Inver Grove Heignts-based CHS Inc., the country's largest cooperative, announced Monday that it has named Monsanto's chief financial officer, Carl Casale, as its new chief executive officer.

Casale will succeed John Johnson, CHS's veteran chief executive who announced in June that he would retire at the end of the year.

Casale, 49, joined St. Louis-based Monsanto in 1984 as a sales representative and worked his way up through a variety of positions, becoming chief financial officer in September 2009. He has a B.S. degree in agricultural economics from Oregon State University and an executive M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.

CHS is involved in the grain trade and the food, fertilizer and energy businesses. Itincludes 1,000 member cooperatives and at least 50,000 individual farmers.

MIKE HUGHLETT