Isn't it gorgeous? It is such the addictive substance.
Posted on 05/11/2008 11:57:08 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Cheeseheads don't need to be bleu: Experts say predictions that California will soon overtake Wisconsin as the nation's top cheese producer are unlikely to come true.
The Golden State and its happy cows gained quickly on Wisconsin in the past decade, but plants in California are maxing out, while efforts to boost production in Wisconsin are paying off, said Dick Groves, longtime owner of the Madison-based trade publication, Cheese Reporter.
Groves helped spark the friendly competition between the states 10 years ago with an editorial predicting California would overtake Wisconsin in cheese production by 2005. He later amended it to 2010 and then, last month, to "not anytime soon."
New numbers showing a growing gap between Wisconsin and California prompted Groves to abandon his earlier prediction.
"Cheese production in the two states moved in opposite directions - Wisconsin's went up and California's went down," he said.
About half of the 9.7 billion pounds of cheese made in the U.S. comes from the two states, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Production has grown much more rapidly in California in the past decade as large plants opened there year after year.
Wisconsin's lead in annual production shrank to about 164 million pounds in 2007, according to NASS. Last July, California came within less than 6 million pounds of Wisconsin in monthly production.
But then the gap started growing again, reaching 30 million pounds in March.
The quick shift is partly due to two plants closing in California in 2007, while two opened in Wisconsin this year, Groves said.
Dairy Farmers of America closed an American cheese plant in Corona, Calif., saying it wasn't profitable, and Lactalis USA Inc. closed a specialty cheese plant in Turlock, Calif. Lactalis officials declined through a spokeswoman to discuss that plant closing.
Meanwhile, Foremost Farms USA idled a plant in Waumandee in western Wisconsin in January 2007, retooled it to make a premium type of cheddar and reopened it in March. The temporary shutdown was "not insignificant" in terms of the state's cheese production, Foremost Farms spokeswoman Joan Behr said.
Also in March, BelGioioso Cheese Inc. opened its fifth plant in Wisconsin.
California now has 61 cheese plants compared to Wisconsin's 124. The Golden State's plants are larger, but they're pretty much operating at full capacity while Wisconsin's could probably make a bit more, federal and state agricultural officials said.
That means California would have to add plants to move ahead in the race for the title of Big Cheese. But more new plants are opening now in places such as Idaho and the Texas panhandle, which have growing dairy farms and lower costs, said economist Don Blayney, of the Economic Research Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Companies have struggled in recent years to build new plants in California, where the permit process can take four to six years, said Michael Marsh, chief executive officer of the Western United Dairymen, which represents milk producers there.
Cheesemakers also contend with opposition from environmental groups and, if they get a plant open, high workers compensation costs, Marsh said.
"It is a challenge for us," he said. "The state of California really has to make our state attractive to businesses to locate here."
Wisconsin has worked to increase the state's milk supply after cheesemakers said they needed about 15 percent more milk than they had, said Will Hughes, agricultural development administrator. The state has recruited farmers, encouraged them to add cows and provided incentives for them to install newer, more efficient equipment.
The effort has paid off with renewed investment from companies such as BelGioioso.
The company based in Denmark, a village about 100 miles north of Milwaukee, has chosen to expand here because there's an ample milk supply and it's equally easy to ship from the Midwest to both coasts, marketing manager Jamie Wichlacz said. The plant in Freedom is the second new one the company has opened in about five years.
"I think the milk supply is there, I think the farmers grow as the companies grow, as the cheese producers grow," Wichlacz said.
Wisconsin cheesemakers and agricultural officials also emphasized they weren't looking to make more cheese but better cheese. While California's plants tend to make large quantities of a few kinds of cheese, Wisconsin companies have focused on developing a wide range of specialty cheeses, such as pesto Jack or Asiago, that command higher prices.
The state recently announced that specialty cheeses now account for 16 percent of Wisconsin's production and two more specialty cheese plants will open in the next few weeks.
"I always say this is not a race with California to be No. 1 in producing cheese," Hughes said, "although not anyone in Wisconsin is going to want to give that up."
To the CheeseHeads of the World and Lactose InTolerant alike,, HaPPy Mother’s Day!
ON WISCONSIN!
Speaking just for myself, I would care a lot more about quality rather than quantity. From what I have tried, I personally think California is already ahead in the quality of many of its cheeses.
May the Cheese be with you.
I live in California. I eat Wisconsin cheese whenever I can get it. I also like various European cheeses. The price of cheese has really skyrocketed recently. What a shame.
Uncle Charlie’s Chicken Soup Cheese
https://www.beechwoodcheese.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=55
Because no one messes with my cheese! I will take Wisconsin cheese over California any day I can afford it.
Because no one messes with my cheese! I will take Wisconsin cheese over California any day I can afford it.
ZOMG. I’m doing Weight Watchers now, and the only thing I miss is cheese. I consider myself something of a cheese connoisseur ... Cotswold, Cahill’s Porter, Beemster, and let’s not forget the Brie. Mmmm, Brie.
In before the Moose!
Many of the dairies around me have me developed in the last ten years. Chino doesn’t smell the same. I talked to a guy who worked at one of the dairies near me and he told me many things but what I remember is that they one of the things they feed the cows ground up walnut shells.
Cheese plants in Calif are closing or curtailing production because they are being killed by the Water Quality Boards over waste water treatment. I have a friend here in Humboldt county milking 400 cows on a all organic farm and shipping the milk out of state for production...
That’s plain nuts, we used to travel about 3 miles to a plant and offload milk cans, bulk tanks was way cool when it came out but we we’re out of the dairy farming too.. it can get expensive, never made cheese tho, close and only by accident
Duh....everyone knows Wisconsin cuts more cheese than California.
Cahill’s Porter is a keeper! I buy it at “Cheeser’s” once in a while in the next town over. The best part? They’ll let you try anything in the store. :)
I’m currently loving a “Cheddar Blue” which is sharp cheddar with Blue swirled in. Yum!
I have yet to come to terms with blue cheese. I love pungent and sharp, but something about blue puts me off.
One time last Festival season, at fireworks (the end of the Festival day), my character Juana brought out some WAY stanky cheese. I had four kinds of cheese in my big bowl, and since I had a captive audience, my hawk was (if you imagine the accent), “I have here the stinkiest cheese in all Espana, and no one here is man enough to try it.”
People hollered at me like CRAZY to try my stinky cheese.
I found out that when offered (or taunted) by someone in a costume, people will eat damn near anything.
Try that with raw chicken livers next time, LOL!
Husband loves the Limburger. I say, “Blech!” I have loved Blue since I was a kid. I LIVED for Friday Night Fish Fry so I could have a side salad (instead of fries) and smother it in blue cheese dressing.
But then, I ate Liverwurst and Onion sandwiches on Wonder Bread every day in my bagged lunch from the time I was in Kindergarten until it was a little too “uncool” in Junior High. ;) (Now I just eat them in secret, LOL!)
I just ate some fried cheese curds. Yum!
You’re my cousin or somthin’ aren’t you? :)
Mrs. Gregory: “Aha, what's so special about the cheesemakers?”
Gregory: “Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.”
- Monty Python's "Life of Brian"
Try this Humboldt County cheese maker http://www.loletacheese.com/ourcompany.html
Elsie the Cow was born in the brick building behind the old cars
Tired of cow cheese...Try this for something different...http://www.thenibble.com/zine/archives/cypress-grove-chevre.asp
Life is great living in a small community. You know almost everyone...
I used to travel regularly in WI; there is a cheese shop just outside of Madison...stopped there on every trip.
It got to be that everyone in the office would place orders...I would spend well over one hundred dollars and leave with a cooler full of cheese.
They had the best seven year aged cheddar; and a wonderful aged, smoked Swiss. And then there was the smoked string cheese, which was always gone by the time I got a couple of hours down the road.
I need to dig out their brochure and order some of that for delivery!
I have a theory that patrons will eat anything someone in a costume gives them.
So far, I’m batting a thousand.
I bought some cheese curds on eBay. They were sent to me way fresh. It’s weird, how they squeak in your mouth.
ZOMG ... I would sell my husband for seven-year-old cheddar.
LOL. My brother used to call it "Mushy Meat".
LOL! That is weird, isn’t it? But there’s nothing like deep-fried cheese curds. Mmm-mmm.
I have a wonderful recipe for tangy cheese bites that calls for dipping large bread cubes in a mixture of butter, cream cheese, sharp cheddar and blue cheese, and then baking them until golden. It’s simply fabulous (and addicting)!
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