2021 ANNUAL REPORT
DEAR STAKEHOLDERS, 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of Land O’Lakes, Inc. In 1921, a group of Midwest farmers joined forces to create new market opportunities. They were pillars of their communities and they looked out for one another. Their shared success was foundational to the cooperative. One hundred years later, much in the world has changed but those primary tenets have not. In a year where many organizations struggled to adapt to the evolving landscape and the continuation of a global health crisis, our system was up to the challenge. From a financial perspective, in 2021, Land O’Lakes delivered net earnings of $295 million with net sales of $16 billion. We expect this year’s earnings will deliver roughly $177 million in cash to members in 2022, subject to approval by our Board of Directors. This strong financial performance allowed us to reinvest in the cooperative and secure solid financial footing for the future. In the Dairy Foods business, we were able to keep our plants operating and receiving milk despite continued COVID-19 and supply chain impacts. Building on strong customer relationships, we were able to ship and transport when many of our competitors could not. While increased ingredient costs and margin challenges were difficult to navigate in Animal Nutrition, the business delivered sales growth, innovation and great customer relationships as we supported the refresh of some of our retailer locations. WinField United had an incredible year as we shifted to a services model, partnering with Truterra to help growers put their data to work to get the most profitable and most sustainable yields. We also continued to use our influence as a full Land O’Lakes enterprise to make an impact as a force for good in our communities and for our planet. Our American Connection Project convened multiple committed stakeholders and partners to bridge the digital divide. This year, the project added the American Connection Corps, which placed 50 Fellows into rural communities to boost local internet connectivity and the benefits it provides. Along with many others, we were excited to see the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) providing $65 billion in funding for broadband. As we help ensure a healthy planet, Truterra had a breakthrough year with the launch of their first carbon program. After launching our inaugural Truterra carbon program in February 2021, we saw a very strong response from thousands of farmers across the U.S. who were interested in working with Truterra and our network of ag retailers. We were able to deliver more than $4 million in cash payments to farmers for sequestering nearly 200,000 metric tons of carbon. Truterra’s 2021 carbon program was designed to be the most farmer-favorable on the market that generates carbon assets. We believe the Land O’Lakes, Inc. enterprise is most successful when everything we do supports member success. We truly strive to put farmers and retailers at the heart of creating a better world for all of us.
Beth Ford, President and CEO
Rick Brand, Chairman of the Board
TABLE OF CONTENTS LAND O’LAKES, INC. ANNUAL REPORT – 2021
BY THE NUMBERS SCORECARD & ROOTED IN TOMORROW
03
02
01 06
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
12
VIBRANT RURAL COMMUNITIES
18
Capitalizing on Carbon Markets
13
The Power of Connecting—and Convening
19
By the Numbers Scorecard
06
A Long-Term Commitment and Immediate Action
14
Giving Back to the Communities We Call Home
20
Rooted in Tomorrow
08
Reducing Waste—and Creating a Place to Sit— Through the Tub Recycling Program
15
When Disasters Strike, We Come Together
21
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
22
04
06
05
Working Together to Overcome Supply Chain Disruptions
27
Animal Nutrition
34
BOARD OF DIRECTORS & EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM
Supporting a Reliable Food Supply Around the Globe
28
Dairy Foods
35
Board of Directors
40
Innovating to Impact Certainty, Profitability
29
Crop Inputs
36
Executive Leadership Team
42
Truterra
37
SAFE & PLENTIFUL FOOD SUPPLY
and Sustainability
26
A STRONG ENTERPRISE
32
40
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COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION
COMMUNITY
2021
2021 BY THE NUMBERS
BY THE NUMBERS | LAND O’LAKES, INC.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
IMPACT
$295 million
$16 billion Net Sales
Net Earnings
$157 million
$175 million
Cash to Members
Section 199A Pass-Through
BUSINESS UNIT PERFORMANCE
$41M
Animal Nutrition Pretax Earnings
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$218M
Crop Inputs Pretax Earnings
$46M
Dairy Food Pretax Earnings
100
Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index Score
MEMBERSHIP
175
Members of the American Connection Project Policy Coalition
29
50
Sites of Rural Broadband Expansion in Partnership with Retail–Owners
American Connection Corps Fellows in Thirteen States Through Lead For America
$3M
23,960
Member Match Contributions
Employee Volunteer Hours
902
RETAILER OWNERS
1,565 DAIRY MEMBERS
651
AG PRODUCERS
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RO OTED IN TOMORROW
ROOTED IN TOMORROW Land O’Lakes, Inc. is a 100-year-old farmer- and retailer-owned cooperative originally formed with the purpose of working together to create new market opportunities. Fast forward to today and we’ve built on that uniting spirit, developing a comprehensive and leading view of agriculture while maintaining an unwavering commitment to delivering strong annual performance and long-term, shared success with our member-owners. Land O’Lakes believes farmers are the entrepreneurs who truly change the world for the better. By working together with our member-owners, we can continue to strengthen our system, champion farming’s true potential and place our farmer- and retail-owners at the heart of creating a better world for all.
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™
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES Helping farmers and retailers create a better world for all means advocating for a future where agriculture helps solve the world’s most pressing issues. The agricultural transformations we create today are aimed at generating a more sustainable future and we believe our cooperative ecosystem is uniquely positioned to lead the charge. We have the ability to drive on-farm sustainability and help create new revenue opportunities because of our system’s longstanding position as the farmer’s trusted advisor and our enterprise’s deep-seated relationships with stakeholders in a variety of industries.
CAPITALIZING ON CARBON MARKETS In recent years, we have seen growing enthusiasm for the critical role farmers and ranchers play in helping to mitigate and offset the impacts of climate change. We believe farmers are central to a low-carbon future, and agriculture is in a unique position to provide a source for negative emissions, in comparison to other sectors. After launching our inaugural Truterra™ carbon program in February 2021, we saw a very strong response from thousands of farmers from across the U.S. who were interested in working with Truterra and our network of ag retailers. After qualifying a select group of growers
from the survey responses, we were able to deliver more than $4 million in cash payments to farmers for sequestering nearly 200,000 metric tons of carbon. Now we’re anticipating growing demand for soil carbon assets from additional buyers, so it’s important we capitalize on this demand by cultivating relationships with a spectrum of farmers. We are proud to be an early leader in the agricultural sector focusing on improving adaptation and mitigation resources for farmers. Tapping into our trusted brand reputation and putting the farmer and their economic viability in the driver’s seat has allowed us to be ahead of the curve.
AGRICULTURE IS IN A UNIQUE POSITION TO PROVIDE A SOURCE FOR NEGATIVE EMISSIONS, IN COMPARISON TO OTHER SECTORS.
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SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
A LONG-TERM COMMITMENT AND IMMEDIATE ACTION We know, as a farmer- and retailer-owned cooperative, we need to do our part to protect the environment for future generations. That is why we launched our Dairy 2025 Commitment, which will keep our dairy farmer members at the forefront of animal care and establish sustainability benchmarks that will guide measurable improvements. Our Dairy 2025 Commitment calls for us to work with each of our dairy member-owners to complete an intensive, industry-leading on-farm sustainability assessment aligned with the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment. It’s a large-scale measurement project intended to yield more than 250 data points per farm. So far, 48% of our dairy members and 74% of our milk supply have completed an assessment and
are working on continual improvement practices. In addition to this commitment to measurement, Land O’Lakes also launched projects with customers including The Hershey Company to drive more immediate results. Through this project, The Hershey Company committed $300,000 to support the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and Land O’Lakes in installing agricultural conservation practices on 119 Land O’Lakes member dairy farms that supply milk to Hershey. Together with our farmer-owners, Land O’Lakes is stepping into the climate change conversation to create workable solutions for farmers, customers and consumers.
REDUCING WASTE—AND CREATING A PLACE TO SIT—THROUGH THE TUB RECYCLING PROGRAM There’s only so much farmers and ranchers can do with plastic feed tubs after their cattle have licked them clean. Some might use them for storage or planters but, for the most part, they are stacked, buried or burned. To put this into perspective, every year, U.S. ranchers and ag retailers struggle to dispose of roughly 7.6 million empty plastic feed tubs produced by the feed industry. The Purina Tub Recycling Program—which originally launched in 2019 and expanded in 2021—provides customers with discounts on new feed tubs if they bring back any old tubs to be recycled. We accept any tub,
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including those from competitors. Following these dropoff events, collected tubs are then sent to a plastic lumber manufacturer and recycled into eco-friendly, plastic benches. Since 2019, the program has expanded to more than 150 partners in nearly 20 states across the country and continues to grow. At Purina Animal Nutrition, we know whether you’re the supplier, the manufacturer, the cooperative, the rancher or the recycler, you can’t address climate change alone. We hope by working together, an empty tub is just the beginning of something bigger.
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COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES
VIBRANT RURAL COMMUNITIES
VIBRANT RURAL COMMUNITIES Helping farmers and retailers create a better world for all means serving and growing the communities where our employees, members and customers live and work. In rural America, agriculture is the economic engine that keeps towns running smoothly, and we believe the cooperative system fuels the industry and is as important to farmers today as it has ever been. Together with our member-owners, we are committed to using our collective scale and voice to keep rural America a vibrant and healthy place to live, work and grow.
THE POWER OF CONNECTING—AND CONVENING Broadband connectivity is not only a lifeline for health care, education and the economy but also integral to driving adoption of precision ag and other digital tools that support more productive, profitable and sustainable farming operations. Led by Land O’Lakes and fueled by partners across the country, the American Connection Project expanded its work and footprint in 2021.
A major milestone for broadband, the bipartisan infrastructure bill was signed into law in November, in part due to our collective efforts through the American Connection Project Policy Coalition. This law delivers a historic $65 billion investment in broadband and other essential projects including roads and bridges. Now the coalition’s work has evolved to implementation alongside local and federal officials.
In April, we announced a boots-on-the-ground effort, the American Connection Corps, led in conjunction with Lead For America and funded through support from 20 incredible partners. This program partners 50 Fellows with local, public-serving institutions on projects related to connectivity and digital inclusion. Impact to-date from this work includes 14 grant applications pursued, over 2,000 households participating in speed-mapping initiatives and hundreds of households gaining access to high-speed internet.
We’re also working with our member-owners to set up more permanent solutions for their business and their communities by installing highspeed broadband technology on both Land O’Lakes-owned and local ag retailer facilities. Land O’Lakes helped bring online 29 sites with ag retailers to provide fixed wireless internet service in those communities.
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VIBRANT RURAL COMMUNITIES
GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITIES WE CALL HOME Beyond the direct economic impact of our cooperative system, Land O’Lakes and our member-owners also take pride in being philanthropically active in the communities we serve. The Direct Member Match and the Ag Retailer Match programs have long been a hallmark of the Land O’Lakes Foundation, providing investments back into the hometown communities where our member-owners live and work by matching donations dollar-for-dollar.
In 2021, we also celebrated the 11th year of an important partnership—our First Run Program in collaboration with Feeding America®, the nation’s largest domestic hungerrelief organization. While food banks often receive corporate donations of food that is damaged or nearing the end of its shelf life, Land O’Lakes produces product specifically for donation. To date, we’ve donated over 6.4 million pounds of product through First Run.
In 2021, our ag retail owners maxed out the Land O’Lakes Foundation’s Member Match program by October. That means they collectively donated $1.5 million, which the Land O’Lakes Foundation then matched, for a total of $3 million going to causes important to member-owners. From fire departments to school food programs, food shelves and libraries, our memberowners are committed to supporting their communities.
THE DIRECT MEMBER MATCH AND THE AG RETAILER MATCH PROGRAMS HAVE LONG BEEN A HALLMARK OF THE LAND O’LAKES FOUNDATION, PROVIDING INVESTMENTS BACK INTO THE HOMETOWN COMMUNITIES WHERE OUR MEMBER-OWNERS LIVE AND WORK BY MATCHING DONATIONS DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR.
WHEN DISASTERS STRIKE, WE COME TOGETHER Our ownership network touches communities all across the country. Unfortunately, 2021 saw many communities close to our hearts hit by natural disasters. From wildfires to tornadoes to flooding, many communities suffered tragic losses this year. While natural disasters like these leave behind indescribable pain and challenges, the recovery efforts underscore what we as cooperatives do best: come together. In December of 2021, we collaborated with other national cooperatives to provide financial contributions to national, state and local relief efforts that support those impacted by the devastating tornadoes and severe weather that swept through the South and Midwest.
We also supported relief efforts in Tennessee following devastating storms and flooding in August, as well as in Texas following the disastrous winter storms in February. Rural America is where most of our employees at our more than 200 facilities live and work. It’s where our cooperative’s member-owners work to support our nation’s food supply. We’re grateful for the resilience of these communities and will continue to work with our community partners, employees and member-owners to provide support when disasters strike.
FROM WILDFIRES TO TORNADOES TO FLOODING, MANY COMMUNITIES SUFFERED TRAGIC LOSSES THIS YEAR. WHILE NATURAL DISASTERS LIKE THESE LEAVE BEHIND INDESCRIBABLE PAIN AND CHALLENGES, THE RECOVERY EFFORTS UNDERSCORE WHAT WE AS COOPERATIVES DO BEST: COME TOGETHER.
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VIBRANT RURAL COMMUNITIES
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? For National Farmer’s Day, we celebrated our farmerowners through the eyes of an 8-year-old whose dream is to become a farmer. Having grown up in the city, this dream is rare. Inspired by her ambitions, we introduced her to one of our member-owners for her first ever trip to a farm. On our 100th anniversary, it’s farm families like the Piepers at Metogga Lake Dairy, and kids like Holly King, who make us excited for the future and proud to be farmer-owned. SCULPTURE — ROOTED IN TOMORROW ™ In 2021, Land O’Lakes unveiled a commemorative 100th anniversary sculpture at our corporate headquarters, fittingly entitled “Rooted in Tomorrow™.” The bronze sculpture, modeled after an image of a Land O’Lakes member-owner and grandchild “walking the farm,” symbolizes how our cooperative is celebrating a century of innovation and multigenerational relationships. The grandfather and grandchild are a nod to the member-owners, employees and consumers who have helped us thrive for over a century—and how we are looking forward with hope and optimism. (Pictured right)
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SAFE AND PLENTIFUL FOOD SUPPLY
SAFE AND PLENTIFUL FO OD SUPPLY
SAFE AND PLENTIFUL FOOD SUPPLY Helping farmers and retailers create a better world for all means supporting a secure and stable food system that feeds our world and grows the farm economy. Our unique cooperative model allows us to create the connections that innovate the food chain and supercharge agriculture’s potential. Food security is national security, and we are committed to helping our owners feed the world by delivering a comprehensive suite of products and services, and investing in technologies needed to innovate and move us into the future.
WORKING TOGETHER TO OVERCOME SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS Constant headlines about the “supply chain crisis” are impossible to ignore and, given the scope of our cooperative system, we experienced these disruptions from a number of angles. On the dairy side of our business, our biggest suppliers are our dairy memberowners. We work closely with these farmers to maintain an accurate picture of their production and proactively navigate potential challenges. When it came to stocking shelves for the holidays, we worked with retailers throughout the busy season to
help accommodate the demand. Our teams made sure shipments started earlier and were more efficient to help get product where it needed to be. On the ag side, WinField United avoided disruptions by making sure its supply chain system is digitalized with standardized processes for forecasting, ordering and tracking product. The work paid off because WinField United was able to help ensure our owners had available product when they needed it, while getting it to them using a fraction of the shipments.
OUR TEAMS MADE SURE SHIPMENTS STARTED EARLIER AND WERE MORE EFFICIENT TO HELP GET PRODUCT WHERE IT NEEDED TO BE.
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SAFE AND PLENTIFUL FO OD SUPPLY
SUPPORTING A RELIABLE FOOD SUPPLY AROUND THE GLOBE As Land O’Lakes celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021, Land O’Lakes Venture37 also observed its 40th year of global development work. Since 1981, Venture37 has implemented agricultural development projects in more than 80 countries to deliver integrated solutions that help communities thrive through agriculture. In 2021, Venture37 continued to serve people through 17 projects in 13 countries during a historically difficult year, helping smallholder farmers and small to mediumsized agribusinesses boost trade and access new markets, while contributing to a safer and more reliable food supply. In Lebanon, during one of the most severe economic crises since the mid-nineteenth century, the USAID-funded Lebanon Investment in Quality (LINQ) program, implemented by Venture37, worked to help agribusinesses and spur economic growth. As skyrocketing inflation and civil unrest impact farmers and other businesses, LINQ is helping improve food quality and
safety, creating employment and income opportunities and improving women’s participation in the agri-food sector. Through the USDA Transforming the Assessment and Inspection of Food Businesses (TAIB) program in Egypt, Venture37 worked in close collaboration with Egypt’s National Food Safety Authority (NFSA) and other national food stakeholders to help ensure a successful, modern and science-based food safety system. For example, Venture37 provided workforce trainings for NFSA’s inspectorate and helped create 11 new standards and regulations that are increasing trade and food safety within and beyond Egypt’s borders.
AS LAND O’LAKES CELEBRATED ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2021, LAND O’LAKES VENTURE37 ALSO OBSERVED ITS 40TH YEAR OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT WORK.
INNOVATING TO IMPACT CERTAINTY, PROFITABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
FPO
WE’RE CREATING AND SHAPING NEW MARKETS TO PROVIDE OUR SYSTEM WITH THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE ADDITIONAL REVENUE STREAMS THROUGH PREMIUM INGREDIENT SALES AND FARMING’S NEW DOUBLE CROP: CARBON. Throughout our system, we’re all about helping farmers have the most profitable season possible. We’re uniquely positioned to help farmers’ bottom line at each stage of the growing season through our expansive data, insights and new services platform. At the season’s outset, WinField United’s SECURE financing is a low-interest alternative financing program where we’re working with about 4,000 farmers through 125 retail owners. In 2021, we secured $700 million in loan commitments and $440 million in loan disbursements. In season, the WinField United
Advanced Acre® Rx program is an agronomic prescription service. If farmers follow their customized plans and yields don’t exceed their approved Actual Production History (APH) yield triggers, WinField United covers the cost of services and some input costs via a warranty payment. In its first full season, we had 223 growers and 126,000 acres enrolled with plans to expand in the years ahead. Then at harvest, we’re creating and shaping new markets to provide our system with the potential to generate additional revenue streams through premium ingredient sales and farming’s new double crop: carbon. In 2021 alone, Truterra returned nearly $4 million to U.S. farmers with its inaugural carbon offset program.
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COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION
COMMUNITY
A STRONG ENTERPRISE
A STRONG ENTERPRISE ANIMAL NUTRITION | DAIRY FOODS | CROP INPUTS | TRUTERRA Operating as a cooperative demands we work together with our member-owners toward a common goal. That spirit ignites Land O’ Lakes’ passion for creating something unique and value-driven, since our decisions directly impact our member-owners. Today, our system strength is bolstered through our four diversified agribusinesses, each driven by innovation and a commitment to delivering products, services, business solutions and partnerships.
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A STRONG ENTERPRISE
ANIMAL NUTRITION
DAIRY FOODS
Tractor Supply Company 2021 Vendor Partner of the Year: Purina Animal Nutrition
Our Dairy 2025 Commitment We introduced our Dairy 2025 Commitment to keep our dairy farmermembers at the forefront of animal care and establish sustainability benchmarks to help guide measurable improvements. In addition, we are working on several projects with customers to drive more immediate results. For example, we started a project to increase the use of cover crops among our member-owners who ship milk to Bel Brands’ facilities. We are also working with The Hershey Company and The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to implement best practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and other regional watersheds.
Tractor Supply Company (TSC), the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the United States, recognized Purina Animal Nutrition as its Vendor Partner of the Year at its annual partnership conference in July. This award goes to companies for their “incredible dedication, partnership and relentless focus in providing the products needed to support the individual lifestyle of Tractor Supply’s customers.” Purina was honored for being instrumental in TSC’s growth and success during the continuing pandemic and meeting the unprecedented demand.
Igniting Growth + Animal Nutrition: Driving Growth in Big Ways Animal Nutrition’s Retail Performance Specialist and Farm Production Consultant Igniting Growth programs generated impressive results in 2021. The Retail Performance Specialist program, which is responsible for driving in-store retail growth, accounted for more than 400 selling events that yielded over 20,000 tons of growth. Likewise, the Farm Production Consultant program, which focused on driving sales at the farm gate and capitalizing on our retailers’ strengths in consultation and service, drove more than 32,000 tons of sales growth in 2021.
ProTrition, LLC: Joining Forces to Feed Greatness In 2021, Purina Animal Nutrition and Tennessee Farmers Cooperative (TFC) announced the formation of ProTrition, LLC, a joint venture supplying feed, premixes, minerals, pet food and other nutritional and animal health products in Tennessee and Kentucky. This brought together Purina and TFC’s shared resources and feed manufacturing capabilities, allowing us to better provide for our customers in a key region of the country. We are excited about this partnership and the growth we will achieve together.
Consumers ‘Flocked’ to Operation Fresh Egg The pandemic led to the emergence of a very loyal group of flock owners, and in recognition we asked customers to join us in donating eggs to others in their communities through #OperationFreshEgg. The campaign drove brand loyalty and spread kindness by bringing the flock community together, creating moments that celebrated the positive impact of fresh eggs. Through the campaign, over 355 dozen eggs were shared and social media impressions exceeded 1 million.
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Eat It Like You Own It ™ ™
As Land O’Lakes celebrated 100 years, the Dairy Foods retail brands announced a new agency of record and advertising campaign. This was a key move for the Dairy Foods retail business as it celebrates our farmer-ownership and reveals an appetite for work that is bold and different. The campaign, titled “Eat It Like You Own It™,” invites consumers to be unapologetically indulgent with Land O Lakes® products as if they were farmer-owners themselves.
Our Bread and Butter is Now Cheese This year, we found a natural fit in dairy case cheese with the launch of 12 new cheese items in Cub stores in Minnesota, which is just the beginning of a longer and broader launch strategy. The product lineup uses member milk and features our award-winning cheddar cheese produced at our facility in Kiel, Wisconsin.
Keeping Butter on the Shelves Amid Worldwide Supply Chain Challenges The supply chain challenges caused by the pandemic dominated headlines all year and experts warned about the impacts on everything from holiday dinner essentials to toys and other gifts. In response, Land O’Lakes worked to ensure there would be butter on the shelves for holiday baking by leaning into lessons learned in 2020. Our members’ herds keep producing milk, even during a pandemic, so we work hard to live up to our founding principle of finding a home and adding value to member milk production.
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A STRONG ENTERPRISE
CROP INPUTS
TRUTERRA Driving System-Wide Digital Adoption
Land O’Lakes Brings the Voice of MemberOwners to Capitol Hill
Embracing technology will allow us to unlock growth in products, services and connections to new markets. To bring this to life, we have been working to drive digital adoption throughout our system in areas like decision ag, sales enablement and system efficiency tools that we know support sales growth for owners and profitability for growers. This work has resulted in over 500 retail owners and 1,200 locations utilizing our B2B Evolve platform, and retailers experiencing a 19% jump in grower retention and 45% growth in sales.
Truterra President Jason Weller testified before the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee on the topic of diversifying on-farm income and opportunities to strengthen rural America. In his remarks, Jason not only shared the perspective of Truterra and Land O’Lakes, but also our network of thousands of farmer and ag retail owners across the country. He shared the importance of rural vitality and the ability to tap into technology and emerging market opportunities, such as ecosystem services markets.
Overcoming Challenges Through Supply Chain Optimization
Building Greater Alignment With Retail-Owners Together with our owners, we’re forming tighter partnerships to create a more seamless distribution process and support growth throughout our system. There is tremendous opportunity to partner differently through greater alignment and we now have close to 65% of our top line sales volume secured in formalized retailer agreements. This work has helped support our influence with manufacturer partners while allowing owners to shift attention from price negotiation to demand creation activities that support industry leading growth.
Supporting Profitability Through Insights and Innovation In 2021, our system launched over 100 proprietary products across our portfolio while also delivering new insights to drive performance through improved placement of products, programs and services. We also made great strides in delivering insights by pinpointing stresses in the Fundamental Five critical agronomic actions, driving leading research at the Innovation Center and re-designing our Answer Plot® program to support adoption of new service offerings. Through our scientific approach, we’re able to help support farmer profitability by offering risk management solutions like SECURE and shaping new markets in the carbon and premium grain spaces.
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This year, given COVID-19 related challenges, transportation constraints and other disruptors, getting product on farmers’ fields when they needed it required building a more reliable and predictable end-to-end supply chain. It began with a digitalization journey aimed at improving real-time information flow and visibility and has evolved to include development of standardized processes with owners for forecasting, ordering and product delivery. This work is paying off because we delivered more product volume than last year with 40% fewer shipments, which equates to more than 1 million fewer miles traveled.
Evolving the Model to Unlock Our Potential Together with our retail-owners, we are shaping the future of agriculture by connecting growers to new markets in food, feed, fiber and fuel. In late 2021, WinField United introduced the new Advanced Acre go-to-market approach to harness our full potential as a supply and marketing cooperative delivering data-proven solutions across products, services and connections to new markets. Our network is uniquely positioned to deliver unmatched value through the local expertise of our owners, the national influence of our businesses and our track record of shaping market opportunities.
Truterra Launches First Farmer-Driven Carbon Program In 2021, we announced a transformational new carbon program in which Truterra helps farmers facilitate sales of carbon assets to private buyers. The program launched with Microsoft as the first secured buyer and was designed to be the most farmer-favorable program on the market with a streamlined process so farmers can focus on crop production and caring for the land. In its first year, the offering delivered more than $4 million in cash payments upfront to farmers for sequestering over 200,000 metric tons of carbon.
Dubuque County Program Improves Water Quality, Shifts Acres to Carbon Negative Our collaboration with Dubuque County, the Dubuque Soil & Water Conservation District and Innovative Ag Services supported area growers in adopting more sustainable farming practices that can improve soil health and water quality. Using the Truterra sustainability tool, growers generated a baseline for each field and pinpointed where practices would be most impactful. As a result, participating acres were net carbon negative, sequestering nearly two times as much greenhouse gases in 2021 as emitted in 2020, and farmers will receive an average return of $33 per acre.
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LAND O’ LAKES INC. 100 YEARS
100 YEARS
B OARD OF DIRECTORS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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TOM BENOIT Kansas, Ag
MARK BERNING Minnesota, Dairy
RICK BRAND Iowa, Ag
RICK BRUBAKER Indiana, Ag
BRIAN BUHR Minnesota, Advisory
SHARDA CHERWOO New York, Advisory
PAUL COPPIN North Dakota, Ag
JUSTIN CURTI California, Dairy
CARL DICKINSON Nebraska, Ag
JARED FERNANDES California, Dairy
JOEY FERNANDES California, Dairy
JOHN HABEDANK Minnesota, Ag
DUANE HERSHEY Pennsylvania, Dairy
EVAN HILLAN Wisconsin, Dairy
JEFF JOHNSON Minnesota, Ag
NEAL KEPPY Iowa, Ag
JEFF LAKNER South Dakota, Ag
STEPHEN MANCEBO California, Dairy
ANDY MASON Maryland, Dairy
DOYLE PEARL Kansas, Advisory
PAUL SCHWEIGER Wisconsin, Ag
STAN STARK Kansas, Ag
CHRIS SUKALSKI Minnesota, Dairy
JEFF TROIKE Indiana, Ag
GALEN VETTER Minnesota, Advisory
JOSH ZONNEVELD California, Dairy
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EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM
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BETH FORD President & Chief Executive Officer
HEATHER ANFANG SVP, US Dairy Foods
TEDDY BEKELE SVP & Chief Technology Officer
BRETT BRUGGEMAN EVP & President, WinField United
LISA DEVERELL EVP & President, Purina Animal Nutrition
YONE DEWBERRY SVP & Chief Supply Chain Officer
JOHN ELLENBERGER SVP, Land O’Lakes Venture37
JERRY KAMINSKI EVP & Chief Operating Officer
PETE KAPPELMAN SVP, Member & Government Relations
THEA KEAMY SVP, Corporate Strategy & Business Development
TIM LEVINY SVP, Asia-Pacific & Global Dairy Ingredients
HEATHER MALENSHEK SVP & Chief Marketing Officer
BILL PIEPER EVP & Chief Financial Officer
JULIE SEXTON SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer
SHEILAH STEWART SVP & General Counsel
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