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Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits
 6 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2022
Defined Benefit Plans and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans Disclosures [Abstract]  
Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure PENSION AND OTHER POSTRETIREMENT BENEFITS
Pension and Postretirement Health Benefits

The Oil-Dri Corporation of America Pension Plan (“Pension Plan”) is a defined benefit pension plan for eligible salaried and hourly employees. Pension benefits are based on a formula of years of credited service and levels of compensation or stated amounts for each year of credited service. On January 9, 2020, we amended the Pension Plan to freeze participation, all future benefit accruals and accrual of benefit service, including consideration of compensation increases, effective March 1, 2020. Consequently, the Pension Plan is closed to new participants and current participants no longer earn additional benefits on or after March 1, 2020. On May 4, 2021, we purchased a pension annuity which settled $8.5 million of projected benefit obligations and recognized a settlement loss of approximately $0.6 million due to the annuity purchase.     

The components of net periodic pension and postretirement health benefit costs were as follows:

Pension Benefits
 (in thousands)
 For the Three Months Ended January 31,For the Six Months Ended January 31,
 2022202120222021
Interest cost$266 $583 $534 $583 
Expected return on plan assets(646)(1,444)(1,293)(1,444)
Amortization of:
  Other actuarial loss35 265 72 435 
Net periodic benefit cost$(345)$(596)$(687)$(426)
Postretirement Health Benefits
 (in thousands)
 For the Three Months Ended January 31,For the Six Months Ended January 31,
 2022202120222021
Service cost$28 $34 $61 $69 
Interest cost13 12 29 25 
Amortization of:
  Other actuarial loss— 2 — 2 
  Prior service costs(2)(2)(3)(3)
Net periodic benefit cost$39 $46 $87 $93 

The non-service cost components of net periodic benefit cost are included in Other Income (Expense) in the line item Other, net on the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income.

The Pension Plan is funded based upon actuarially determined contributions that take into account the amount deductible for income tax purposes, the normal cost and the minimum contribution required and the maximum contribution allowed under applicable regulations. We were not required to make, and did not voluntarily make, a contribution to the Pension Plan during the first six months of fiscal year 2022. We have no minimum funding requirements for the remainder of fiscal year 2022.
The postretirement health plan is an unfunded plan. We pay insurance premiums and claims from our assets.
Assumptions used in the previous calculations were as follows:
    
 Pension BenefitsPostretirement Health Benefits
 For the Three and Six Months Ended January 31,
 2022202120222021
Discount rate for net periodic benefit cost2.57 %2.14 %2.10 %1.63 %
Rate of increase in compensation levels— %— %— — 
Long-term expected rate of return on assets6.50 %6.50 %— — 

The medical cost trend assumption for postretirement health benefits was 7.05%. The graded trend rate is expected to decrease to an ultimate rate of 4.50% in fiscal year 2038.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

The Oil-Dri Corporation of America Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“SERP”) provided certain retired participants in the Pension Plan with the amount of benefits that would have been provided under the Pension Plan but for: (1) the limitations on benefits imposed by Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) and/or (2) the limitation on compensation for purposes of calculating benefits under the Pension Plan imposed by Section 401(a)(17) of the Code. The SERP liability was actuarially determined at the end of each fiscal year using assumptions similar to those used for the Pension Plan.
On January 9, 2020, we amended the SERP to freeze participation and any excess benefit, supplemental benefit or additional benefit effective March 1, 2020. Consequently, the SERP was closed to new participants and current participants no longer earned additional benefits on or after March 1, 2020. The SERP was terminated effective June 30, 2020 and all participants were paid in the form of one lump sum in July 2021.