October 12, 2012
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Nasonville Dairy innovates, works with customers to meet their needs

WIDE VARIETY — Nasonville Dairy, owned and operated by the Heiman family, offers more than 30 varieties of cheese.

FAMILY AFFAIR — Nasonville Dairy is owned and operated by the Heiman family. Currently, 18 immediate family members work for the business.

By Kate Sander

MARSHFIELD, Wis. — Nasonville Dairy has been in the cheesemaking business for more than 125 years, with the Heiman family operating it for the last 47. Ken Heiman, who manages the company along with his brothers Kim and Kelvin, says it’s one of the few plants in the state to have gone back and forth between private and co-op ownership throughout its storied history.

Today, the Nasonville Dairy plant just outside of Marshfield in Central Wisconsin produces in excess of 45 million pounds of cheese annually, offering more than 30 varieties ranging from Cheddar and Jack to Blue and Feta. The company also has its own dairy farm and small milk bottling operation in the Marshfield area, Weber’s Farm Store in Marshfield and a smaller plant and store in Abbotsford, Wis., known as Nasonville North.

In a state known for both mass-produced Cheddar and a wide array of specialty boutique cheeses, one might wonder if a medium-sized company like Nasonville might get lost in the mix.

But Ken Heiman says Nasonville has many qualities that give it a sound position in the market.

“One strength is that we have a lot of diversity,” Heiman says. “We can get to our target quicker.”

The target might be a relatively short turnaround time of 7-10 days, or it might be working closely with customers to provide them with the cheese solution they are seeking. Either way, being large enough to provide significant quantities of numerous cheeses but small enough to be nimble and work directly with customers allows Nasonville Dairy to provide a level of service that not every company can.

“We are very fortunate in selling to a lot of distributors — more than 400 throughout the country,” Heiman says.

Many of Nasonville’s customers are in the foodservice business and are looking for products with specific qualities for certain foodservice applications. Heiman says whether it’s coming up with an Asiago that slices just right for a beef sandwich or a cheese that has just the right melting point, the company likes being a problem solver. As his family’s multifaceted business has grown, he says new product development has been critical.

“I love creating new products. I like trying something new. Let’s go solve the problems of the world,” says Heiman, who usually finds himself starting his day in the plant somewhere between 3:30 and 5:30 in the morning because that’s when planning can happen, before his day of cheesemaking begins.

Sometimes, Heiman says, the new items that are developed are ideas that come from within the

company. Other times, it’s a customer coming to Nasonville needing a solution.

“It’s a two-way street,” he says. “We don’t mind being our customers’ problem solvers.”

Among Heiman’s most recent creations are its Blue Marble cheeses: Blue Marble Jack and Blue Marble Cheddar-Blue. The natural flavors, texture and body of Blue Marble cheeses offer convenient, easy-to-use cheese with ideal melting qualities for recipes, Heiman says.

Heiman is a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, having completed the rigorous three-year course of study administered by the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Heiman became certified as a Master Cheesemaker in Feta and Monterey Jack in 2011. He currently is working on additional certifications in Cheddar and Asiago.

Making so many kinds of cheeses can be tricky, Heiman admits, and requires a lot of planning. For example, the pepper cheeses usually are made on one day.

Other significant planning goes into segregating the company’s milk and its finished cheeses in order to benefit from certain markets. Not only does the company make some of the more typically known cheeses — for example it has cheeses certified by different kosher certifying agencies — it also is currently working on making a cheese with nine times the omega-3 that cheeses typically have.

This specialty cheese, Heiman says, is achieved not with added fish oils, but through a patented feeding program used on the Heiman family’s own dairy herd as well as a handful of others that supply milk directly to Nasonville Dairy.

“We know we’re on the right track,” Heiman says of the program. “The omega-3s carry through to the meat of the animal and the cows are twice as healthy as before.”

With growing demand for its products, Nasonville Dairy has focused on maintaining food safety and is SQF Level 2 certified. It also has added mechanization in recent years and gone to six days of production. This gives the company the ability to increase production by 20 percent or more. At this point, Heiman says he is reticent to increase production to seven days a week as that changes a lot about the culture of the company.

In fact,another strength of the company is its culture and experienced team of employees. In addition to Heiman, the company boasts another Master Cheesemaker, Tom Torkelson, who is certified in Brick and Muenster. And then there are the family ties. Himself a licensed cheesemaker since the age of 16, Heiman says he and his siblings grew up in the business purchased by their parents Arnie and Rena in 1965. Truly a family affair, Arnie and Rena are still involved in the business as are their three sons, a son-in-law and now several of their grandchildren. Ken makes cheese, Kelvin manages the milk hauling and works with dairy producers (the company owns its trucks and has about 180 producer patrons), and Kim manages the cheese plant. All told, there are 18 immediate family members currently working in the business. Heiman says the family also is actively involved in the community.

The company’s cheeses have won numerous awards over the years, including first place for its Feta in brine at the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Dairy Products Association in August. The company’s Feta also placed third in its class at the World Championship Cheese Contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association in March.

“We value perfection and win awards, but our passion also means we never stop learning and creating the best cheeses,” Heiman says.

CMN