Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland for good reason being the top cheese producing state in the U.S. Being the driving force behind cheese production made the state the perfect place to host the United States Championship Cheese Contest.
Background
“We here at the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association host this event, and have been hosting contests since the late 1800s,” said Kirsten Strohmenger the contest director with the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. “This contest is to really improve the cheesemakers craft. It is also to give recognition to those who are doing a phenomenal job.”
In the last contest, that took place in 2023, Strohmenger said there were over 2,200 products to be judged. These products include cheese, butter, yogurt, and dry dairy ingredients. For the 2025 contest, there are two new classes added. These will be sour cream and cultured dairy dip. The entries come from all across the country. These states are including the top states being Wisconsin, New York, Idaho, California, and Vermont. For the products entering the contest from further away they have to ship their products. They ship their products through various transportation means and will not attend themselves.
Setting Up
Everything for the contest is set up the day before the contest takes place. With the help from the 150 volunteers, they sort out each entry to the correct classes for the ease of setting up. Each day of the event there will be around 70 volunteers there to help, rotating in shifts.
This year’s contest will have 117 classes to be judged. In order to have all the products judged, there will be 36 judges brought in from all over the U.S. These judges each have expertise in specific products. The judge’s professions range from cheese graders, cheese buyers, dairy science professors, and researchers.
“We will have hours open to the public on March 4th and 5th,” explained Strohmenger. “The public can come in and watch the judging happen and try samples of the cheese.
For The Public
As a new addition to the U.S. cheese contest, they have added a judging demonstration area. In this area there will be sessions that the public can attend with judges to learn how the various cheeses are judged. These demonstrations will be done with 8 different types of cheeses. At the end the judges will share how each cheese would be scored in the contest.
This is an event that cheese lovers will not want to miss. The contest will be held at the Resch Expo in Green Bay. It will be open to the public from 10am to 3pm on March 4th and 5th and is free to attend. On March 6th the U.S. champion cheese maker will be announced at 2pm.
