A $27 million expansion at West Central Cooperative’s soybean processing facility in Ralston will create greater demand and higher prices for soybean growers in west-central Iowa, company officials said last week.

The expansion will increase the co-op’s soybean processing capacity by 50 percent, creating demand for an additional 6 million bushels of soybeans each year, said Mark Cullen, West Central’s ex­­ecutive vice president of animal nutrition.

"Our current plant has been running at capacity for over a year," ...