Wisconsin Cheese Continues its Winning Streak
Byline: Ken Heiman, WMMB District #12 Director

When the Green Bay Packers play in the Super Bowl or when the UW Badgers go to the Rose Bowl, everyone in Wisconsin has something to celebrate. Recently, a dairy producer/cheesemaker from Wisconsin took the top honors title at what some consider the Super Bowl of cheese competitions. Other state cheesemakers also came away with an impressive number of awards, giving our state's dairy farmers and the more than 1,200 licensed cheesemakers another performance to cheer about.

In all, Wisconsin cheesemakers captured 55 awards, including the coveted Best of Show award, at the American Cheese Society (ACS) competition held in Louisville, KY last week. This adds to Wisconsin's record-breaking run of Best of Show awards from ACS, bringing our total to five top awards out of the last eight years.

This year's ACS Best of Show award went to a specialty cheese called Pleasant Ridge Reserve, made by dairy producer/cheesemaker Mike Gingrich, owner of Uplands Cheese Company of Dodgeville, Wisconsin. This cheese has only been in production for five years yet has been selected as Best of Show at ACS twice, capturing the top award in 2001 as well.

As a dairy farmer, a WMMB Board Member and a cheesemaker, I can tell you that this tremendous showing at ACS only verifies what we've known all along: Wisconsin makes the best-tasting cheese in the world. Winning awards at national cheese competitions points up the tremendous dairy heritage we have here in Wisconsin and recognizes the skill and artisanship of our cheesemakers. It also makes a strong statement that our state always has been and will continue to be "America's Dairyland."

Wisconsin's Cheese Marketing Team
Cheese from Wisconsin has long been recognized as the best in the U.S. and even the world. Competitions like ACS, the U.S. and the World Championship Cheese Contests continually add to Wisconsin's rank as the most award-winning industry in the world. The WMMB cheese marketing team capitalizes on this standing as we conduct marketing and promotion programs throughout the nation in both the retail and foodservice industries.

People often visit Wisconsin vowing not to leave without taking along a supply of our quality cheeses. In fact, many of those visitors could pick up Wisconsin Cheese in their own community. Ninety percent of all Wisconsin cheese and 95 percent of Wisconsin retail cheese is sold out of state. The more than 2.2 billion pounds of cheese that Wisconsin produces each year is positioned on store shelves, in recipes and on menus in outlets across the U.S.

Through WMMB's national marketing and promotion efforts, our famous cheeses are now available in more retail grocery chains and foodservice outlets across the nation than ever before. WMMB employs five Regional Marketing Managers (RMM's) who work with Wisconsin cheese companies and represent Wisconsin to retailers and distributors across the U.S. In the past six months, WMMB has added nearly 50 new retail grocery chains to the list of organizations using WMMB programs to promote and market Wisconsin Cheese in their stores. As a result, more consumers across the country can readily find and enjoy the fine taste of Wisconsin cheese. For example, Albertsons, a major national grocery chain, added nearly 40 new Wisconsin Cheese products to their cheese and deli cases.

In order to provide visibility for Wisconsin Cheese on retail shelves, on cheese packages, promotional brochures and on menus around the U.S., WMMB developed and introduced the "Pride – Our Secret Ingredient" logo in 2002.

Currently 84 Wisconsin companies representing 154 brands of Wisconsin Cheese include WMMB's "Pride" logo on their Wisconsin cheese products. Related marketing efforts such as free-standing insert ads, coupons and in-store demonstrations give consumers all over the country extra incentives to continually look for and buy Wisconsin Cheese.

In the foodservice industry, WMMB's marketing team continually works with foodservice distributors, chefs and menu development teams to have more Wisconsin cheese used in restaurants. The Wisconsin Cheese Chef Ambassador program, now in its third year, has brought great recognition to Wisconsin cheese within the culinary community. Each Chef Ambassador creates dishes containing Wisconsin cheese. Not only do they highlight them on their menus, but they share recipe and menu ideas with other chefs and culinary artists.

The latest ACS competition really underscores the important contributions that all team members have in making our dairy and cheese successful – from our dairy producers who produce quality milk to our cheesemakers who produce award-winning cheeses to the marketing personnel who constantly remind all U.S. consumers that Wisconsin makes the best-tasting cheese in the world.

Ken Heiman milks 180 cows and owns and operates Nasonville Dairy Inc., a cheese manufacturing facility near Marshfield. Ken serves as chair of the Cheese Committee and has been a WMMB director since 2004.