Land O'Lakes Plans West Coast Dairy Plant

Land O'Lakes is planning a new dairy plant in California's Central Valley area. The cheese and whey processing facility will have the capacity to process six million pounds of milk per day, making it one of the largest such plants in the world, according to the Minnesota-based cooperative on Tuesday. Currently there are two facilities in California, a multi-purpose plant in Tulare and a smaller cheese plant in Orland--no news on their future. But plans are to move forward immediately on the development of this "world-class, state-of-the-art cheese and whey processing facility."

The plant will produce "high quality Cheddar and Italian cheeses and next generation whey fractions," said Jack Prince, Land O'Lakes executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Dairy Foods Commodity group. "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."

The company said that production of bulk Cheddar and Mozzarella cheeses there "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." Additional modernizations are underway at East Coast, Midwest and West Coast production facilities.

Edited by Bob Sperber