Land O’Lakes announced Thursday a $44 million net earnings during the fourth quarter of 2006. This is good news for the company’s many dairy farmers across the country.
Land O’Lakes, the Arden Hills-based dairy cooperative, Thursday reported $44 million in net earnings during its fourth quarter of 2006, a considerable improvement over 2005’s small fourth-quarter loss. Sales were down slightly, to $1.9 billion, due mostly to lower dairy prices.
For the year, Land O’Lakes reported $88 million in net earnings on $7.3 billion in sales. While both are below the previous year, 2005’s annual earnings were inflated by a large one-time gain from the sale of the co-op’s fertilizer operations. Excluding that one-time gain, Land O’Lakes earnings in 2006 rose nearly 50 percent.
Within the co-op, the strongest results came from Land O’Lakes’ well-known dairy products — the company makes the nation’s No. 1 brand of butter — and from its seed business. Dairy foods contributed $47.2 million to the year’s earnings, while the surging seed business contributed a record $40.1 million. Earnings in its feed business also were higher.
Weaker results came from the agronomy unit, called Agriliance, a joint venture with Inver Grove Heights-based farmer cooperative CHS. That unit reported a pretax loss of $16.3 million for the quarter. Its troubled MoArk egg business showed some improvement, with $1.6 million in pretax earnings for the quarter, but a $40.8 million loss for the year.