What it means to belong to the Land O'Lakes Cooperative

This spring, Dan's kindergarten class and Monika's preschool class came out to our farm for a field trip. We also invited our Land O'Lakes dairy fieldman, Glen, to join us for the morning. As a fieldman, Glen is our constant link to the cooperative, and he’s also become a friend. (I love this photo of him holding Daphne – such a natural!)

When he got to the farm, the first thing Glen asked was, "What can I do to help?"

When the tour was over, we all sat down at our kitchen table for a couple of hours of good conversation, a couple of cups of coffee and a piece of the flourless turtle chocolate cake I've been trying to perfect.

This is just one illustration of the sense of togetherness Glen (my husband, not our fieldman — and, yes, it gets confusing) and I feel as part of the Land O'Lakes cooperative. From our fellow members to staff and leadership, it feels like we're all part of the Land O'Lakes family.

Our first Land O'Lakes dairy fieldman, Arvid, was like family, too. He was instrumental in helping us find a farm so that we could fulfill our dream of owning our own dairy farm. He also helped us attain our goal of producing top-quality milk.

Later, when Arvid invited us to attend a dairy industry leadership development conference, he volunteered to help with the chores on our farm so that we could be away.

When we first bought our farm, Arvid also helped us finalize our decision to continue our shared family tradition of Land O'Lakes membership and become members ourselves. My husband Glen's dad was a member-owner for all of the 30-some years he milked cows.

My dad and grandfather were both members of our small town cooperative creamery, which, in turn, was a member of the Land O'Lakes cooperative. My dad even served on the creamery's board of directors.

Our children have come to know our Land O'Lakes fieldmen as part of our extended dairy family, too. And I hope that one day they'll feel the same sense of connectedness to our cooperative that we do.

But, back to that flourless chocolate cake.

I found the inspiration for this cake while looking for a way to use up all of the extra eggs I have from our flock of laying hens.

The kids loved my first attempt, so I've been tinkering with the recipe to make it even better.

One of the key ingredients in this cake is butter. Because there are only a handful of ingredients, this cake depends on high-quality ingredients.

The same is true for LAND O LAKES^® Butter. With only two ingredients — sweet cream and salt — LAND O LAKES^® Butter requires high-quality milk.

This commitment to quality is the other reason why we value our Land O'Lakes membership, both because Land O'Lakes recognizes our commitment to producing quality milk and because, throughout the cooperative, quality is evident in every member, every employee, every interaction and every product.

I think about this each morning when I head out to the barn. Our dedication to providing the best possible care for our cows and to harvesting the highest quality milk allows countless others to enjoy Land O'Lakes milk, cheese and butter.

You can learn more about other Land O'Lakes farm family members like ours by visiting Our Story