Employee Benefit Plans

9 Months Ended

Apr. 30, 2011

Employee Benefit Plans

Employee Benefit Plans

Note K – Employee Benefit Plans

          The Company and certain of its international subsidiaries have defined benefit pension plans for many of their hourly and salaried employees. There are two types of domestic plans. The first type of domestic plan is a traditional defined benefit pension plan primarily for production employees. The second is a plan for salaried workers that provides defined benefits pursuant to a cash balance feature whereby a participant accumulates a benefit comprised of a percentage of current salary that varies with years of service, interest credits, and transition credits. The international plans generally provide pension benefits based on years of service and compensation level.

          Net periodic pension costs for the Company's pension plans include the following components (thousands of dollars):

	Three Months Ended April 30,						Nine Months Ended April 30,
	2011			2010			2011			2010
Net periodic cost:
Service cost	$	4,077		$	3,265		$	12,151		$	9,903
Interest cost		4,872			4,831			14,533			14,676
Expected return on assets		(6,920	)		(7,069	)		(20,616	)		(21,382	)
Transition amount amortization		58			56			167			175
Prior service cost amortization		119			73			347			221
Actuarial loss amortization		839			707			2,491			2,171
Net periodic benefit cost	$	3,045		$	1,863		$	9,073		$	5,764

          The Company's general funding policy for its pension plans is to make at least the minimum contributions as required by applicable regulations. Additionally, the Company may elect to make additional contributions up to the maximum tax deductible contribution. For the nine months ended April 30, 2011, the Company made contributions of $5.5 million to its non-U.S. pension plans and a discretionary contribution of $20.0 million to its U.S. pension plans. The Company does not currently plan to make any additional contributions to its U.S. pension plans in Fiscal 2011. The Company currently estimates that it will contribute up to an additional $1.0 million to its non-U.S. pension plans during the remainder of Fiscal 2011.