LETTER FROM LEADERSHIP
For years, we’ve been building a best-in-class dairy beverage network here at DFA — but it wasn’t called that until recently. Over the past year, you may have been hearing about our future-focused beverage network and how it’s a priority initiative as part of our living strategy.
I’m excited to share updates on the strides we are making together.
Our collective aim is this: To drive performance as One DFA, creating operational excellence that not only brings value to our farmer-owners but also positions us with consumers through our brands and customers we supply as the go-to for dairy-based beverages.
Right now, we are building on what we started — and making our beverage network even better. How? By creating connections across our extended shelf life (ESL) and aseptic plants in Dairy Brands and Stremicks Heritage Foods as well as Ingredient Solutions’ facilities. Through this priority initiative, we are building bridges across our business, fostering synergies and maximizing capabilities while accelerating innovation to pave the way for future-focused dairy beverages.
We’re focusing on leveraging assets, enhancing collaboration across our wholly-owned plants, ensuring operational excellence by aligning our commercial divisions and developing new and exciting dairy-based beverages for both customers and our own brands.
In 2023, we aligned structures and continued to create connectivity across the business, and we have already seen successes.
For example, as we integrated two additional beverage-focused plants to our DFA beverage network, we increased sales in ESL and aseptic dairy beverage formats. As a result, we now have a national dairy beverage footprint to supply our customers nationwide.
We can now move products more efficiently across our commercial facilities, bringing production closer to our customers and using more of DFA’s ingredients.
Plus, we’ve been able to leverage Stremicks Heritage Foods’ expertise and customer relationships to grow in the beverage sector, which is a huge opportunity for us.
As we build our beverage network, we look forward to continuing to grow and to become the dairy-based beverage supplier of choice.
Drinking milk hasn’t always looked or tasted the same. Dairy — and variations of it — has been around for centuries, and although countless products or ways to get milk from farm to table have evolved, the nutrition, value and deliciousness remain the same.
Milk’s perishable nature meant most families owned and milked their own cows. They turned the excess into cheese or butter to prevent waste.
During the Civil War, an alternative to fresh milk was needed to feed soldiers. Condensed milk (first developed in the 1850s) became part of the Union Army food supply. The canned condensed milk was nutritious, portable, long-lasting and, most importantly, safe.
Frans von Soxhlet applied the now wellknown pasteurization process to milk. Pasteurizing milk reduces the chance of illness by heating milk to a high temperature to kill potentially harmful germs.
Birth of the milkman. Milk delivery allowed families to have fresh milk without owning their own dairy cow. Milkmen were common until the 1940s as consumers began to have refrigerators at home, reducing the need for daily deliveries of fresh milk.
The first commercial powdered baby formula using cows’ milk was sold in the United States. Powdered milk retains its nutrients while extending shelf life.
The square milk lunch carton as we know it today was introduced as a costfriendly option that simultaneously held more milk than traditional glass bottles. +
Commercial production of whey protein powder began gaining popularity as a convenient source of high-quality protein for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Whey is a byproduct of making cheese, and for more than 100 years was considered a waste. However, it was discovered that whey was still rich in nutrients and high in protein.
Skim milk started being sold, and the cheaper product gained popularity, as whole milk prices increased during World War II.
Aseptic, shelf-stable packaged milk was introduced in the United States and sold in special packaging to prevent air from getting inside and spoiling the milk. Aseptic milk is crucial to help consumers in times of need, during natural disasters and in emergencies.
This just scratches the surface of innovation in the history of dairy. As manufacturing processes have been refined and new ones developed, consumers have been introduced to some of their favorite products like processed cheese packets in boxed macaroni and cheese (1916), deep-fried mozzarella sticks (1970s) and stuffed pizza crusts (1985). Other major disrupters in the industry include using bacterial cultures to create yogurt, sour cream and cottage cheese. (Learn more about fermentation on page 10!) We are excited to see what the future holds for the dairy industry with DFA leading the whey — ahem, way.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
DFA has a living strategy to drive performance as One DFA. This strategy includes three priority initiatives. When we all understand why we are focusing our efforts on these initiatives and what we expect to accomplish, we can align our individual and collective work to achieve the same goals. Let’s dive into one of our priority initiatives: to develop a future-focused beverage network.
01
What’s the goal of our future-focused beverage network priority initiative?
Build bridges between DFA’s commercial divisions to leverage synergies, maximize current capabilities and accelerate innovation to create the dairy beverages of tomorrow.
02
What’s the outcome when we create a futurefocused beverage network?
For consumers to choose DFA dairybased beverage brands and for customers to prefer us as their supplier of choice.
03
How do we get there?
Actively work toward our 2024 priorities, implement operational efficiencies, leverage connectivity across our facilities and develop new dairybased beverages.
04
What’s next?
We are driving performance in the beverage network. We’ll do this by fostering innovation, continuing to get nutritious milk into schools, improving how we move products across facilities, using our own ingredients for ESL and aseptic products, and manufacturing dairy-based beverages closer to where our customers operate.
05 EVERY THOUGHT MATTERS!
What can you do?
Share your ideas and contribute to the efforts of building a strong beverage network
that creates value for DFA’s farmer-owners.
Share your ideas to drive performance as One DFA in the beverage network
WATCH A VIDEO Learn more about our future-focused beverage network in this 50-second video!
Erick Hernandez-Robles DFA employee | Fort Morgan, Colo.
“MOST REWARDING PART OF YOUR JOB
Seeing calves thrive. I am always ecstatic when a farmer-owner or farm employee tells me how well calves are doing with the protocols I’ve helped implement within their programs. Working to improve the growth and performance of future replacements for the dairy herd is extremely rewarding — not just for our farmer-owners, but for me as well.
RHEA LAWRENCE, PH.D.
ROLE: TECHNICAL SALES AND SUPPORT MANAGER
LOCATION: GARDEN CITY, KAN.
TENURE: MAY 2023
Get to know the four uniquely qualified women behind our calf care team. Split up regionally, their days might consist of farm visits, observing calves, training farm employees or sanitation audits. Other days might be spent in an office, where they build custom nutrition plans for the farms they cover. No matter what they are up to each day, they are helping our farmer-owners successfully raise the newest members of their herd.
HOW YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE
It’s important that people know our farmerowners take excellent care of their cows. Dairy farmers collaborate with their nutritionist and veterinarian to make sure their animals have well-balanced meals and are comfortable, happy and healthy. They know that healthy, happy cows produce high-quality milk, so the animals’ well-being is top priority.
FAVORITE PART OF YOUR JOB
I enjoy that no two operations are the same. I love helping our farmer-owners find unique solutions to have successful calf programs. It makes me proud to work for DFA because I enjoy spending every day working alongside our farmer-owners to create different strategies to optimize calf performance and reach their unique goals.
WHY ARE YOU PROUD TO
DFA’s organization is comprised of a group of really good, knowledgeable and dedicated people. As a woman in agriculture, I am proud to work in this profession, to share my dairy knowledge and make a difference to both the producers and consumers.
GRACE CUN, PH.D.
ROLE: TECHNICAL SALES AND SUPPORT MANAGER
LOCATION: VISALIA, CALIF.
TENURE: APRIL 2023
DID YOU KNOW?
KATIE KOVALASKE
ROLE: TECHNICAL SALES AND SUPPORT MANAGER
LOCATION: HUSTISFORD, WIS.
TENURE: SEPTEMBER 2022
BETH KEENE, M.S.
ROLE: TECHNICAL SALES AND SUPPORT MANAGER
LOCATION: SOUTHERN NEW YORK
TENURE: FEBRUARY 2022
DFA produces calf milk replacer for young calves to ensure they’re receiving the proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals for optimal growth. It’s like baby formula for calves! These innovative products come in a variety of protein and fat levels, are made with milk from our family farms and are processed with dairy-based ingredients, such as nonfat dry milk powder and buttermilk powder, from DFA’s own plants. Produced at DFA plants and offered to our farmer-owners, it’s a full circle product!
When a career in songwriting didn’t work out, Jonathan Oufnac took a job working at Apple to help pay the bills. There, he honed many skills from technical writing to training. His favorite job title, however, was “Lead Genius” — just because “it’s fun to say.”
Jonathan’s curiosity and desire to help others charted a path forward he never could have imagined. Today, he supports DFA’s living strategy with emerging technology in a recently created role focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and other up-andcoming technologies.
RECOGNIZE
Your role when you started at DFA was an executive support specialist working with DFA’s leaders. How did that role build into the position you currently have?
When I was working with the executives, we had conversations about how we could do different things better. That opened a lot of knowledge for me about the Cooperative. From there, I began working to help modernize our mobile technology and find ways to improve efficiency.
Tell us about your new position in emerging technology. The idea for this position was to brainstorm and lead what a digital transformation can look like as we develop connectivity across the Cooperative and bring DFA into the future. The core focus is on finding technology (such as AI and other emerging technology) that can modernize and streamline our work at DFA to simplify the workflow. As we reduce the minutia of manual tasks, our employees are freed up to have more personal and human interactions with an increased focus on the important parts of their job and the people they do it with.
What excites you most about this role?
I’m really looking forward to hearing from people about their big ideas. Every employee has the chance to dream bigger, and getting to facilitate those discussions, connect like-minded people and explore solutions can make every day better than the last.
Which of DFA’s values do you personally connect with most in your daily work?
Community — being able to empower all employees who reach our customers and our farmer-owners. If I can find one interesting thing, one helpful task or tool that simplifies how we can deliver, I know I’m bringing value to DFA.
A career in songwriting didn’t work out, but do you still write?
I don’t have much time for writing songs any longer, but I still get to do a lot with music — from arranging pieces for worship bands and large ensembles to playing live. My favorite is getting to play soul and R&B bass or any instrument with a good jazz ensemble.
LOCATION: Ohio
NUMBER OF DAIRIES: 3
HERD SIZE: 5,200 Holsteins and some Jerseys
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 90
Before Scott Imboden became a dairy farmer, he worked in food manufacturing. In fact, his career started at a dairy balancing plant in El Paso, Texas, owned by DFA at the time. That plant produced milk powder and was later purchased by Smucker’s®.
“It was a smaller plant, so there were more opportunities to try out different roles,” he says.
During his time at the plant, Scott worked in human resources and as a quality manager.
“I never had any intent of getting into manufacturing, but it quickly grew into something that I really liked,” he says. “Especially working in the lab and running the tests [as a quality manager]. I liked understanding how the process worked and what our lab techs were responsible for. The science of it was really fascinating to me.”
So, how does one go from food manufacturing to dairy farming? It started with Scott’s father, Les. He’s an entrepreneur who loves to fix things and hates to be bored. From grain farming to real estate to a local golf course, he loves taking struggling businesses and transforming them into profitable operations.
“I like seeing something that needs to be repaired and thinking, ‘I can fix that,’” Les says. “It’s not just turning a wrench on a tractor. It’s turning a business model that’s not working into one that does work. That’s a lot of fun.”
After a tip from a colleague, Les purchased a dairy farm in need of his business know-how.
“I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in way over my head,” Les says. So, not long after, Scott took a leap of faith and left his corporate dairy manufacturing job to join his dad in the unknown world of dairy farming.
With Scott’s love of processes, a master’s degree in business administration and manufacturing experience, the father-son pair have turned their now three Ohio dairies into profitable businesses producing high-quality milk operated by devoted and passionate employees.
I like seeing something that needs to be repaired and thinking, ‘I can fix that.’”
LES IMBODEN, DFA FARMER-OWNER
Scott oversees all three successful operations and says they couldn’t do what they do without their 90 employees.
“I really, really value them,” he says. “Because they just help us move forward — and in ways that we couldn’t have imagined when we first started here. There are things that they do now — whether it’s decision making or simple day-to-day things — that I don’t have to be involved with. It’s very powerful. That allows me to do things I need to do. And that value leads to a better-quality product.”
Scott genuinely cares about the people his business touches — not only his employees but also the DFA plant workers receiving his milk. He has a unique perspective having worked in food manufacturing personally.
“We try to always keep them in mind too — about what they have to receive and process, and we want to make their job easier,” he says. “As dairy farmers, we try to make decisions that we know will affect them in a positive way.”
In addition to Les Imboden’s love of repairing struggling businesses, he also enjoys repairing vintage milk trucks and restoring them to their original beauty. Les’ collection includes four DIVCO trucks built by the Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company ranging from 1948–1968 and a 1935 Twin Coach milk truck. The trucks are complete with original glass milk bottles and wooden crates inside. Someday he plans to donate the trucks to a museum or dairy learning center for people to enjoy. Next up on his restoration list? An original Ford Bronco.
When you think of fermented foods, wine, sauerkraut or sourdough bread likely come to mind, but many of the dairy products you love are also fermented. The process of fermentation has been around for thousands of years and is still experiencing innovations today — and DFA is leading the way.
Campbell SENIOR SCIENTIST, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
QWhat dairy products are fermented?
Yogurt, kefir, cream cheese, sour cream, Mexican cremas, cottage cheese, buttermilk and some refrigerated dips. DFA produces many of these beloved products!
What’s the history of food fermentation?
Food fermentation began as a way to preserve food. In fact, it’s likely as old as human civilization. Evidence of fermentation has been found all over the world — from fermented beer, bread and dairy products in ancient Egypt to fermented rice, honey and fruits in early China.
How does food fermentation work and why is it good for us?
Are “fermented” and “cultured” the same thing?
Short answer — yes. Some people differentiate cultured products as those that use a starter ‘culture’ (think sourdough starter or scoby for kombucha). But the processes that take place are very similar, so I choose to use the words interchangeably.
How is our farmer-owners’ raw milk made into the various fermented dairy products we know?
Each product has a slightly different process. We add specific cultures for each type of product that is being made. It really comes down to differences in time, temperatures, cultures used and base ingredients. You let those cultures grow and that is where you really see the action happen and you get a different product out at the end. THE MORE YOU KNOW
28 of DFA’s 82 manufacturing plants produce fermented products
5,500 DFA employees work at those plants
Fermentation encourages the growth of healthy bacteria and creates an environment where unwanted bacteria, sometimes associated with spoiling, can’t thrive. That same process can take place in your gut when you eat ‘cultured’ or ‘fermented’ foods. That’s just another reason to add dairy products to your diet! Fermentation also increases shelf life, enhances flavors and provides health benefits, such as probiotics.
ASK THE DFA EXPERT
Corey Christofel BRAND MANAGER OF CULTURED BRANDS, DFA’S DAIRY BRANDS DIVISIONQAre there any new fermentation innovations happening at DFA?
In 2023, we launched a smooth cottage cheese product for several of our DFAowned dairy brands. It has all the protein of cottage cheese in a yogurt-like consistency. We partnered with Hasbro to add some fun characters kids love to the packaging, such as Peppa Pig™, PJ Masks™ and Transformers®. We’re also currently promoting a restaurant-style sour cream. Inspired by the flavors and consistency you would encounter in a Mexican restaurant, it has a slightly tangier flavor and thinner consistency so it can be drizzled over a dish.
How our network of plants help us make the most of every drop
Any business is subject to the fluctuations of supply and demand. When you have a perishable product, like raw milk, you need to be flexible because every drop matters.
Currently, U.S. dairy farmers produce more raw milk than Americans can consume by way of traditional dairy case products like milk, cheese, yogurt and more. Thanks to innovative advances in dairy manufacturing, our diversified portfolio of plants and our milk marketing team, some of our farmer-owners’ liquid gold (aka raw milk) is transformed into a value-added consumer product creating a profitable and stable business.
With 82 DFA plants in our network, nine plants are strategically located and have specific capabilities that allow us to balance out the flow of milk when there are differences between supply and demand in various regions within the United States — oftentimes referred to as balancing plants.
“We need a variety of plants with different capabilities to further ensure we have a home for some of our farmer-owners’ milk,” says Jordan Hicks, senior manager of optimization. “Without these plants in our network, farmer-owners would have fewer opportunities in regional milk markets; thus, lower financial returns.”
We need a variety of plants with different capabilities to further ensure we have a home for some of our farmer-owners’ milk.”
It’s in the balance of our milk flow where products like condensed milk, cream, powders, milk protein and more are made, allowing longer shelf lives during times when our supply of raw milk is greater than demand for milk, cheese, butter and ice cream.
Shoutout to the employees at these locations! You bring incredible expertise, experience and balance to our Cooperative.
BALANCING PLANTS HELP DFA:
Reduce the risk of losing or spoiling milk
Increase revenue by creating highervalue products
Optimize transportation and storage space
Minimize waste and environmental impact
PRODUCTS MADE AT BALANCING PLANTS INCLUDE:
Condensed milk
Cream
Nonfat dry milk powder
Whole milk powder
Ultra-filtered milk
Milk protein concentrate
PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
Kind of like the popular reality show Shark Tank but without the competition and drama, DFA’s CoLAB Accelerator is our program to accelerate and grow startup businesses in agriculture technology (ag-tech). Started in 2017, more than 40 companies have participated through the years.
HOW IT WORKS: The program provides mentorship and educational opportunities to the founders of ag-tech startups. DFA employees throughout the Cooperative offer their expertise to these up-and-coming businesses and help them solve problems, refine their business models and hone their investment pitches. Companies must apply to participate, and we look for ones that offer promising programs or services that could benefit our farmer-owners.
AREAS OF INTEREST:
• Calf health and performance
• On-farm artificial intelligence
• Mastitis solutions
• New ways of capturing data
• Regenerative agriculture and soil health
• Reproduction improvements
• Sustainability
• Technology that helps measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions
• Water management
THE BENEFITS: It’s a win-win scenario. The founders gain new knowledge and insights, and DFA benefits in many ways, from getting more exposure to emerging innovations and entrepreneurial thinking, to potential partnership opportunities.
THE ULTIMATE GOAL: Deliver lasting value for our farmerowners by engaging with emerging technology startups that have the potential to drive further innovation across the dairy value chain.
In the event of an unexpected and unavoidable emergency that causes severe financial hardship, you can apply for assistance of up to $2,000 through the DFA Cares Employee Relief Fund.
Permanent full-time employees or parttime employees who have been employed for a minimum of 90 days.
disasters, home catastrophes, funeral expenses and medical emergencies (including travel).
2 A day in the life of a calf care specialist might consist of farm visits, observing calves, training employees or sanitation audits.
4 Four of the vintage milk trucks in DFA farmer-owner Les Imboden’s collection were built by this company.
6 Jonathan Oufnac now supports DFA’s living strategy as senior director of technology.
9 Jonathan Oufnac’s first role at DFA was support specialist.
10 DFA has more than fluid milk facilities.
11 In which state are the Imbodens’ three dairy farms?
12 True or false? Fermented and cultured mean essentially the same thing.
13 DFA has a living strategy to drive performance as DFA.
1 This process increases shelf life, enhances flavors and provides health benefits, such as probiotics.
3 This type of milk first started being sold in 1940 as whole milk prices increased during World War II.
5 DFA produces a replacer for young calves to ensure they’re receiving the proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals for optimal growth.
7 Balancing the supply and demand of raw milk can result in these kinds of products.
8 Frans von first applied the pasteurization process to milk.
Check your answers on the left of the page.
