Land O'Lakes, Inc. announced plans to move forward immediately on the development of a world-class, state-of-the-art cheese and whey processing facility in the Central Valley area of California. The cooperative currently operates two other facilities in California -- a large, multi-purpose dairy plant in Tulare and a smaller cheese plant in Orland.

"We plan to incorporate the newest technologies, systems and processes into this plant so that we excel in the production of high quality Cheddar and Italian cheeses and next generation whey fractions. Most importantly, this plant will be an industry model for linking the production of dairy farmers with the changing and expanding needs of domestic and international customers,'' said Jack Prince, Land O'Lakes executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Dairy Foods Commodity group.

When fully functioning, the new facility will have the capacity to process 6 million pounds of milk per day - making it one of the largest such plants in the world. Land O'Lakes officials said the production of bulk Cheddar and Mozzarella cheeses at the new plant will help meet a strong domestic market for these products and the whey fractions will serve a rapidly expanding global demand for sports and dietary drinks and other products that incorporate healthful milk properties.

"Across the entire Land O'Lakes system, we are making major investments in building, updating and modernizing our East Coast, Midwest and West Coast production facilities. While this will remain an on-going process, our goal is to provide an outstanding market for our 6,000 producer-members and exceptional quality products for our customers,'' said Prince.

Land O'Lakes is a national food and agricultural cooperative owned by farmers, ranchers and farm supply cooperatives in 30 states. It is a leading marketer of dairy products across the U.S., serves international customers with a variety of food products and animal feed ingredients, and provides family farmers and member cooperatives with an extensive line of feed, seed, plant food and crop protection products.

Company news release
N2138