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U.S. Champion Cheese Auction held

This year’s U.S. Championship Cheese Auction has raised more than 200-thousand dollars.

John Umhoefer is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association.  He tells Brownfield the auction fuels their education and scholarship programs.  “In the last few years, we’ve given to rebuilding Babcock Hall.  We’ve given to (UW) River Falls which is rebuilding their dairy plant.  Even out in South Dakota, we gave 50-thousand dollars out there.  So that, along with 650-thousand dollars.  We’ve got two education programs coming online at the Center for Dairy Research.  We can expand scholarships.”

The Babcock Hall dairy barn and store, and the Center for Dairy Research are part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Bryon Taylor from Galena River Cheese and Wine in Galena, Illinois is one of the buyers.  He tells Brownfield many of his customers want unique products unavailable at the grocery store.  “We’re tasting out two or three award-winning cheeses every week and usually there’s not words that come (describing the cheese) it’s, ‘I’ll take a pound of that.’”

The auction has raised more than one-million dollars in the last 10 years.  Some of the cheeses have sold for more than 500-dollars a pound.

The U.S. Championship Cheese Auction was part of the Wisconsin Cheese Industry Conference held in Madison.  $208,300 was raised this year.