On Board With The Chairman - January 2025
Dear Member-Owners,
Your board of directors met last week at the Visalia headquarters to hold our monthly
meeting. We started off a little different this month due toa director stepping down from his position on the board. After serving for nearly 17 years over two separate stints, Jay TeVelde, Jr. stepped off the board at the end of December. The membership has benefited from having Jay’s perspective on that board, and while he will be missed, we appreciate the commitment to the cooperative that he has shown over the 25-year existence of CDI. According to the bylaws, the remaining directors are able to appoint a new director from the District 2 membership to complete the remainder of the term. With that, we appointed Steve Scheenstra to serve the remainder of Jay’s term, which expires in Spring 2026. Jay was also the acting Secretary, so the board elected Aaron Matheron, director for District 4, to fulfill that officer position as Board Secretary.
Brad then provided his reports, starting with a high-level analysis of both the butter and powder markets and his insights into what the futures of these markets could do. As always, the staff is keeping a diligent eye on these and making sure both the sales teams and the plants are reacting to give us the best return as possible.
Jason Allen presented next with a financial report for the co-op, both for the month of December and an initial full-year 2024 look. It is worth noting that the full 2024 financials won’t be final until the annual audit process is complete, which is expected to be in March. With the H5N1 virus still affecting some of our herds, we’re still seeing the flows of milk into the plants being very stagnant, leaving some stranded costs for the plants to deal with. Jason and his team have done a terrific job working through these issues, and the board is looking forward to the final audit to see where the year-end financials end up at.
Rob Vandenheuvel was next and gave the board an update on the plant’s operations and some of the projects that have been taking place. Most of these projects are nearing completion and should be completed in time for the upcoming spring flush. These projects all involve optimizing our network and continuing to improve our efficiencies at the plants to provide better returns to the members.
We look forward to seeing many of you at the CDI Hospitality tent at the World Ag Expo coming up in the next week. Make sure you stop by to chat with friends and family and enjoy some of the food and drink that will be provided. It’s always a good time to catch up with everyone and enjoy the company of producers while taking a break from walking around the show. As always, please feel free to reach out to me or any of the directors with any questions or concerns.
All the best,
Cory Vanderham
Chairman of the Board
Vanderham West Dairy
Lazy V Farms
559-269-9618
