2023 December Board Book

opportunity and responsibility to demonstrate how farmers and processors need to be part of the conversation and solution to protect the future of farming. To successfully face and handle these challenges, we need to come together as a collective to learn from and work with one another. Farmers can’t solve these challenges alone and it will take action from all of us, but dairy farmers and producers deserve a seat at the table to help drive positive change. On a related topic, labor availability has been a challenge for many dairy processors recently. How have you worked to alleviate this problem? McClelland: We’re seeing some easing of post-COVID labor challenges. However, Prairie Farms is always looking to recruit new employees through partnerships with local colleges, attending job fairs, offering internships and sharing opportunities on social media. In general, manufacturing jobs are being overlooked among younger generations, and we believe our comprehensive management training program sets new recruits up for a long and successful career with Prairie Farms. Omer: The labor market in the areas we operate continues to be competitive. We continue to improve our benefits package, including adding competitive benefits such as paid parental leave. We offer on-demand pay, sign-on bonuses, have kept a hybrid work model for certain roles, and we continue to enhance our culture and opportunities for career advancement. Anfang: American dairy farms, including our co-op farmer-owners, have faced significant supply chain challenges the past few years. Everything from truck driver shortages to global shipping disruptions have resulted in significantly higher shipping and inventory costs. Land O’Lakes is always focused on being an employer of choice and we know that employees want flexibility in the workplace. In our manufacturing plants, we recently created and are rolling out a flexible work program and are recruiting for both full and part-time positions that allows for flexibility in hours worked. This has been especially popular with parents and caregivers, millions of whom left the workforce during the pandemic due to schools transitioning to distance learning, among other disruptions. As of this past summer, more than 50 Land O’Lakes manufacturing sites are using the flex labor program, with more than 150 total flex employees. The goal is to roll out the flex labor program at all 140 Land O’Lakes manufacturing sites. Diglio: As an industry, we have to compete for labor with other industries in a labor market that’s already short. The dairy industry needs to work together to show talents in the workforce the benefits of the industry, whether it’s the nutritional value of dairy products, our workplace’s stability in the market, or the growing use of technology to attract the next generation. In addition, when we talk about labor challenges, it’s not just about lack of labor, but the training of new employees in the workforce as well. A solution to the challenge is to implement technology to reduce the reliance on legacy processes that require excess human labor and to create efficiencies in workflows that save employees’ time. We need to continue investing in technology to adapt to workforce needs and prepare for the next generation of employees. We need to evaluate our employee policies: where they work from, how they work, and how many days a week they work. Today’s new generation of workers are different than in the past and it’s critical that we continue to adapt to the evolution of the workplace while meeting the demand for the products we produce. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a major buzzword this year. Do you think AI can help the dairy industry or you specifically? In what ways? Diglio: Our industry has an opportunity to capitalize on AI. I don’t have all the answers, but the speed with which AI can give us information and its ability to analyze data makes me believe that it addresses many of the challenges we’re facing today. Its ability to replicate and streamline processes is going to be critically important in the future, and it can be the solution to aligning supply and demand domestically and globally. Rodenbaugh: I don’t yet personally believe we’ve achieved artificial intelligence. I consider generative AI to offer increasingly functional algorithms that can support cognitive and operational enhancement applications. In the past, people worried that computers would eliminate jobs. They didn’t eliminate jobs, but they changed the way we live and how we performed our jobs. I see artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies as something that can improve our ability to be efficient performers and do more within the days and hours we have. Increasingly, employees are wearing multiple hats and are stretched. They need and deserve the type of support that artificial intelligence may offer. As soon as ChatGPT became available, I began trialing it. Not for business use, but I wanted to see what it could do and see how it evolved. I initially saw something in its infancy, which was simultaneously intelligent and dangerously inaccurate. However, month after month, I’ve seen improvements; effectively transitioning from a crawl to a walk and moving faster each day. I decided that our organization will not be in the middle of the pack or at the back of the pack with AI or emerging technologies. We must drive forward to the front to both understand how we adopt the best attributes and capabilities, as well as understand how to avoid the inevitable risks and dangers that accompany any technological breakthrough. As a result, we’re adding an Emerging Technology Officer role, and we’re building an enterprise-wide team across the organization to drive evaluation and integration of AI throughout the cooperative to maximize performance and avoid risks. McClelland: I like to say we prioritize our talent investment in HI (human intelligence), not AI. We believe the power of human intelligence is invaluable as the driving force behind the success of Prairie Farms. That’s not to say there isn’t a place for AI to help manage logistics, identify market trends, provide consumer insights and enhance other data management functions, but AI will always serve as secondary support to HI.