Kansas City, Mo ? Farmland Industries has been given another four months to come up with a bankruptcy reorganization plan.

The extension was the second U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry W. Venters has given Farmland, the nation’s largest agriculture cooperative, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 31. With no objections from creditors, Venters agreed Tuesday to give Kansas City, Mo.-based Farmland until March 27 to file the plan regarding how the cooperative would organize itself to successfully emerge from bankruptcy.

In September, Venters extended Farmland’s original deadline from Sept. 27 to Nov. 27, in line with a provision of the cooperative’s agreement with its banks.

Attorneys for the banks and Farmland said Tuesday that they were working on an extension of that agreement, and Venters set a Nov. 26 hearing to consider that extension.

If an agreement cannot be worked out with its banks, Farmland will have to file its reorganization plan or find other banks to finance it while it continues to work through bankruptcy court.

As of July 31, the Farmland businesses that are part of the bankruptcy listed assets of $1.47 billion and liabilities of $1.67 billion.

Though Farmland has not filed a plan, the company has announced that it will sell its fertilizer business, and suggested that it intended to rebuild the company around its meat businesses. A flagging fertilizer market the last several years contributed substantially to Farmland’s financial morass.

Farmland has a nitrogen fertilizer plant in Lawrence that has been closed since May 2001.