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ARDEN HILLS, Minn., and REDMOND, Wash. July 15, 2020 Land OLakes Inc. and Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced a multiyear strategic alliance to pioneer new innovations in agriculture and enhance the supply chain, expand sustainability practices for farmers and the food system, and close the rural broadband gap. As one of the nations largest farmer-owned cooperatives with 150 million acres of productive cropland in its network, Land OLakes is deeply connected to rural America and has a unique understanding of farmers needs and the communities where they and their families live and work. Combined with Microsofts trusted cloud technologies and AI capabilities, the companies will deliver solutions that help farmers profit potential and adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. farms contribute more than $130 billion to the economy, emphasizing the critical role farmers play in our nations food supply. Yet the industry faces challenges that threaten its viability, including climate change, trade issues and an evolving workforce. With the emergence of COVID-19, the industry is increasingly facing production and supply-chain issues, and many farmers are facing new economic challenges for their family-owned businesses.

Land OLakes is one of the most important food suppliers in the U.S., and our nations farmers and consumers rely on its ability to rapidly adapt to changing market forces through innovation, said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. Through our partnership, we will apply the power of Azure and its AI capabilities to help Land OLakes solve some of the most pressing challenges facing the industry and bridge the divide between rural and urban communities.

As Americas farmers continue to deliver the worlds safest, most affordable food supply, they face an increasing number of obstacles that are beyond their control. The data-based, precision agriculture tools that we are building with Microsoft will provide the edge they need, but unreliable or nonexistent high-speed internet in rural areas keeps these tools out of reach for many. Through this alliance, we will work to address this need and help farmers remain profitable and sustainable, said Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land OLakes, Inc.

Accelerating agriculture innovation

Initially, the companies will focus on developing a connected AgTech platform, built on Microsoft Azure, that will bring together Land OLakes portfolio of innovative AgTech tools, such as WinField Uniteds R7 Suite, Data Silo and Truterra Insights Engine under one unified architecture. By standardizing on Azure and harnessing the power of Azure FarmBeats, Land OLakes will be able to derive insights that enable intelligent agriculture solutions for farmers to be more productive with their time and resources. This includes early mitigation of plant stress to guide precisely where and when farmers should take action on their field for ideal growth conditions, maximization of yield potential by planting the right seed varieties and nutrients, optimizing fertilizer investments, and ensuring accurate output ratio to meet demand properly, all while lowering the farm carbon footprint.

Built on top of the AgTech platform, the companies will collaborate to advance an aggregator of data with Data Silo, as well as leverage Microsoft Azure and its AI capabilities and insights from WinField United Answer Plot test fields, to support more predictable decisions for placement of crop inputs such as seeds and treatments, with the goal of increasing return on investment with the entire acre.

The companies will create a Digital Dairy solution, harnessing the power of edge computing to capture data from farms with poor internet coverage, and the power of AI to provide data-driven insights for dairy producers. This initiative will bring together multiple data streams including weather, feed management and animal health from sensors and third-party applications to help dairy producers improve profit potential, adopt conservation practices and reduce waste by feeding livestock only what they need and ensuring milk supply doesnt go bad in the supply chain. Through the Digital Dairy solution, the companies will enable Traceability throughout the Land OLakes supply chain, providing transparency to milk, butter and cheese, ensuring consumer confidence that foods are of the highest quality and sustainably sourced. At a time when the dairy industry is stressed with changing customer demand and supply-chain disruptions, these digital tools will help producers improve efficiencies and profit potential, while helping to ensure food gets to the people who need it most.

Advancing sustainability initiatives

With the challenges of a changing climate, more extreme weather and a growing world population, Land OLakes and Microsoft share a commitment to sustainability and natural resources stewardship to help farm fields be both more resilient and productive for generations to come. We can help farmers improve the health and function of their farms soils to both produce more food and store greenhouse gas, including carbon. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that agricultural soils could hold up to 10% of human-caused emissions within 25 years. Yet, soils are largely absent from global carbon markets. As a result, farmers lack adequate information and incentives to practice regenerative agriculture to capture and store carbon.

The companies are working together to change that by developing a technology suite to help farmers improve their profit potential and generate new revenue in carbon markets. The new alliance will develop capabilities to quickly and effectively predict the carbon benefits of regenerative practices like no-till, precision nutrient management and planting of cover crops. Combining such capabilities with the real-time transparency from remote sensing and satellite data will make certification of these projects in global carbon markets easier, quicker and less expensive ultimately maximizing the economic value for farmers.

The companies will explore integrating these new capabilities into the Truterra Insights Engine to create a unique soil health platform that can help farmers identify new opportunities to adopt practices to improve the quality and function of their farms soils, estimate the natural resource and economic benefits of those new practices, generate soil carbon credits, and connect to soil carbon markets that sell certified credits to buyers.

The platform would help unlock the potential of hundreds of millions of acres of farmland to be an effective carbon removal system and improve soil health and productivity, while providing farmers with the insights they need to make the best decisions for their farms. Markets like these may help Microsoft reach its goal to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emitted since its founding by 2050, and help other businesses take advantage of soil carbon credits and the market to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Connecting rural America

Broadband is essential to fully participate in the modern economy. Unfortunately, more than 18 million Americans, 14 million of whom live in rural communities, dont have access to broadband connections. Both companies are working to connect rural communities: Microsofts Airband Initiativehas worked around the country to eliminate the rural broadband gap, and Land OLakesAmerican Connection Projectaims to close the digital divide through action and advocacy.

The companies are launching pilots that will lead to long-termprogrammatic solutions in rural communities. Combining Microsofts Airband program and specific locations within the Land OLakes owner network, broadband will be deployed to rural communities along with services including telehealth,educational resourcesand digital skilling. Both companies are also advocating for policy changes to accelerate the availability of broadband in rural communities, including broadband mapping to fully understand who has and does not have access to broadband, and federal funding in upcoming legislation.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic makes the digital divide even worse for many people. Remote work, education and healthcare are out of reach for people living in rural communities without online access. The companies are answering this immediate need for connectivity by working together toturn on free publicWi-Fiat more than 150+ locations in 19 statesusinga mix of technologies, including fixed wireless, and supplying internet service providers with the necessary hardware.

Land OLakes to transition its IT platforms to Microsoft

Through this agreement, Microsoft becomes Land OLakes strategic cloud provider, and Land OLakes will migrate the majority of the companys IT infrastructure onto Microsoft Azure. The company has enabled Microsoft 365 and Teams for its workforce, empowering them with next-generation digital experience technology for increased productivity, advanced security, internal collaboration and customer engagement.

About Land OLakes Inc.

Land OLakes, Inc., one of Americas premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member-owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. With 2019 annual sales of $14 billion, Land OLakes is one of the nations largest cooperatives, ranking 232 on the Fortune 500. Building on a legacy of more than 99 years of operation, Land OLakes today operates some of the most respected brands and businesses in agriculture and food production including Land OLakes Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Truterra, LLC. The company does business in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. Land OLakes, Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Arden Hills, Minn.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777,rrt@we-worldwide.com

Land OLakes Media Relations, Brooke Dillon, (651) 202-1670, BDillon@landolakes.com

Note to editors:For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center athttp://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsofts Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed athttps://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

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Land O'Lakes and Microsoft form strategic alliance to pioneer new innovations in agriculture and support rural communities - Stories - Microsoft