Guest Columns

Perspective:
Dairy Research

The rise of specialty cheese

John Lucey

John Lucey, director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, contributes this column for Cheese Market News®.

Wisconsin recently celebrated a major milestone: 1 billion pounds of specialty cheeses were produced in the state in 2024. More than half of the nation’s specialty cheese is now crafted in Wisconsin, according to data from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

So, how did Wisconsin become the leader in U.S. specialty cheese? Many factors (and hard-working, innovative cheesemakers) got Wisconsin’s cheese industry to where it is today. We have been called America’s Dairyland for nearly 100 years. But the dairy industry in Wisconsin was having a tough time in the 1980s. John Jaeggi, coordinator of the Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker program, remembers cheese prices for smaller plants being as low as $0.88 per pound. His family operated Twin Grove for many years, where they produced traditional Swiss cheese.

“Many small manufacturers, such as my family’s plant, closed due to low cheese prices, regulatory requirements, consolidations, lack of whey value and lack of cash reserves to reinvest in equipment and infrastructure,” Jaeggi said.

Back in 1950, there were still over 1,200 cheese plants in Wisconsin, but by 1980, that was only 334, and by 1990, the numbers had continued to decline down to 188. In the 1980s, plants were mainly producing Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Colby, Mozzarella, Provolone, Muenster, Brick and a little Swiss/Baby Swiss.

“Very little specialty cheese was made at this time” said Jaeggi.

Something had to change.

Cheesemakers at smaller plants started to become more flexible, entrepreneurial and willing to take on some risk. They got fed up with the low cheese prices and trying to compete with commodity plants and recognized they needed to do something different.

Mike Matucheski, a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, worked at a cheese plant in Antigo in the early 1990s. He saw this plant transition from Kraft to Antigo Cheese and, ultimately, Sartori. When he started working at the plant, he was making commodity Parmesan for Kraft’s shaker can product. When the ownership transitioned to Antigo Cheese, the cheese completely changed.

“With Kraft, Parmesan cheese was waxed, put in wood crates and sent to the warehouse. Who does that anymore? No one,” Matucheski said. “The cheese transitioned to more of a specialty use of this style of cheese — not only focusing on the can anymore — eventually you’re creating Sarvecchio, a cheese that you nibble on at a table or cheese board.”

Matucheski said everything about the cheese had to be changed — how it was cooked, aged, etc. This was accomplished partially with the support of outside technical experts, like the staff at the Center for Dairy Research (CDR), which was just starting to launch a new specialty cheese program. CDR staff like Dr. Mark Johnson were already developing recipes for various specialty cheeses even before the CDR officially started in 1986.

In the early 1990s, the specialty cheese program at CDR got a big push forward with the hiring of Jim Path, thanks to funding from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB, now Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin), who understood the need for a change in the types of cheeses we were making. Path, Johnson, Jaeggi and Dr. Bill Wendorff began taking specialty cheeses out to plants or spreading the word through newly created short courses. The CDR brought in cheesemakers from around the world, such as, from Italy (3 times), Spain and Portugal, Switzerland (Alpine-style), Latin America, Eastern Mediterranean, Poland and many others. Through these short courses, Wisconsin cheesemakers were exposed to newer technologies and approaches, like affinage, and how to utilize new European cultures and began making their own types of cheeses. CDR staff helped them to develop recipes and perfect the make process of these new varieties.

Path, original coordinator of the CDR specialty cheese program, traveled around the world and gathered information about hundreds of different cheeses. He took this information and built a CDR cheese database, which put resources on the internet for cheese varieties from around the world. He had over 1,000 cheeses in the database. The CDR is currently updating and enhancing this database to once again be a key resource for cheesemakers.

There were many success stories from around this time. Unusual cheeses like Juustoleipä were introduced to Wisconsin consumers. This was a cheese produced using a simple farmstead type of process, and it had to be reengineered and scaled up to be successfully produced in a cheese plant. Again, Wisconsin cheesemakers had the flexibility and entrepreneurial spirit to try and develop unique cheese varieties. This state has cheesemakers who are very good at understanding the flavor and functionality required, and dialing that in and making it work.

Momentum for specialty cheese steadily grew through the early 1990s. At this time, European companies like Lactalis, Arla, Emmi and Bel started investing in Wisconsin. They brought with them technologies and connections with suppliers. Suddenly, the European cheese industry started to see Wisconsin as a vibrant place to bring their process equipment, cultures, molds, etc. Events like the cheese industry conference (now called the CheeseExpo and CheeseCon) took off thanks to the efforts of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (who partnered with the CDR on this event) and became a hugely influential trade show for suppliers to connect with Wisconsin cheesemakers.

Prominent supporters of Wisconsin specialty cheese also emerged. Dan Carter, along with his wife Jane, who both grew up in the cheese industry, were big marketers, brokers and promoters of specialty cheese in Wisconsin. In the 1970s, Carter started DCI (Dan Carter Inc.), where he helped market small Wisconsin cheesemakers who were trying to carve out niches in specialty cheese. Carter saw the success of CDR’s specialty cheese development work and established the Dairy Business Innovation Center (DBIC), which was funded by federal grants. DBIC hired consultants to help promote specialty cheeses in Wisconsin and worked closely with the WMMB.

Another important part of the story is that Wisconsin specialty cheeses started gaining national and international recognition at cheese competitions. Early award-winning standouts included Pleasant Ridge Reserve produced by Uplands Cheese. Today, you can go to pretty much any plant in Wisconsin and you will see medals, ribbons and awards lining the halls and walls of the offices or lobby. These awards didn’t just look nice, they also helped convince buyers, distributors and restaurants to purchase these award-winning cheeses and get them in front of consumers.

In 1997, CDR and the WMMB celebrated the first class of the Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker program. The program further challenged Wisconsin cheesemakers and helped uphold and advance Wisconsin as the premier cheesemaking state and the unparalleled standards of Wisconsin cheesemaking. Today, more than 90 (active) Wisconsin cheesemakers have gone through the program and received certifications in dozens of different cheese varieties.

All of these different factors and events converged. Soon Wisconsin became home to many support services related to cheese production. Fast forward to today, where there’s a whole ecosystem in Wisconsin supporting product development and marketing related to specialty cheese. If you have an idea for a cheese, there is a robust network to provide technical expertise and support to help develop and launch new varieties.

In a little more than 40 years, Wisconsin has gone from producing only a handful of different cheeses to today where more than 600 varieties, types and styles are crafted by our cheesemakers. The number of cheese plants in Wisconsin has hardly changed in the past 20 years, with some smaller and older ones closing, but there has been significant investment in existing and newer plants.

There are so many different factors, organizations and individuals who helped get Wisconsin specialty cheese to where it is today. At the top of the list are our talented cheesemakers who are continuously driving the industry forward. The story of Wisconsin specialty cheese is a tremendous success story and a source of pride for the entire state.

This work and momentum continue today. A major focus for the new CDR facility was the creation of a world-class specialty cheese space that includes 10 state-of-the-art ripening rooms. In addition, CDR has been focusing on entrepreneurship with the launch of programs like the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance (DBIA), which, in its short history, has already provided 78 grants to 36 Wisconsin cheesemakers.

With CDR’s new facility now available for our industry and its focus on new product development, the future looks bright for further specialty cheese growth here in Wisconsin.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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