Toepfer International and Invivo,” a Gleadell statement said.

“In addition, Dunns’ expertise in both the seed and pulse sectors will provide good synergy alongside Gleadell’s international export pulse trading activities and growing seed business."

Yorkshire based specialist agronomy business Phoenix Agronomy has joined Frontier Agriculture.

Wetherby based Phoenix has annual sales of £8m and will remain an independently managed division of Frontier, headed by current directors Paul Power, Nigel Foster and Charles Dunford.

This latest move continues Frontier’s growth through acquisition - the company already has 85 agronomists and brought Turriff based Grampian Crop Services into its portfolio on 1 March this year as a trading division. It also bought the precision fertiliser application business SOYL in 2009.