CoOps

Darigold Appoints New Interim Chief Executive Officer

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 15:36:29 GMT

One of the nation’s largest dairy companies, Darigold, Inc., announced that Chief Executive Officer, Joe Coote, is leaving the company, and the Board Chairman, Allan Huttema, has been named the interim CEO, effective immediately.

Coote, who has spent 12 years working globally in the dairy sector, joined Darigold three years ago as the president of its international ingredients division and was named the cooperative’s CEO in January 2022. The Australian native is stepping down from his role as he intends to return to his home country.

“Serving as CEO of Darigold the last two years was a great privilege,” Coote says. “I have enormous respect and admiration for our farmer-owners and the teams across our business that work so hard to keep our customers stocked with great, high-quality dairy products. Having been away from my home country for many years now, my family and I are ready to return to Australia to begin new adventures back home.”

Huttema shares that Joe took over as CEO at a time when the company was early into a transformation to grow and modernize the business.

“Under his leadership, we took significant steps forward on that effort, beginning construction of our new facility in Pasco, launching a migration of our business management systems, and beginning to develop a culture rooted in excellence in operations,” he says.

Huttema – one of Darigold’s 300 farmer-owners, has been a member of the cooperative business’ board of directors for the last nine years, of which he has held the position of chairman for the last three. He shares that he will take over as interim CEO with the benefit of having an extremely capable leadership team in place, including several Darigold veterans and newer leaders with proven track records across the dairy and consumer packaged goods sectors.

“Our business is structured to run around two divisions – business to business and business to consumer – each with experienced, proven leaders running them,” he says. “I have full confidence that the team and the structure we have in place will help ensure that we continue serving our customers in the way they have come to expect from us.”

Headquartered in Seattle, Darigold, Inc. is the marketing and processing subsidiary of the Northwest Dairy Association (NDA), which is owned by nearly 300 family-owned farms in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Darigold handles approximately 10 billion pounds of milk annually.

Select Sires Announces Merger, Four Cooperatives Will Now Become One

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 14:06:59 GMT

Recently, the board of directors from Select Sires four individual cooperatives voted unanimously to merge together as one full-service A.I. cooperative representing 25 U.S. states and the country of Mexico. The four cooperatives that will make up this merger are:

All West/Select Sires
COBA/Select Sires
Select Sires MidAmerica
Minnesota/Select Sires

The new cooperative, Select Sires Member Cooperative (SSMC), will go into effect on October 1, 2023.

“As a supporter of cooperatives, my goal was to help create something that would allow us to always remain a member-owned cooperative. We would be nothing without our members,” said Brett Gibbons, President of Select Sires MidAmerica, in a company press release. “This merger allows us to do just that, and from the beginning, it was evident that all of us wanted the same thing. This process was successful because of the unity shared amongst co-ops and more importantly, the general managers.”

Select Sires states that this merger process has been board led with directors feeling that this is the next logical step in an ever-evolving industry.

“We have four cooperatives that are in a strong financial position and have chosen to take a very proactive course to ensure that our members will continue to receive the top-level products and services that they’ve always enjoyed,” said Chad Steinberger, COBA/Select Sires President.

Chris Sigurdson, current General Manager of COBA/Select Sires and Minnesota/Select Sires, has been selected to serve as the chief executive officer of Select Sires Member Cooperative.

“There is so much synergy between the boards and Chris Sigurdson, as well as fellow current General Managers, Devin Albrecht and Rory White. This has been true ever since we began this process,” said Jerry Lanting, All West/Select Sires President. “We, as chairmen of each cooperative, have had in-depth discussions with all of them, and can confirm that they are excited to work together to make the cooperative even better for the members.”

The company states that the headquarters office will reside in Columbus, Ohio, with the Logan, Utah, office serving as a joint operational headquarters. All other present locations will remain operational at this time.

“I’m extremely excited about the future and the vision of the four cooperatives working together as one. It has been a lot of hard work, but all parties involved have worked so well together and created an awesome new entity,” said Jim Barthel, Minnesota/Select Sires President. “I am looking forward to the success of Select Sires Member Cooperative for its members and employees alike.”

For more industry news, read:

USDA Publishes Origin of Livestock Final Rule for Organic Dairy

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 12:19:38 GMT

A long-anticipated “origin of livestock” final rule has just been released by the UDSA that illustrates the uniform standards for transitioning dairy cattle to organic production. This change promotes a fairer and more competitive market for all organic dairy producers, by making sure that certified USDA organic dairy products are produced to the same consistent standard.

The USDA rule was originally proposed in 2015 but withdrawn in 2018. In late 2019, the USDA decided to reopen the comment period on the proposal.

The Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, states, “This action demonstrates the USDA’s strong commitment to America’s organic dairy farmers. The Origin of Livestock final rule provides clear and uniform standards about how and when livestock may be transitioned to organic dairy production, and how transitioned animals are managed within the organic dairy system. Now, all organic dairy livestock producers will have the confidence and certainty they are operating in a fair and competitive market.”

USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) will oversee the new rule, which in general:

Allows a dairy livestock operation transitioning to organic, or starting a new organic farm, to transition non-organic animals one time.
Prohibits organic dairies from sourcing any transitioned animals. Once a dairy is certified organic, animals must be managed as organic from the last third of gestation. Variances may be requested by small businesses for specific scenarios.

Statement From Organic Valley

Organic Valley released a statement saying they welcome the long-awaited announcement by USDA. The Origin of Livestock rule was originally published in 2015, this regulation clarifies the expectation for how dairy farms transition and source dairy cows for organic milk production.

The USDA has now clarified the Origin of Livestock to mean that a dairy operation can exercise a one-time transition event of the period of 12 months, thereafter all animals on the farm must be organic from the last third of gestation or an initial transition occurrence. The USDA requires the herd transition to be associated with a dairy operation that actively milks animals.

Organic Valley’s statement shared, “The USDA’s action falls in line with the thousands of public comments supporting the agencies narrowing of permissible organic dairy transitioned approaches. Our cooperative has been a leading voice and commented in the past three comment periods and had our board chair Steve Pierson testify on the topic in 2019 in front of the U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee for Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research.”

Furthermore, they share that while the final rule represents progress, Organic Valley will continue helping government agencies understand and alleviate the impact of one provision of the final rule that could negatively impact small farm intergenerational transfers of organic dairy operations.

“Origin of livestock has been a long-standing priority for Organic Valley. Our farmers have been disadvantaged by the lack of consistency on the origin of livestock for the last 20 years,” Organic Valley Board President and farmer-member, Steve Pierson says. “This is a priority that we have led nationally and over the last seven years, and while the regulation isn’t perfect, I am encouraged that there is finally some progress from the USDA on a vital aspect of the organic program.”

More information about the Origin of Livestock rule is available at: www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/national-organic-program-origin-livestock

Q&A With Lindsay Reames, VP, Sustainability & External Relations, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 13:22:11 GMT

This article was written by Nate Birt, Vice President of Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

A dairy farmer-centered approach to sustainability is unlocking new economic opportunities for family operations from New York to Georgia while pushing the envelope of what’s possible from conservation partnership programs.
One such program—a joint effort of the Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative, Turkey Hill Dairy and The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay—earned the 2020 Outstanding Supply Chain Collaboration Award from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Learn More about the 2020 Winners

What began in 2018 with support from a $250,000 Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has grown rapidly into more than $7 million in outside funding helping many of the cooperative’s 900-plus farm families averaging 125 cows each across 13 states continue adopting best management practices.

“To me, that’s the most exciting thing, because when you actually see new manure storage going in, when you see a stabilized barnyard for that farm, that could be there for the next 50 years,” explains Lindsay Reames, vice president of sustainability and external relations for the cooperative in a video interview with Farm Journal’s Trust In Food. “It’s not only going to help with their runoff and improving the overall environment, it’s going to help with the long-term profitability of that operation when we’re able to bring that level of investment to the farm.”

Eighty-seven percent of the cooperative’s farms operate within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, the largest estuary in North America and a water body that’s been deemed a National Treasure—so public and governmental scrutiny is especially top of mind for dairies. Partnerships such as this one present an opportunity to help dairy farmers further integrate sustainability into their businesses, which has changed the nature of dialogue about sustainability in the region.

“It’s really easy to have that conversation when you’re coming with resources and coming with solutions,” Reames says. “It’s a completely different conversation when you can come and say, ‘We have $60,000 to support you and your farm. How can we make you more sustainable?’ Rather than coming in and saying, ‘You have to do this, and you have six months.’”

Now, the cooperative and its partners in this program and others like it are using sustainability as a starting point for conversations about dairies’ plans for business growth and the future of the industry.

Learn more about sustainability trends and opportunities for eastern U.S. dairies in the attached video interview with Reames.

Q&A With Ken McCarty, Co-Owner And General Manager, MVP Dairy

Q&A With DMI President Barb O’Brien On Dairy UN Food Systems Dialogue

Q&A With Karen Scanlon, SVP, Environmental Stewardship At Dairy Management Inc.