CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, US — Following soft results earlier in the fiscal year, profits at Ardent Mills LLC rallied strongly in the third quarter ended Feb. 28, according to a filing April 8 with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Conagra Brands, Inc., Chicago.

In the quarterly Form 10-Q, Conagra, which owns 44% of Denver, Colorado, US-based Ardent Mills, said its equity method investment earnings were $21.5 million, up 107% from $10.4 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Excluding special items in the year-earlier period associated with the sale of an asset by Ardent Mills, the fiscal 2021 third-quarter earnings were up 95% from the year before.

Conagra attributed the strong third-quarter results for fiscal 2021 to “favorable market conditions.”

For the first three quarters of fiscal 2021, Conagra equity method investment earnings were $51 million, up 1.4% from $50.3 million the year before. Excluding special items in the fiscal 2020 results, year-to-date earnings in fiscal 2021 were up 11%. Through the first two quarters in the current fiscal year, Conagra’s equity investment earnings were down 26% from the same period in fiscal 2020, down 16% excluding special items.