America’s Dairyland continues to make strides in cheese production as the top U.S. producer. Data from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service shows Wisconsin cheese production is up nearly 2 percent from last year.
Cheesemakers in Wisconsin made 60.4 million pounds of cheddar out of the more than 313 million pounds total in the U.S. Cheddar production grew 2.3 percent in September 2021 from September 2020 in Wisconsin and 3.2 percent for the U.S. as a whole.
Wisconsin made the second-most mozzarella at 88 million pounds in September. That’s actually down 2.8 percent from last year. Meanwhile, the U.S. total of 379.3 million pounds is up 2.1 percent.
For total Italian cheeses, the state’s production rose 1.3 percent from September 2020 to 138.5 million pounds in September 2021. The U.S. total was up 3.5 percent at 486.2 million pounds.
And total cheese production for Wisconsin grew 1.9 percent to nearly 289 million pounds in September, the most of any state.
