Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Saturday, March 29, 2008
Cheese plant to reopen in Waumandee
Foremost Farms USA reopened a cheese plant in Waumandee, Wis., after being closed for a year.
The dairy cooperative will bring 42 jobs to the unincorporated Buffalo County community of 532, a steady income for Midwest dairy farmers and a whole lot of cheddar cheese.
The cheese plant expects to take in 1.1 million pounds of milk daily to produce 120,000 pounds of cheddar cheese for aging daily, said communications director Joan Behr.
“This is good for western Wisconsin,” Behr said. “It’s really renewed optimism in the upper Midwest dairy industry, and that bodes well for area farmers to have a long-term market for taking their milk.”
The plant formally produced commodity American cheeses such as pepper jack and Colby, but West Coast competition drew away too much of the market with low raw milk prices, Behr said.
Foremost Farms renewed its strategies and converted the Waumandee plant to produce 640-pound blocks of cheddar cheese for aging.
Employees are conducting “cheese trials” and testing new equipment. Production is expected to pick up this spring.
National distributors age Foremost Farm’s cheddar, then repackage and label it for consumers.
“You can’t go in the grocery and look for Foremost Farm, but you’ve probably eaten it many times and in many ways,” Behr said.
Foremost Farms also makes milk, butter, specialized whey for infant formula and animal feed, lactose for the pharmaceutical market and milk powder.
It’s is among the top 10 U.S. dairy cooperatives, with 10 cheese plants, seven ingredient plants, two bottling plants and corporate offices in Baraboo, Wis., and Indianapolis.
Contact reporter Amber Dulek at amber.dulek@lee.net or (507) 453-3513.
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