Land O'Lakes, Inc., Arden Hills, Minn., completed its previously announced acquisition of Ceres, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Ceres will become part of Land O'Lakes' forage business unit currently comprised of Forage Genetics International (FGI). The transaction brings new advanced plant breeding and biotechnology to FGI's research and development pipeline, creates the potential to bring new forage traits to market faster and places the business in position to expand the portfolio to become a holistic forage provider.

FGI maintains significant expertise in field testing, product development and regulatory approval of traits. Ceres has excelled in the discovery and laboratory testing of new forage traits.