×

AMPI continues to produce award-winning dairy products

Launching new Dinner Bell Creamery brand

NEW ULM — Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) cheese makers continued their winning ways in 2019, bringing home the coveted Chairman’s Trophy at the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) Championship Cheese Contest.

A hand-crafted Parmesan made at the cooperative’s Hoven, S.D. plant was named best of class in the Italian division and received the distinction of the contest’s best overall entry.

“I’m a sales guy, so when they win cheese and butter awards like this, it makes my job a heck of a lot easier,” said Marshall Reece, AMPI Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

“Making award-worthy cheese is the daily standard at AMPI,” said veteran Hard Italian-style cheese maker Kevin Hageman, who manages the Hoven plant where the champion Parmesan was produced.

“We don’t make special cheese for contests. This is the quality product we’re making every day,” Hageman said. “Our skilled cheese makers use high-quality milk from AMPI-member farms to create superior artisan cheese.”

The South Dakota plant specializes in making 22-pound wheels of Parmesan, Asiago and Romano.

In addition, AMPI cheese makers earned four more awards at the contest held in conjunction with the United Dairy Industry Association and National Dairy Promotion and Research Board in New Orleans.

A total of 237 entries from cooperatives across the country were submitted in the 2019 contest.

Cheese made at AMPI plants also finished first in Process American Plain, Portage, Wis. Third-place awards were Medium Cheddar, Blair, Wis.; and Processed American Plain and Processed American Flavored, both produced in Portage, Wis.

AMPI has won 32 processed cheese awards in the last five years.

AMPI’s new Dinner Bell Creamery brand butter received top honors with a limited-edition bourbon butter, winning the flavored class at the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Class in Madison, Wis.

The cooperative received five first-place awards, collecting honors in each of the three major categories entered.

An entry made by cheese makers at AMPI’s Blair, Wis. plant won the highly competitive Mild Cheddar class. A Colby Jack made at Jim Falls, Wis. also finished first.

In addition, AMPI won first-place awards in the 34 and 80 percent whey protein concentrate classes. Both winning entries were manufactured at the AMPI Paynesville plant.

Milk Quality Awards for the AMPI New Ulm plant went to Diamond View Dairy Inc., John & Kim Klehr, Mark Klehr, the Rosenhammer family, Ron & Patty Strobel and Sunshine Dairy LLC.

To receive a AMPI Milk Quality Award, members must market milk with a somatic cell count of less than 200,000 and a bacteria count of less than 25,000 for at least 10 of the past 12 months.

More than 250 quality award winners were recognized at AMPI district meetings held across the Upper Midwest in November and December.

AMPI’s new Dinner Bell Creamery brand butter received top honors with a limited-edition bourbon butter, winning the flavored butter class at the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest in Madison, Wis.

The cooperative received five first-place awards, collecting honors in each of the three major categories entered in the competition. The contest attracted more than 1,500 entries from North America dairy processors.

Other new AMPI butter products include pumpkin spice and pepper-flavored varieties.

“We plan to be selling the bourbon butter at some point in 2020,” said New Ulm AMPI Plant Manager Bill Swan. “People can follow our new products on Facebook, on our website and in Instagram.”

“It’s about consumer demand for interesting, new flavors,” said Sarah Schmidt, AMPI Vice President of Public Affairs.

Mike Wolkow, AMPI Senior Vice President of Operations weighed in on new cheese products.

“The hotter and sharper the butter,” Wolkow said.

“Cheddar Cheese still sells well, but people like to add more choices to what they already use,” said Reece. “More and more people are adding cheese snacks and making cheese plates all over the place.”

Each stick of the new Dinner Bell Creamery butter is individually wrapped with new ButterLock paper to keep flavors in and odors out.

AMPI asked producers to submit farmhouse rules they live by to be written on the butter sticks. More than 120 farmhouse rules were submitted and the top 15 were selected to be printed on the ButterLock paper.

Some of the farmhouse rules printed on ButterLock paper included “Take the time to watch the sun rise,” “If you think you’re important, try telling a barn cat what to do,” and “Put things back where you found them,” “When in doubt, add more butter,” “In nature we trust,” “Do what is right, not what is easy,” “Live within your harvest,” “Stacking hay builds character,” “Food is essential to life; make it good,” “Talk much, sit long, eat well,” “Fences need to be horse high, pig tight and bull strong,” and “Always shut the gate behind you,” among others.

Swan said you don’t find talented butter-makers on the street.

“They are co-op crafted. Butter-making is a talent crafted over a long period of time,” Swan said. “These people are artisans. That’s why we win. We have a great bunch of dairy farmers that produce quality milk year after year. We’ve won 32 processed cheese awards in the last five years.”

Mike Hinrichsen, AMPI Vice President of Manufacturing Cheese & Whey Products, said there are many more cheese dairy contest entries than there used to be.

“In 2018, there were 3,402 cheese contest entries, 15% more than in 2016,” Hinrichsen said. “In 1985, there were 89 entries.”

Schmidt said the average American consumer eats 38 pounds of cheese a year.

“That’s nowhere close to what European consumers eat. They eat about double the cheese American consumers eat,” Schmidt said.

She said the future of dairy industry is more positive now with recent trade deals with Canada, Mexico and China. She talked about the importance of foreign markets.

“If we don’t sell products to other counties, they back up here and drive prices down,” Schmidt said.

She said many consumers are confused about what milk really is due to companies selling products that really aren’t milk but labeling them as milk.

“It’s not right. It’s irresponsible,” Schmidt said. “The FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration should do it’s job and enforce product standards.”

Hinrichsen said products not made of real milk don’t have the vitamins and minerals that real milk products do.

Reece said some Americans don’t consume as much milk as they used to but they consume more of if in other products like ice cream, yogurt and cheese.

In 2019, AMPI’s 1,500 dairy farmer member-owners produced 5.1 billion pounds of milk that sold for $1.7 billion.

For more information, visit www.ampi.com.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today