The Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery Scholarship program supports members of our cooperative’s families who wish to continue their post high school education in Agriculture at a two-year technical school or four-year university. Congratulations to this year’s recipients!

Ethan Beaudry, Albertville, MN
Ethan is a graduate of St. Michael-Albertville (STMA) High School. He will be attending Ridgewater College in Willmar, MN where he plans to study Dairy and Farm Management.

Regina Frisle, Prairie Farm, WI
Regina is a graduate of Prairie Farm High School. She will be attending UW-Madison where she plans to study Animal Science (major) with Ag Business (minor).

Alexa Lindahl, Lindstrom, MN
Alexa is currently in her first year at UW-Stout where she studies Business Administration. She hopes to have a concentration in Finance or Food Science. She stives to one day contribute to the business side of agriculture.

Sophia Stelling, Millville, MN
Sophia is a graduate of Plainview-Elgin-Millville (PEM) High School. She will be attending UW-River Falls where she plans to study Dairy Science with a minor in Ag Business.

Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery’s 2023 Annual Meeting, which took place on Tuesday, March 28, capped off a fantastic 2022. The meeting included an informative presentation summarizing 2022’s financial results. As was shared at the meeting, our New London division experienced a large profit. This added some unique tax implications that we are working through. In addition, we’re working to leverage R&D credits to provide maximum value back to our patrons.

The meeting had a record number of participants, and we thank all who attended and actively participated with questions. 122 ballots from active members were cast in our board of directors’ election, which is a 54% participation rate. It’s great to see so many of our members active and engaging in the operations of our coop’s annual business.

Our nomination committee brought forward four great candidates for four director seats on the board.  The process is based on self-nomination, allowing for all interested members to take part in the process. Please join us in congratulating our new board of directors—we thank you for your service to our organization.

Back Row: Paul Bauer (CEO/Manager), Warren Johnson, Richard McNamara, Michael Carlsrud, Dan Rosen, Martin Hallock. Front Row: Alan Sigurdsen, Adam Place, Deric Lindstrom, Dulcie Anderson.

The officers met at their regular meeting and reelected Dan Rosen as board chair, Martin Hallock as first chair, Warren Johnson as second chair, Deric Lindstrom as secretary, and Michael Carlsrud as treasurer.

If you are interested in participating in our cooperative’s management in a larger way, we invite you to consider serving on our nomination committee. In this important role, you can learn about the board nomination process, and perhaps over time, consider serving as a board member yourself. To learn more, contact our board chair, Dan Rosen.

One last important reminder from the meeting in regard to equity for 2024. As explained by Paul Bauer at the meeting, based on historic performance and tax issues, there will be no equity issued in 2024. For 2023, the cooperative was able to get all the patronage out in the middle of March and we look forward to retiring the equity in early summer.

Now that you’ve had time to contemplate all the information shared at the annual meeting, you have questions, we invite you to reach out to a board member or Paul Bauer by email or phone. We welcome your questions and value patron members who are engaged and informed.