13. RESTRUCTURING AND IMPAIRMENT CHARGES

A summary of restructuring and impairment charges is as follows:

		2001			2000		1999
Restructuring (reversals) charges	$	(4,067	)	$	9,700	$	-
Impairment charges	7,800		44,526			3,856
Total restructuring and impairment charges	$	3,733	$		54,226	$	3,856

In 2001, the Company recorded restructuring and impairment charges of $3.7 million. Dairy Foods recorded a restructuring charge of $1.7 million, which had not been paid at December 31, 2001, for severance costs for 63 production employees resulting from the consolidation of production facilities. Feed reversed $5.7 million of a prior-year restructuring charge primarily due to a change in business strategy following the Purina Mills acquisition, which resulted in the decision to continue to operate plants that were held for sale at December 31, 2000. An impairment charge of $6.0 million related to the Company's feed operation in Mexico and held for sale at December 31, 2001, was recorded in order to value the business at its expected selling price less costs of disposal. Swine recorded an impairment charge of $1.8 million to reduce undeveloped land with permit issues to its estimated fair value.

In 2000, the Company recorded restructuring and impairment charges of $54.2 million. The restructuring charge of $9.7 million resulted from initiatives within Land O'Lakes Farmland Feed LLC to consolidate facilities and reduce personnel. Of the $9.7 million, $7.2 million related to the closing and planned sale of 12 plants and consisted of $5.5 million to write down the book value of the plants and $1.7 million for demolition and environmental clean-up. The remaining $2.5 million represented severance and outplacement costs for 119 non-plant employees. The impairment charge of $44.5 million resulted from a reduction in the carrying amounts of certain impaired assets to their estimated fair value, determined on the basis of third-party appraisals or estimated cash flows. The impairment was related to cheese marketing and production assets that were significantly underutilized due to changes in consumer product preferences and costs associated with sourcing raw materials. The impairment charge of $3.9 million in 1999 was related to underutilization of the Company's cheese production assets in Poland.

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