PLAIN, Wis. — Cedar Grove Cheese first made its way into the specialty cheese business about a decade ago when owner Bob Wills decided it was necessary to transition the small family-owned cheese factory from a commodity operation in order to survive in an increasingly competitive market.

Since that time, Cedar Grove has built a niche for itself as a cheesemaker that makes a variety of specialty cheeses ranging from traditional Cheddar and its trademarked Squeaks cheese curds to the less common Butterkäse, all made with milk that is free of rBGH. About half the cheeses the company makes also are certified organic, which accounts for more than half of the company's actual sales dollars.

The company hasn't built just a niche for itself as a manufacturer of Cedar Grove specialty cheeses. In addition to more traditional private label relationships, of which Cedar Grove has many, the company has found a new calling in recent years — working directly with farmers who want to add value to their milk by making specialty cheese.

Wills says these kinds of relationships first started a few years ago with farmers approaching him. One of the first groups was Family Farm Defenders, who wanted to create a cheese that drew attention to the farmers who supply milk for cheese and resulted in higher margins for producers.

More relationships ensued when word got out that Wills was willing to work with individual groups.

Making specialty cheese for a particular group really began taking off in 2000, when dairy farmer Mike Gingrich formed Uplands Cheese and contracted with Wills to make the cheese. The cheese, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, is made using unpasteurized milk from a single herd of cows on summer pasture and has enjoyed a large measure of success, particularly after being judged the best in the country in the 2001 American Cheese Society's annual competition.

Wills attributes Pleasant Ridge Reserve's success to it being a unique product with ecological and health benefits (studies show that cows that are grazed produce milk that contains increased levels of conjugated linoleic acid, a compound to which cancer-fighting traits are attributed). He expects the market for the cheese to continue to grow, and during its production season this year he estimates the cheese will be made three or four days a week, up from its original once-every-other-week production.

Since Cedar Grove started making cheese for Uplands Cheese, several others have joined the ranks of producers who want to take advantage of a specific market niche. Cedar Grove makes Northern Meadows brand Cheddar for the Wisconsin Dairy Graziers Cooperative, Still Meadows brand flavored cheeses, and kosher cheese for Rosen Specialty Foods and Mitzvah Farms. For Mitzvah Farms, Cedar Grove manufactures "high" kosher cheeses made from Mitzvah Farms' own milk which is produced at farms that are rabbi-supervised during milking.

Cedar Grove is able to produce these cheeses because it has a number of smaller tanks and vats that allow it to segregate milk for specific cheeses, Wills says. The company also is willing to experiment with a number of flavors and spices, he says.

Wills continues to discuss possibilities with other producers who are interested in having cheeses made for them with either their own milk or with Cedar Grove milk. However, Wills encourages them to think long and hard about it and come up with a value-added idea. Either a producer needs to be sales savvy or have a unique product, he says. Having both helps.

"People are still approaching us with these kinds of projects," Wills says. "We encourage them to think hard about it. I see some ideas that I don't believe will be successful. Not everyone producing milk is going to be successful having a cheese made for them."

The company hopes to continue taking on these projects, though.

"I'm hoping we'll have continuing flexibility to do special projects and innovative things as they come up," he says.

Meanwhile, amidst working on custom projects and private label cheeses for big names such as Swiss Colony, Cedar Grove also is working on its own branded products as well as updating its packaging.

In addition, Cedar Grove currently is introducing a Havarti for private label as well as its own label. It also is redoing its labels, new ones of which will be unveiled over the next several months.

Wills says he chose to redo the labels because he believed it was time for a new look.

"I figured when I was bored with the labels, customers probably were too," he says.

However, redoing the labels has been a bit of a challenge as the company works to convey in a clear, concise way what differentiates its product from others. Of course, not all of it will fit on the label. The labels will highlight the fact that the company uses only Wisconsin-produced milk. They won't, however, be able to explain that the cheeses are "uniquely traceable," Wills says. The company has its own patrons and buys the remainder of its milk from a small local cooperative, so Wills knows who the company's producers are. All have signed agreements to not use growth hormones in their dairy herds.

The fact that the cheese milk is rBGH-free will be on the labels, although the company has had to carefully work on the wording, Wills says, noting that it can be difficult for companies to differentiate rBGH-free products because legally milk from cows treated with rBGH is considered to be the same as milk from cows who are not treated with it.

The new Cheddar and Butterkäse labels also will feature the fact that they are made by a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker. Wills will be one of a handful of cheesemakers graduating this year from the intensive three-year program that is administered by the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. Each cheesemaker can be certified in up to two cheeses, and Cheddar and Butterkäse were the two Wills chose.

In the future, Cedar Grove also hopes to do more with the by-products from its rBGH-free, organic and kosher cheese. For awhile now, the company has been working with Land O'Lakes which does custom-drying of organic and GMO-free whey powder. Eventually, Cedar Grove would like to dry its own value-added whey as well as have a small-scale butter operation. Wills also would like to add additional cooler space. The company has the space to expand, and the Living Machine, a series of tanks which use natural biological processes and plants to clean the company's wastewater, is working the best it ever has and should be able to handle additional water with just a few modifications, Wills says.

However, those are projects for the future. In the past year, the company has added a new separator and pasteurizer with upgraded controls. This year, the company will install new vats and a chiller, but due to the economic uncertainty of the times, Wills isn't willing to take on much more in terms of construction and new equipment.

"We have rather large plans and small pocketbooks," he says with a chuckle.

Still, even though the times have been tough for the cheese industry in general, Wills says that the company's market niche as a environmentally-sound, natural type cheese producer has helped the company continue to grow.

The company suffered a loss this past year when a large customer for its organic cheese decided to move its business elsewhere because it was looking for a different type of packaging, Wills says. However, in many ways that loss has turned out to benefit Cedar Grove, he says, as the company has been able to diversify and replace the lost business in relatively short order.

"We would have been jammed up and straining to keep up if that wouldn't have happened," he says.

Wills says he aims to continue growing the company, but that one of the benefits of being a smaller cheesemaker is that the company has flexibility to make changes as necessary, adapting to the needs of the marketplace.

"I have a general game plan, but our advantage is being able to take on new opportunities," Wills says. "I expect to continue to be surprised."

CMN