The Board of Directors
Land O'Lakes, Inc.:

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Land O'Lakes, Inc. and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2000 and 1999, and the related consolidated statements of operations, cash flows and equities for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2000, appearing on pages 24 through 31. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits.

We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Land O'Lakes, Inc. and subsidiaries at December 31, 2000 and 1999, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2000 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.