In 1921, 320 Minnesota dairy farmers united to form our cooperative. These hardworking men and women shared a simple, powerful belief—they were stronger when they worked together.
As our co-op has grown, we’ve kept farmers and ag retailers firmly rooted at the heart of everything we do. Their unwavering commitment to that simple idea continues to set us apart and inspire us every day.
Together, we believe we can change the world for the better.
Land O’Lakes, Inc. is a cooperative agribusiness touching nearly the entire food value chain.
From leading on-farm insights, products and services to consumer goods and global brand recognition, we are working alongside our member-owners to continue moving agriculture into the future, supporting rural communities and tackling some of the most important issues facing our food system.
As a cooperative system, we are committed to working together to chart a course that drives a more predictable future for farm families, agricultural businesses, consumers and communities worldwide.
Impact
$3.9 million in member-driven philanthropy
3.2 million lbs. in product donations
34,000 employee volunteer hours
Cooperative Reach
13 billion lbs. of milk produced per year
100 million animals fed per day
50%
U.S. harvested acres touched
Membership
1,193
DAIRY PRODUCERS
514
AG PRODUCERS
873
AG RETAILERS
Dear Stakeholders,
Today’s U.S. farmers and agricultural businesses are navigating a complex landscape that impacts their businesses, their communities and the global food supply. As a cooperative, Land O’Lakes, Inc. is committed to working alongside our member-owners to drive shared success and create a more resilient food system.
In 2024, our enterprise approach, with businesses spanning the food and agricultural value chain, helped us weather industry volatility and deliver a strong performance of $16 billion in net sales and net earnings of $244 million.
Animal Nutrition capitalized on favorable market conditions to deliver a strong performance of $34 million in pretax earnings. The business also advanced longer-term business transformation and growth plans, including launching an enterprise planning software system and a relentless focus on the consumer.
Our Crop Inputs business navigated grain price declines and destocking at retail, delivering a solid year-end pretax performance of $166 million. At the same time, we accelerated our ability to deliver data-driven innovation—products, services and market insights—to support our retail-owners’ leading position in their individual markets.
The Dairy Foods team positioned the business to better manage commodity swings, maintaining consistent market access for member milk and prioritizing growth in value-added segments. This resulted in a top-five year for the business, delivering $64 million in pretax earnings.
In 2024, we also accelerated our International activities in key geographies around the globe. This included continuing to scale our more mature businesses in South Africa and Canada and strengthening our presence in the important Chinese and Brazilian markets.
Moving forward, it’s important we continue working together to strengthen our businesses and make our voices heard. We need to advocate for our industry and share our story with as broad an audience as possible.
The cooperative system has never been more relevant than it is today. We are in it together, from the farm to the plant, from the field to the boardroom. Together, we focus on doing what’s best for the whole system, taking a longer-term point of view to solve the challenges of today and create a successful tomorrow.
Beth Ford, President and CEO Rick Brand, Chairman of the Board
STRONG ENTERPRISE
Across our enterprise, each business plays a critical role in the Land O’Lakes portfolio. From market access and brand strength to innovation and growth, our leadership differentiates us from competitors and offers unique value to our member-owners, customers and consumers.
ANIMAL NUTRITION
Driving consumer-led brands
We are actively working to strengthen our consumer-facing brands. This work includes competitive research and deeper segmentation by customer and product to create a more focused and clear brand story. With this work, we aim to create a deeper connection with our customers and consumers, and boost the relevance of our iconic brands.
Transforming the business
Project Beacon—the transition to SAP as our enterprise planning software—began rolling out in 2024 and will continue through 2025, enabling the transformation of our business. Our aim with this initiative is to provide improved technology and business simplification and enhance the customer experience.
With the strategic foundation set throughout 2024, the year ahead will be focused on evolving our business model for predictability and to be more customer-focused.
Growing intentionally
A year of transition, 2024 saw a renewed focus on collaboration to drive performance. Early indicators of success include share and volume growth in critical areas such as grass cattle and milk replacer. Nutra Blend continued its industry-leading performance, delivering 10% micro ingredient topline growth. We launched the Fortiva™ brand, formerly PMI Additives, alongside several new technologies within the monogastric and ruminant spaces.
We’re committed to supporting our cooperative owners and their livestock businesses, and we will continue to prioritize a focused portfolio and investment opportunities that support the growth of our business.
Meeting customers and consumers where they are
Across the business, we welcomed new team members who have been instrumental in developing the vision and strategy to support each of the channels we serve. With positive feedback from our Dealer Advisory Group, a retail and commercial segmentation is in progress that will help in delivering robust channel growth and development in the lifestyle and livestock segments as well as an omnichannel approach to meet consumers where they are.
CROP INPUTS + INSIGHTS
Creating a more efficient, resilient network
Our collective system knowledge has allowed us to continue to fine-tune our supply chain, building a network that is service-oriented yet efficient and resilient to industry dynamics. This has allowed us to be more responsive to real-time owner needs while improving on-time, in-full deliveries by 10% compared to the previous year. That translates to 2,475 fewer shipments, 207 million fewer pounds transported on trucks and 86,000 fewer miles traveled.
Partnering more closely with retail
In 2024, we worked closely with our retail-owners to design a more targeted approach built to better match WinField United’s tools, programs and insights with each retailer’s unique go-to-market strategy. We also worked closely with our owners to complete an overhaul of the AgriMine® reporting system to ensure transactional data flowing between WinField United and our retail network is clean and standardized. All of this helps set a foundation to unlock shared growth and efficiency opportunities, and it enables the retailer to be the hero at the farmgate.
Innovating to grow
Innovation was a priority throughout 2024. Seven new Crop Protection products were introduced to the market in response to demand including Altipro®, the first WinField United internally formulated proprietary fungicide. We also continued to improve our ability to share our insights locally, including through a webinar series delivered to over 1,000 retail sellers covering the latest agronomic advice and the issues that are top of mind for growers. Taking this to the next level, work began on an AI assistant designed and trained to help retail sellers save time and build confidence by activating the power of 20+ years of applied research in the palm of their hand.
Expanding our market leadership in new areas
Building a strategic advantage for our system requires strengthening our owners’ existing market leadership while continuing to innovate and lead with insights in new categories and geographies. In 2024, we set an industry standard with the launch of the WinField United BioVerified™ designation to help retailers and growers cut through the noise of a crowded biologicals market. We re-purposed several Answer Plot locations to develop water-use efficiency and regenerative practice data sets to arm retailers with the insights needed to help growers capitalize on emerging markets. The team also prioritized using our system’s size and scale, along with actionable market insights, to help our owners more fully participate in the growing post-patent marketplace.
DAIRY FOODS
Bringing farm style to life
In an effort to showcase how purchasing Land O Lakes® products supports our farmer-owners, Land O’Lakes launched the “Farmcore” campaign to capitalize on a recent cultural trend. In fall 2024, we hosted a fashion show in Paris, Wisconsin, featuring models in barn jackets, jeans and overalls— donated by our farmer-owners—to bring the farmcore aesthetic to life. We also launched an e-commerce website to showcase and sell clothing items from our Farmcore campaign. All proceeds were donated to charities that support the future of farming.
A top-5 year for Dairy Foods
2024 marked a top-five profit year for our Dairy Foods business with $64 million in pretax earnings. Our growth was driven by strength in our core butter and cheese businesses and favorable market conditions. The team made critical investments in our growth platforms of retail Dairy Case Cheese and building brand love by connecting with consumers through relevant media and social platforms. We’ve continued to showcase our Eat It Like You Own It campaign, which celebrates the farmerowners who provide the high-quality milk that goes into our beloved products.
Spoiler Alert honored in Fast Company
Land O’Lakes was featured as an honoree in Fast Company’s 2024 World Changing Ideas Awards for our work with Spoiler Alert, which improved our process of donating food to families in need by digitizing and streamlining the logistics of selling or donating products nearing their expiration date. Since joining forces with Spoiler Alert in 2023, we’ve donated more than 6 million lbs. of Land O’Lakes product. This puts Land O’Lakes on track to meet our goal of 15 million lbs. of in-kind product donations by 2030.
Foodservice business continues to grow
Our Foodservice business also had a strong 2024, posting a top-two profit year. Foodservice Performance Dairy was up 4% in volume compared to the previous year, and up 20% in volume in the past five years. 2024 was also a record year for our K-12 Foodservice business, as we expanded our grab-and-go options. In addition, the business developed Spreadable Cheese, a portable, cheddar-flavored spreadable cheese cup designed to be a great savory breakfast option for kids. The product will be available in schools in July 2025, right in time for the new school year.
Diversifying programs to meet grower needs in South Africa
INTERNATIONAL
WinField United is a leading business working to meet the diverse needs of South African growers, combining crop inputs, agronomic expertise, advanced technology and data-driven research. Villa—its crop protection supply business—adapted the MasterLock® adjuvant for use on South Africa’s permanent crops, particularly citrus, in 2023 and has seen rapid expansion since, with annual sales almost doubling in 2024. The team has also emphasized training and education through on-farm stewardship programs and advancing agricultural research to reduce environmental impact, enhance resource efficiency and promote the long-term success of South African agriculture.
Executing a winning playbook in Canada
WinField United Canada—similar to its U.S. neighbor—combines local understanding with world-class expertise to provide independent ag retailers with products and services designed to fit their specific needs. In 2024, the team made progress against a key focus area, achieving 15% year-over-year growth in the adjuvant business driven by the LockTech™ family of products, which were applied on more than 10 million acres. These results were partly driven by the 120 spray clinics the team hosted that reached over 2,000 farmers and over 850 retail employees. This was paired with an innovative co-marketing campaign with retailers that was recognized with four industry awards and resulted in a 176% increase in sales year-over-year with participating retailers.
Prioritizing market intelligence and market access in China
While China is often listed among the largest food importers in the world, the country also ranks No. 1 in the value of its domestic agricultural production. The International team in China is focused on staying on top of the domestic supply and demand dynamics that have ripple effects across borders. Whether gauging dairy production through our Animal Nutrition initiatives, talking with dairy processors about market conditions or monitoring alfalfa production, the team is constantly gaining insights that impact our businesses and members in the U.S. Plus, as WinField United’s presence grows in Canada and South Africa, having boots on the ground in China along with greater global scale helps owners across geographies have access to products and active ingredients.
Pursuing growth in Brazil
Brazil is quickly becoming a powerhouse in global agriculture, with the country emerging as the largest exporter in the world. Over the past few years, Land O’Lakes has been working in this market to gain a better understanding and chart a course for the future. What we’ve learned is that, similar to the U.S. market, local ag retailers play a pivotal role for growers, providing localized expertise and buying power. Brazilian growers are also hungry for innovative crop input solutions to improve their overall efficiency and productivity. Recognizing the similarities to the WinField United model in the U.S., we believe there is an opportunity to establish a foothold in this region, leaning into our unmatched agronomic insights and experience in making retailers the hero at the farmgate.
TRUTERRA
Expanding portfolio to reach dairy farmers
In addition to the original carbon program, Truterra expanded its portfolio in 2024 to include new programs tailored to dairy farmers. These new offerings are intended to reward pre-qualified dairy producers who adopt eligible farming practices on the crops they use for dairy feed, including the use of strip-till and cover crops.
Leading through collaborations
Truterra’s collaboration efforts aim to help deliver results for owners, customers and growers by delivering more consistency and standardization across the ag value chain. By combining industry-leading science, data and technology capabilities with our owners’ role as trusted advisor, we can unlock greater scale with farmer enrollment. Over the past several years, working together has enabled the enrollment of millions of farmland acres into our programs.
Six years with The Campbell’s Company
2024 marked the 6th anniversary of The Campbell’s Company working with Truterra on projects relating to wheat ingredients. The collaboration is designed to deliver several environmental benefits for participating farmers, including reduced risk of soil loss, improved soil quality and better nutrient management. Since its inception, the project has grown from one ag retailer to now eight different retailers, covering about 100,000 acres of farmland in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Kansas.
LEADING THE WAY
Our unique view of food and agricultural production allows us to lead in the marketplace, leveraging data- and consumerdriven insights to develop innovative products, services and technologies that create additional value for our cooperative network.
“Our goal is to help customers be more profitable. If we fail at that, we don’t get as many chances to do that the next year. It makes a big difference when we can come to them with more than a promise.”
Greg Culp, Vice President of Agronomy Sales & Marketing at Mercer Landmark, Inc.
Building trust in a booming biologicals market
Biologicals are a form of crop protection derived from natural materials or living organisms. The market for these products continues to boom. The WinField® United BioVerified™ designation was created to cut through some of the noise and help farmers jump straight to a short list of products selected based on reliable research and data.
Over the past four years, the WinField United team has tested 75 products from 56 different companies. So far, 11 of these biological products have earned the WinField United BioVerified designation. The team will evaluate the lineup annually, adding new products that meet criteria and potentially removing products that have been outperformed by competitors.
Unlocking the mystery of the equine microbiome
Just as with humans, research has shown that a horse’s microbiome, also known as gut health, can affect almost every aspect of its wellbeing, from digestion to performance and immune function. With our team of dedicated, highly trained equine experts at the Purina Animal Nutrition Center in Gray Summit, Missouri, Purina is wellpositioned to help lead the industry in uncovering how to better understand and positively impact a horse’s microbiome.
After amassing the largest equine microbiome sample collection in history, the Purina® Microbiome Quotient (MQ) platform was introduced in June 2024. The platform consists of a comprehensive equine microbiome testing kit and subsequent digital report with insights into the horse’s microbiome along with a nutrition plan tailored to the individual horse.
“We’re set up better than anyone else to do this work. We are hearing from horse owners who have implemented changes based on MQ testing kit recommendations, and they say their horses are feeling and performing better than ever.”
Dr. Mary Beth Gordon, Senior Director, Equine Technical Innovation
Dairy Case Cheese continues to bring strong opportunities for member milk
In recent years, consumers have been eating more of their dairy than drinking it. In fact, per-capita dairy consumption is at an all-time high in the U.S., driven by cheese and butter. To help meet this market demand, Land O’Lakes has been working to expand our Dairy Case Cheese offerings, which launched in late 2021. We currently have more than 30 different products— including shredded cheese, chunk cheese and snack cheese—in 3,800 stores across the Midwest and Northeast.
At the center of this product lineup is our award-winning cheddar cheese, produced at our Kiel plant in Wisconsin. Because we’re a farmer-owned cooperative, consumers who purchase Land O Lakes® products are helping support more than 1,000 dairy farmer-owners and their rural communities— including 100 farmers in eastern Wisconsin who supply milk to the Kiel facility.
“There is so much work going on behind the scenes every day to make sure cows are fed, cleaned and milked. But as a member, we are committed to producing and providing the highquality milk that goes into the Land O Lakes® products you know and love.”
Angie Feider, Feider Farms
The collective scale and connectivity of our cooperative network allow us to better identify challenges and market opportunities, creating a more efficient and strategic network and generating new value streams for our member-owners and customers alike.
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
How flex work roles are empowering manufacturing employees
Like many companies, Land O’Lakes has been focused on overcoming ongoing labor shortages. To meet the changing needs of our manufacturing workforce and tap new sources of labor, we launched our flex work roles in 2022. Since then, we’ve expanded the program from five sites to 60 manufacturing facilities across the U.S., with plans to roll it out at all 140 Land O’Lakes locations nationwide.
The flex work roles allow production employees to balance work and personal obligations with flexible part-time hours that average between 16 to 29 hours per week. Building on the success of the rollout, Land O’Lakes is working to implement automated scheduling software systems in 2025 so plant managers can more easily identify available workers that have the skillsets needed for a specific shift gap.
“To be able to work the hours I want—it’s honestly the best thing any parent could ask for because you need that flexibility.”
Raven Nelson, Barrel-Handling Operator at Melrose, Minnesota, Production Facility
Getting more surgical with data
We know the combination of agronomic research, data-backed insights and localized expertise are what make our ag retail network special. The quicker we convert that information into action, the more relevant we become to America’s farmers. In 2023, WinField United began processing Innovation Center, Answer Plot and system data more efficiently than ever to provide a consistent stream of products, services and agronomic expertise to the field.
In 2024, we began working with retail-owners to go to market earlier than ever before, using our data to develop detailed agronomic plans down to the county, location and grower. We specifically focused on going early with seed purchases and utilizing the SECURE™ Financing program, which combined our retail-owners’ unmatched agronomic data and local expertise with access to attractive, fixed-rate lines of credit for input purchases.
“We felt like to grow our seed business, we had to try something different. We were doing the same thing and getting the same result year after year. We needed to change the game.”
Dave Reese, Vice President of Agronomy at Frontier Cooperative
Upgrading our systems to stay competitive in a complex marketplace
In an increasingly complex supply chain environment, it’s never been more important to have processes in place that support a seamless customer experience. Over the past few years, our Animal Nutrition business has been working through an extensive effort to implement a new enterprise planning software that provides better access to information, allowing us to stay competitive in the current business environment.
We successfully rolled out the software to the Statesville, North Carolina, plant and warehouse in the fall of 2024 and are going live at the Gainesville, Florida, plant and warehouse in early 2025. We have plans for a phased rollout throughout the next year, going region-by-region to build a more fully connected network.
“Our team understands that this transition will enable the transformation of our business, serving as a single source of truth for the data we’re working with, which will ultimately help us make more informed decisions.”
Mark Short, Vice President, Animal Nutrition
CREATING COOPERATIVE BELIEVERS
The combination of our national brand recognition paired with the local leadership of our memberowners allows us to maximize our impact, working side by side to share our story, strengthen our communities and advance issues of importance to our industry.
Sharing stories of rural vibrancy to a worldwide audience
In 2024, we began working with TIME, a trusted global media brand, to share stories of rural vibrancy and the role it plays in the food system. Thanks to this work, TIME highlighted “People of Agriculture” as their “Community of the Year,” and included a feature video and landing page on TIME.com that included some of our members, employees and communities.
TIME also published a feature article titled “Farming Communities Are Growing the Future,” which explored the unexpected dimensions of rural living, from innovation and diversity to resilience and sustainability. The story featured voices from across our cooperative system to bring accuracy and authenticity to the article.
“By prioritizing discussions about agriculture and rural policy, we’re not only supporting the farmers and communities that are the backbone of our food system, we’re ensuring that everyone benefits from a robust and reliable food supply. After all, we all rely on farmers three times a day—for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Stan Stark, CEO of Alliance Ag & Grain
Using our cooperative’s influence to advocate for the ag industry
One primary benefit of the cooperative system is working together to advance shared policy goals. We continuously use grassroots advocacy efforts alongside our member-owners in communities across the country. In 2024, we proactively harnessed our shared voice to bring greater awareness to key issues impacting the food and agriculture sectors.
With a focus on increasing local engagement in support of key legislative priorities, member-owners participated in 24 events across 10 states. Those efforts resulted in local and national media attention, including events on farms and at local co-ops, and 14 member-driven media engagements that reached an audience of more than 350,000 listeners and readers, plus over 1.5 million social media followers.
Supporting the communities we call home
Land O’Lakes has strong roots in the towns where our member-owners live and work, and we take pride in how we’re able to support those communities. Through the Land O’Lakes Foundation’s Member Co-op Match Program, retail-owners reached the $1.5 million giving cap faster than ever. Through the Foundation’s member match programs and regional grants, nearly $4 million in member-driven philanthropy was invested in local communities in 2024.
In addition to monetary donations, Land O’Lakes members also regularly participate in First Run product donations, providing invaluable food to communities that need it most. Almost 300,000 lbs. of product were distributed to communities where our dairy and ag members are located. Since 2010, the First Run program has donated nearly 7.3 million lbs. of food.
“Most of our members live and operate their businesses in rural communities, so to be a part of a co-op that not only supports our livelihood, but the livelihood of our communities makes me feel appreciative and proud to be a part of Land O’Lakes.”
Josh Zonneveld, Zonneveld Dairies
Our cooperative impact
The food system starts with farmers and their families but, across our cooperative network, our members’ impact goes far beyond agriculture. Many of our members serve their communities as volunteer first responders, providing essential services to the places they call home. In 2024, the Land O’Lakes Foundation and our member-owners together donated over $450,000 to local first responder organizations across the country. We are proud to invest in the communities in which our members are making meaningful contributions every day.
“It’s so important for us to give back to our community. My family has volunteered as firefighters for generations, and we deeply enjoy it. I believe this country was built on helping our neighbors, and we plan to continue that.”
Jesse Druck, AirVue Dairy LLC
The real stories behind #Farmcore
The #Farmcore hashtag is a lifestyle aesthetic and fashion movement inspired by rural farm life. But as a farmer-owned cooperative, we know it’s more than just a look or trend. It’s a way of life that is grounded in the everyday work of our 1,000+ farmer-owners. To share this message, Land O’Lakes hosted a Farmcore-to-Table runway show in the fields of Paris, Wisconsin, in a nod to Paris Fashion Week.
The models wore clothes donated by several farmer-owners, and each item of clothing included a special patch with the farmer’s impact story stitched into the pieces. The campaign provided a unique opportunity to connect our authentic farmer-owned story with a cultural trend popular among a key consumer segment. One such story— featuring Joseph Goni—shared how the historic 2023 flooding in Tulare County, California, forced his family to herd their cows into trailers in the middle of the night.
“My
family, friends and community members were there to keep me going through their actions and words. Those words of encouragement were exactly what I needed to hear to keep fighting. Now I know, if my family can get through that, we can overcome anything as long as we work together.”
Joseph Goni, Lerda-Goni Farms
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
RICK BRAND Region 2
SADIE FRERICKS Region 60A
STEPHEN MANCEBO Region 80
SUKALSKI Region 60
BUHR Advisory
HABEDANK Region 1
ANDY MASON Region 50
TROIKE Region 4
CHERWOO Advisory
HARNISH Region 50
NORDLIE Advisory
ZONNEVELD Region 80
JOHN
STEVE
BRIAN
SHARDA
LIZ
CHRIS
JEFF
JOSH
PAUL COPPIN Advisory
AARON JOHNSON Region 4
JEFF PECK Region 60B
CARL DICKINSON Region 2
JEFF JOHNSON Region 1
ROSS PLUMBERG Region 3
JARED FERNANDES Region 80
NEAL KEPPY Region 2
JOEY FERNANDES Region 80
WALLY KNOCK Region 5
PAUL SCHWEIGER Region 1
STAN STARK Region 3
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM
BETH FORD President & Chief Executive Officer
YONE DEWBERRY SVP & Chief Supply Chain Officer
CHRIS PEARSON SVP, Land O’Lakes, Inc. & President, Animal Nutrition
BRETT BRUGGEMAN EVP & Chief Operating Officer, Ag Businesses
JOHN ELLENBERGER SVP, Land O’Lakes Venture37
BILL PIEPER EVP & Chief Financial Officer
LEAH ANDERSON
SVP, Land O’Lakes, Inc. & President, WinField United
