annual report 2015

This annual report contains discussion of some of our expectations regarding CROPP Cooperative’s future performance. These forward-looking statements are based on our current views and assumptions. Actual results could differ materially from these current expectations and projections and from historical performance. For example, our future results could be affected by factors including but not limited to the competitive dynamics in the markets for organic dairy products; the cost and supply of organic milk; the cost of organic farm products and organic feed; the mix of sales of our branded and non-branded products; the application of, and changes in, the United States Dairy Support and Federal Milk Marketing Order programs; and the adoption of regulations pursuant to the Food Safety Modernization Act. Discussions of these matters and other risks to which CROPP Cooperative is subject can be found in the Offering Circular(s) (and any associated supplements or amendments) we distribute from time to time in connection with the offer and sale of our Class E, Series 1 Preferred Stock. A copy of such Offering Circular and any current supplements or amendments can be obtained for informational purposes by contacting Diane Gloede, investor relations manager, by mail at CROPP Cooperative,

ATTN: Diane Gloede, One Organic Way, La Farge, WI 54639, or by telephone at 888-444 6455 extension 3310.

PurposePURITYOF

ANNUAL REPORT 2015One Organic Way • La Farge, WI 546391.888.444.MILK • WWW.OV.COOP

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Gretebeck Family FarmWisconsin

On the cover:Ranck Family FarmPennsylvania

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Keith WilsonDirectorWilson FarmCuba City, WI

Pam RiesgrafVice PresidentFull Circle Organic DairyEdgar, WI

Arnie TrussoniPresidentElm Terrace FarmGenoa, WI

Steve PiersonTreasurerSar-Ben Farms, Inc.St. Paul, OR

Dan PearsonSecretaryPearson’s Mann Valley FarmRiver Falls, WI

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Mark KruseDirectorKruse Family FarmLansing, IA

George SiemonChief Executive Officer

Mike BedessemChief Financial Officer

Eric NewmanVice President, Sales

Theresa MarquezMission Executive

Roger PetersDirectorPeters Family FarmChaseburg, WI

Louise HemsteadChief Operations Officer

Travis ForguesVice President, Farmer Affairs

Lewis GoldsteinVice President, Brand Marketing

Jim WedebergDairy Pool Director

Frank DravisChief Information Officer

Melissa HughesGeneral Counsel and Government Relations Director

David PorembaCooperative Controller

Jerry McGeorgeVice President, Cooperative Affairs

CROPP COOPERATIVE ANNUAL REPORT 2015

Holter Family FarmMaryland


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One billion.

I’ll go out on a limb and guess that number is on a lot of minds

around here these days.

It’s definitely a number I didn’t come across often growing up on

the farm, although my mom and dad used to talk about how the

old folks loved a good pigeon pot-pie. I always thought they were

pulling my leg, until I read somewhere about the unbelievably huge

flocks of passenger pigeons that used to nest in this part of the

Midwest. Hundreds of millions of birds stormed in every so often

and darkened the sun like a thunderhead.

In 1871, there were so many pigeons that their nesting grounds

stretched halfway across my home state, covering 850 square

miles. With as many as 100 nests in a tree, they cracked the

branches of every forest between the Mississippi River and

Wisconsin Dells as they hatched another generation.

According to what I read, that was one billion birds, give or take.

As we move into 2016, CROPP Cooperative is stronger than ever;

$1.04 billion in annual sales is phenomenal, something we should

be very proud of, and we should celebrate our part in the growth of

organic agriculture. I am proud of each of you, farmer and employ-

ee, and how your hard work together has planted better seeds for

everyone.

But we also need to remember that even though we are bigger and

stronger, we are not invincible. We must not get careless with our

future. It’s been a long, difficult journey to get here, and we need to

stick close to the map we set out with or we could easily lose our

way. As we look ahead into 2016, that’s exactly what we plan to do.

As America’s (and the world’s) giant food companies make unprec-

edented investments in organic, there will be plenty of changes in

the organic marketplace, and we will make appropriate adjust-

ments. It will be up to us to shine a bright light on and hold tight to

the original mission of CROPP Cooperative: to keep family farmers

on their land by making better food through strict organic practices.

Think back to the stormy sky over family farms in the 1980s. We all

remember the poisonous “get big or get out!” Something else that

we may not remember so clearly is the same dark sky over millions

of American families who wanted wholesome food but could not

get it from the established industrial, chemical farming system.

CROPP’s pioneers didn’t have a crystal ball, and there was no

guarantee their new cooperative thinking would succeed.

What they did have was an uncrushable belief in the organic good

that cinched together their family farms and their customers in

America’s cities, folks who were drowning in industrial food. CROPP

tossed them a line, which turned out to have a float at each end.

This ongoing mutual rescue is the not-so-secret sauce in the

purpose of CROPP, as far as I can tell.

You’ll see the amazing results in this report in terms of stable

pay price, sustainable family farms and the growth of organic

agriculture, the pillars of our purpose. But that bond is the thing.

If we intend to soar high in constantly changing skies, we have

to remember that we—CROPP farmers, employees, partners and

consumers—are and will always be the feathers of one bird, flying

toward its homeland, not far ahead.

Arnie TrussoniPresident

1President of the Board Annual Report 2015

THE PURPOSE OF CROPP

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTARNIE TRUSSONI

PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD

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As we review the past year in this report, we have lots to be

thankful for. 2015 was a turning point for our cooperative as it

evolved into a mature cooperative and business. Once again, we

have shown our flexibility in handling a fast-changing business

that has to constantly adapt to the marketplace.

While we revisit our many accomplishments of the last year, it

is critical to remember our big picture as well. Today we deliver

daily the highest quality products in the U.S. to millions of

consumers, reaching $1.04 billion in sales; our $36.8 million in

2015 profits meant farmers, employees and our Community Giving

fund received profit sharing; we provide a lifeline to more than

1,837 members who received a record-high average pay price in

2015 (see Financial Summary, page 8); we provide meaningful

employment to 875 staff members and support our rural economy;

we are past and present leaders in the organic movement and will

continue to lead into the future. We have an important role in all

of these fields and should be proud of our accomplishments.

Amid our well-deserved celebrations, we remind ourselves that

we can never stop improving in order to face the changes that

are always coming at us. As we complete our 27th year, we face

challenges we have never faced before. We are no longer the

dreamy-eyed visionaries of our younger years. Today our success

has brought a reality where we are part of a bigger challenge

than we have ever faced as every major food corporation takes on

organic brands and puts new competitive pressure on CROPP. The

organic market has always moved in cycles, and we have recently

experienced another gold rush. The high organic commodity prices

have invited all suppliers, domestically and globally, big and small,

to join this exciting organic supply opportunity. As we face that

challenge, it is important that we know the best path forward and

what values are critical to carry forward.

I have been with the co-op since our beginning, first as a dairy

farmer, then as an employee. As I look forward, I see my focus as

preparing the cooperative for the future. My concern is not only

about who will replace me and other management members, but

more important, how we solidify our cooperative’s position and

build our values into our foundation so that we are not dependent

on individuals to safeguard the cooperative. This work must be

accomplished on both the cooperative membership side and the

business side.

Building on our Cooperative FoundationWhen we started the co-op, the farmers did much of the work.

Farmers volunteered to unload cheese, pour concrete and build an

addition onto our Old Main building, and they made or were part of

many decisions. But that was when we had only a small number of

members. That era was difficult but very rewarding and important

to our “can do” foundation.

Today our job is bigger, harder, but just as important: How do

we serve thousands of families and still be meaningful for the

members? This is our task today. In ten years we want to look back

and say that we sure are glad we put the energy into renewing our

cooperative as a large, mature business.

2 CEOAnnual Report 2015

Embracing Change: Renewing our Cooperative

FROM THE CEOGEORGE SIEMONCHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Kaufman Family FarmPennsylvania


We are very clear that our purpose is to always be a farmer-

owned cooperative. We often use the term “farmer-run,” and that

is something we need to clarify as, really, the business is run by

the employees under the guidance of the farmer-owners. Farmers

have a unique role of being caretakers of the land and their local

communities and devoted to the long-term values of their society.

Similarly, the role of farmers in our cooperative is to be caretakers

of the cooperative, to ensure we stay true to our mission. This

has always been true, but our maturation and size now affirm and

requires this.

Our cooperative was founded on doing the right thing, guided by a

mission. That simple clarity is what we now need to remember as

we face a rebirth that is going on in our cooperative. That rebirth

is not just about market realities, but also about our democracy as

a mature, large cooperative. As we consider our future, we need

to remember and reconfirm the values that have made us suc-

cessful. At the Cooperative Leadership Summit in the fall of 2015,

we reviewed our Foundation Principles and our Lessons Learned,

and these documents will be sent to our membership in 2016. I

really encourage our farmer-owners reading this to study those

documents and understand the foundation of our success.

This is not a nostalgic exercise but one of utmost importance in

facing change as we grow.

When we first started the cooperative, we wanted to build a

business model that respected the need for family farms to receive

a fair, sustainable, stable pay price. As we faced the realities of

such a big purpose, we quickly discovered that our mission had to

include how to build a sustainable, respectful and fair business. In

order to fulfill those values, we had to make sure we were not like

the corporations we were trying to replace. We could not counter

greed with greed. We could not expect respect without respecting

our business partners. We could not be fair to our family of farms

without being fair to our family of employees. We found that a

partnership of the cooperative’s many stakeholders was the key

to success. Having a capable and competent leadership of

both staff and farmers gives us the strength and

vision to sustain the cooperative as we

navigate a changing world.

3CEO Annual Report 2015

MILLER Family FarmNEW YORK



PURITY OF Purpose

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McMahan Family FarmWashington


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Today on the cooperative side, I see a real need to renew the

cooperative in its democratic processes. As we are eager to serve

more family farms, we have to face being a bigger business. This

only increases the need for renewal. Just like the work we did 27

years ago to start a co-op that would be true to its purpose was

pioneering, the work ahead to have a successful large cooperative

that remains true to its purpose and is democratic and engaging

for its members is also pioneering. We cannot lament that the

cooperative is not like it used to be. Instead, we need to focus on

how we want the cooperative to be today and into the future.

At the board of directors and management level, we are exploring

the concept of governance to guide our continual improvement.

Governance means clarifying our purpose and establishing clear

responsibilities, roles and accountability that best serve our

mission. This complex concept is about building a culture of

collaboration between the members and employees that evolves

as the business grows. Governance requires establishing clear

outcomes and processes to guide the business rather than trying

to be in on every decision.

Our objective in renewing our democracy is to make membership

in the cooperative meaningful and to provide new and refined

avenues for input from members. Some of the steps we are

taking include revisiting the role and charter of the Pool Executive

Committees, discussing how best to have a meaningful dialogue

in a large telephone conference call, forming new committees to

address issues like animal welfare and sustainability, taking a new

look at the structure of our regional meetings, considering staff’s

role in furthering policy development, prioritizing farmer leadership

development, clarifying the board’s and management’s unique

roles, and endless other tasks to ensure a vibrant, meaningful

democracy for our cooperative now and in the years to come.

On the business side, our work includes the employees, long-term

strategy, capital investments and leadership development. Our co-

operative is blessed with a vibrant employee base that is growing

ever stronger as professionals dedicated to our mission. We are

working on further development and training programs because

we want to grow our future leadership from the inside. We are

also actively looking into capital investments to gain efficiencies,

safeguard our supply chain and position us for the future.

CommunityA foundational tenet for our cooperative is the commitment to

the good of the community in serving our mission. The founders

did not elect to have a closed co-op that would have made them

wealthy; they elected to prioritize serving the future. Our transition

funds help new members who are strapped with low conventional

prices to invest in organic agriculture. We share in the expenses

of a second-to-none resource team of veterinary, agronomy and

animal nutrition professionals to help the individual member. We

provide leadership to build the organic movement, which benefits

organic farmers outside our cooperative. This is who we are and

who we want to be in the future.

Our diversity of members is an asset but requires us to accept

our differences, whether big or small, west or east, Plain folks,

tie stall or free stall, Jersey or Holstein. Each represents diversity

and is the definition of a healthy community. Sometimes members

challenge some of our philosophy, and that is healthy. Not agree-

5CEO Annual Report 2015



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ing on things is part of diversity, and that is why we need to know

our values, be willing to revisit them and accept challenges.

A Well Run, Mission-Based BusinessAs we set out to serve the family farm community, we soon real-

ized that we had to broaden that community to a wider circle.

I can remember when we were just a supply co-op to one customer

in the first year, and we thought we could make do with just one

employee. We quickly found that employees were the needed

partner to fulfill our mission, and they joined our community. We

formed the concept of the “Y in the Road,” which represents the

powerful alliance of the farmers and the employees within clear

roles and performance measures.

We also found that partnerships and relationships were the foun-

dation to a sound business. Successful companies have a culture

of working together, clear goals and leadership with a vision to be

a responsible business. This is our job now as a cooperative: to

renew our business in order to be a model of what a farmer-owned

cooperative and responsible business can be. This will require our

members to participate in that process and the business to invest

dollars to support this renewal.

Organic food has changed our society forever. The success of or-

ganic food is a great example of citizens taking action and solving

problems. Our cooperative has been a leader in this movement,

and we must keep renewing ourselves to stay in the lead, not only

for the benefit of our members, but also for the health of our earth,

our people and our society.

Thanks for being part of our great cooperative.


In December, Organic Prairie officially

announced its partnership with Dombrovski

Craft Meats, a family-owned meat processing

plant located in Foley, Minnesota. The co-op

purchased a majority interest in the plant. This

collaboration with the Dombrovski family will

support local farmers and increase the regional

supply of meat as consumer demand grows

for sustainably-sourced, high-quality, organic

beef, pork, and poultry. The meat industry is

challenged by a lack of sustainable, small-to-

mid-size processing plants serving organic

producers, and Organic Prairie is excited to

work with Dombrovski Craft Meats, Lorentz

Meats and the Vermont Packinghouse to serve

this industry need.


Helmick Family FarmWest Virginia 7CEO Annual Report 2015


8 Financial ReportAnnual Report 2015

2015 was a record-breaking year for the cooperative: record sales,

record profits and record famer pay prices. We started the year

with aggressive price increases for our products and equally ag-

gressive price increases for our farmers. Would our business model

sustain a $20 per hundredweight (cwt) organic dairy premium over

conventional prices? Would the consumer continue to support

our higher prices on the shelf as the price of conventional dairy

declined? We believed in our plan, but our plan was aggressive.

Sales exceeded $1.04 billion, to be exact—a milestone, for sure,

in the growth of any business. I feel good about this milestone

because we have created a foundation to make this level of busi-

ness sustainable. We should be able to digest this level of activity

and continue to grow. That said, we continue to invest significant

dollars to improve our systems.

That never stops.

Profits set an all-time record at $36.8 million after tax, or 3.5% of

sales. Many things went well for us in 2015 that combined to create

a record year: high organic utilization, reduced line losses at the

plants, strong branded sales, low diesel fuel prices, lower-than-

planned marketing spending, and high conventional butterfat prices.

In recognition of the extraordinary profit accomplishment, the

board of directors distributed a 13th check to all farmer-owners,

as well as a profit sharing check to farmer-owners, employees and

our community giving funds.

Dairy pay prices achieved a national average pay price of $36.79

per cwt, resulting in a $19.28 per cwt organic premium over the

average conventional price. Prior to this year, our highest organic

premium was $14.37 per cwt, which occurred in 2009 during the

recession. Egg, meat, soy and produce pay prices also hit record

levels during the year.

A YEAR OF GREAT BLESSINGS

FINANCIAL REPORTMIKE BEDESSEMCHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Westaby Family FarmIllinois


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9Financial Report Annual Report 2015

The cooperative’s balance sheet continues to strengthen. Low debt

and retained profits safeguard the cooperative and act as a shock

absorber for the future. We are in the strongest financial position

in our history.

Our financial position allows us to be leaders in the organic

industry. We can change the lives of farmers and consumers as we

work to bring them the benefits of organic production and food.

We have much to be thankful for.

TOTAL SALES

$1.04 billion

% INCREASE OVER 2014 7%

PROFIT

$36.8 million

AVG DAIRY PAY

$36.79

ORGANIC PREMIUM

$19.28 per cwt


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10 A Farmer’s VoiceAnnual Report 2015

Farm succession has become a key focus at CROPP and is essential for the long-term viability of agriculture and our cooperative. Each succes-sion story is unique, and the Collman family story is just one example, but there are underlying themes that apply to every family working through a change of ownership on their farm, including the desire to protect the land and uphold the organic mission for future generations.

My husband, Andy, and I have been working with my parents, Gary

and Connie Moore, on our family farm for 15 years. The fate of our

farm is very much on our minds these days. I know a lot of farmers

who are in the same position when it comes to succession planning,

so I wanted to share a little of our story with you all.

The process has been both interesting and frustrating, but Andy and

I are really lucky because my parents truly want us on the farm, so

we have a great foundation of love and trust to work from. One of

the deepest frustrations is finding professionals who can help with

advice about various business structures to pursue.

My mom and dad have a will that bequests their slice of the farm to

me and Andy, but their will is 10 years old, and the extended-family

ownership is complicated enough that such a designation is no

guarantee their wishes will be met. We are trying to come up with

a more secure solution for the future of our much-loved dairy.

We began the process in 2014 by establishing a partnership. As

we continued to research the best way to secure the farm for the

future, it turns out the partnership is only a bare-bones beginning.

Because of some experiences my dad had when his dad passed

away, we realized we would need to create a partnership agree-

ment because the partnership alone doesn’t include a detailed plan.

The partnership agreement will detail all aspects of the partnership,

like what goes where and to whom, who has what stake in the

business, and who is responsible for which aspects of the business,

all in a legally binding way. Making those decisions between us is a

tough process to go through, but it protects us and the farm, and it

helps to avoid family conflict now and in the future.

You want your succession plan to move forward, not stand still. The

hardest part is constantly trying to figure out what’s next and how to

do it. We need to have a plan, but we don’t know where to go. It’s

hard and it takes time, but if you’re a farmer, you’re used to things

being hard and taking time!

Andy and I enjoy hosting schoolkids on the farm because we’re very

proud of our farm heritage and how we care for animals as they

deserve to be cared for. So one of the stories I love to tell the kids

is how, in the nearly 100 years our family has run this dairy, there is

only one day that we weren’t able to milk our cows twice a day, and

that was because of the Columbus Day storm in 1962. We believe

that’s a heritage worth saving.

We feel the same way about maintaining the clarity of purpose that

CROPP was founded on: stability for farmers and for the organic

market we rely on. As our co-op continues to grow, I imagine that

planning for the future of CROPP is as complicated and frustrating

as our farm succession planning has been; but it will be worth it to

know that our business can serve more and more farmers, employ-

ees and consumers like it has since CROPP started back in 1988.

Just like how we want to preserve our near-century farm’s heritage

for future generations, we believe our cooperative is a heritage

worth saving, too.

A Farmer’s Voice: A HeritAGE WORTH SAVING

A FARMER’S VOICEMELISSA COLLMANOREGON DAIRY FARMER-OWNER

Collman Family FarmOregon


11A Farmer’s Voice Annual Report 2015

You want your succession plan

to move forward,not stand still.


12 A Farmer’s VoiceAnnual Report 2015

A FARMER’S VOICEMELISSA COLLMANOREGON DAIRY FARMER-OWNER

clarity of purpose that CROPP was founded on:

stability for farmersand for the organic market we rely on.


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13A Farmer’s Voice Annual Report 2015

clarity of purpose that CROPP was founded on:

stability for farmersand for the organic market we rely on.


14 2015 Awards & RecognitionAnnual Report 2015

Farmer AwardsDavid Lathrop was awarded CROPP’s Ray Hass Award

in thanks for more than two decades of service as an advisor to the

co-op and board of directors. David retired from this position in 2015.

Dale Braunschweig (WI, dairy) received the CROPP

Sustainability Award for his focus on soil fertility, young farmer

mentorship and succession planning, and for reducing his farm’s

carbon footprint in numerous ways, including installing a solar elec-

tric system that provides nearly 100% of the farm’s electrical needs.

Tim and Emily Zweber (MN, dairy) received the

2015 Generation Organic Award for their commitment to organic

farming and preserving the family farm and rural communities, and

for their leadership in our co-op and the organic movement.

David and Karen Vander Zanden (MI, dairy)

received a 2015 National Dairy Quality Platinum Award, one

of the highest recognitions for milk quality in the nation. The family

was one of six chosen from a pool of 140 farms that use various

farming methods.

Karen and Allan Bathalon (VT, dairy) received

Vermont’s highest milk quality award of 2015.

Loretta and Martin Jaus (MN, dairy) were rec-

ognized by the White House as one of 12 Champions of Change

for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture. The Jaus’

Minnesota dairy farm is a model for how conservation and regener-

ative farming can work together to produce high-quality food while

also improving soil health and biodiversity.

Tom and Irene Frantzen (IA, pork and beef)

received the 2015 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture,

awarded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture for

outstanding contributions to Iowa’s farm community.

Business & Staff AwardsCultivating Excellence Award for Continuous Improvement:

Aaron Burrell, Packaging Department

Customer Service Annual Award: Steve Hanson,

Information Resources

Green Spirit Award: CROPP employees nominated

Dan Sonnenburg for going above and beyond to

incorporate environmental sustainability and green living into his

work and personal life.

Penny Pincher Award: The Cashton Distribu-tion Center reduced their costs by more than a half

million dollars by adopting many of the valuable traits of our

cooperative culture, including training, communication, account-

ability and processes improvement.

Media RecognitionIn 2015, the media relations team set a target of 1 billion impres-

sions and ended the year 11 percent over their goal.

The media relations team supports the cooperative’s mission and

marketing efforts by cultivating relationships with media profes-

sionals at newspapers, magazines, blogs, radio, and television.

The media responded positively to our outreach on new products in

2015. Our milk protein shakes and Save the Bros campaign

(see page 16) garnered exceptional media coverage in February and

August, and the introduction of Grassmilk Yogurt in July received

more than 34 million impressions in trade and consumer press.

Organic Prairie’s new Mighty Bars in two flavors using our 100%

grassfed beef were well-received by trade media, bloggers and

consumers looking for a healthful, protein-rich, on-the-go product.

Overall media impressions for Organic Prairie were around

500 million.

We also continue to educate the public about organic farming values

and methods. In September, the co-op hosted a series of USDA

farm tours that led to numerous regional and national news stories.

More than 14 million Americans were introduced to our farmers in

Minnesota and Maine via this widely syndicated coverage.

Awards & Recognition


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152015 Awards & REcognition Annual Report 2015

CROPP 2015 Quality Awards

AWARD OF EGG-CELLENCE: ColoradoYoder Farms, Co

AWARD OF EGG-CELLENCE: Midwest OmegaLucky H Acres, Wi

AWARD OF EGG-CELLENCE: MidwestScenic View Organic Eggs, LLC., Wi

AWARD OF EGG-CELLENCE: NortheastMelvin S. and Ada Mae Stoltzfus, PA

AWARD OF EGG-CELLENCE: Southern IowaJason M. Reid, Ia

BEST BEANS IN THE FIELDMarvin and Joia Eales, Ia

BEST BESSIER&G Miller and Sons, Inc., Wi

CHOICEST SIDE O’ BEEFDale Kruse, Wi

HIGH QUALITY MILK: MideastDavid and Karen Vander Zanden, Mi

HIGH QUALITY MILK: North CentralDavid E and Sarah Hochstetler, In

HIGH QUALITY MILK: NortheastKelvin K and Jessie Slayton, NY

HIGH QUALITY MILK: SouthChristian E. and Lydia Z. Beery, Va

HIGH QUALITY MILK: WestWalter and Irene Abplanalp, Wa

HIGH QUALITY MILK: WisconsinKevin and Mary Jahnke, Wi

HIGHEST GROWER POOL CROP QUALITYLynn Brakke Organic Farms, MN

PERFECT PORKBryan Berg and Linda Jostad-Berg, WI

PICKIEST PRODUCE PACKERMahlon L. Miller, Wi

TERRIFIC TURKEYJewell Enterprises, Inc., Ia

Product Awards

American Cheese Society2nd PLACE: Pasture Butter

2nd PLACE: Salted Butter

2nd PLACE: Kickapoo Blue Cheese

3rd PLACE: European Style Cultured Butter

3rd PLACE: Pepper Jack Cheese

Los Angeles International Dairy CompetitionGOLD: European Style Cultured Butter

GOLD: Salted Butter

GOLD: Cultured Unsalted Butter

GOLD: Chocolate Organic Fuel

GOLD: Pepper Jack Cheese

GOLD: Raw Monterey Jack Cheese

GOLD: Kickapoo Blue Cheese

GOLD: Grassmilk Raw Cheddar

GOLD: Half & Half

SILVER: Vanilla Organic Fuel

SILVER: Dark Chocolate Organic Balance

SILVER: Grassmilk Raw Sharp Cheddar

BRONZE: Vanilla Bean Organic Balance

BRONZE: Pasture Butter

U.S. Championship Cheese Contest1st PLACE: Pasture Butter

Wisconsin State Fair3rd PLACE: European Style Cultured Butter

World Cheese AwardsBRONZE: Grassmilk Raw Sharp Cheddar

World Dairy Expo3rd PLACE: 80% Whey Protein


Snack Sticks: Pepper Jack and

Mild Cheddar

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Organic Fuel sales increased 115%

and kept growing for months.

Chocolate and Vanilla Organic Fuel became the

#1 and #2 selling organic milk protein

shakes in the grocery channel!

“Organic Valley took a risk, living the bro

mantra ‘go big or go home,’ and it paid off.

Other marketing ‘bros’ should take note.”

NEW PRODUCTS

Save the Bros and its follow-up campaign, the Brononymous Hotline, earned a combined 10 million video views.

#SAVETHEBROS

Mighty Bars

Grassmilk Yogurt


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17Bringing the Good Annual Report 2015

Witmer Family FarmVirginia


18 CROPP CultureAnnual Report 2015

Outside Magazine’s 100 Best Places to Work in 2015

This year, we received affirmation of something we’ve always known: CROPP is one of the best places to work in the country! The rigorous evaluation process not only gathered data, it surveyed CROPPies randomly and anonymously in order to get honest feedback on what it’s like to work here.

Organic Valley was ranked 38th overall and 5th in the

Health and Wellness category!

CROPP Culture

“The Best Places to Work list represents the cream of the crop —

companies that empower their employees to live

bigger, better lives.”

“We are Forward thinking while,respecting our past.”16-55000 AR2015_inside_PROD.indd 18 3/24/16 10:17 AM

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CROPP Culture Annual Report 2015

“Cropp is more than an organization,

it is a family.”

“We are Forward thinking while,respecting our past.”19


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20 Bringing the GoodAnnual Report 2015

Trussoni Family FarmWisconsin

DIVERSIFICATION PROTECTS FAMILY FARMS20% of dairy pool membersare part of one or more additional pools

33% of CROPP membersare part of the egg, meat, produce,

and soy pools

PURITY OF Purpose

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This annual report contains discussion of some of our expectations regarding CROPP Cooperative’s future performance. These forward-looking statements are based on our current views and assumptions. Actual results could differ materially from these current expectations and projections and from historical performance. For example, our future results could be affected by factors including but not limited to the competitive dynamics in the markets for organic dairy products; the cost and supply of organic milk; the cost of organic farm products and organic feed; the mix of sales of our branded and non-branded products; the application of, and changes in, the United States Dairy Support and Federal Milk Marketing Order programs; and the adoption of regulations pursuant to the Food Safety Modernization Act. Discussions of these matters and other risks to which CROPP Cooperative is subject can be found in the Offering Circular(s) (and any associated supplements or amendments) we distribute from time to time in connection with the offer and sale of our Class E, Series 1 Preferred Stock. A copy of such Offering Circular and any current supplements or amendments can be obtained for informational purposes by contacting Diane Gloede, investor relations manager, by mail at CROPP Cooperative,

ATTN: Diane Gloede, One Organic Way, La Farge, WI 54639, or by telephone at 888-444 6455 extension 3310.

PurposePURITYOF

ANNUAL REPORT 2015One Organic Way • La Farge, WI 546391.888.444.MILK • WWW.OV.COOP

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On the cover:Ranck Family FarmPennsylvania


annual report 2015

Documents