A Tradition Continues
In the late 1800s, Green County quickly became a major cheese-making area in the United States. In 1885, Green County produced 3.2 million pounds of cheese. By the mid-1940s, the county’s cheese production had increased to more than 18 million pounds per year. By 1973, Green County was producing 36 million pounds of cheese annually. That’s a lot of cheese.
During much of the early 1900s, Green County was famous for its Swiss cheese. Slowly, the county’s cheese makers began switching to other kinds of cheese making. Swiss cheese started to be made in blocks instead of the big wheels, which made it similar to cheddar and many other cheeses. Customers thought it was easier to cut blocks of cheese for their sandwiches.
This map shows where Wisconsin’s cheese factories were located in 1918. Can you name the 2 counties that had the most cheese factories back then? Why do they look familiar?
In 2007, there were 13 cheese factories operating in Green County. They have interesting names, such as Chalet Cheese Co-op, Maple Leaf Cheese Factory, Klondike, Edelweiss Creamery, Deppeler Cheese Factory, Decatur Dairy, and Roth Käse. They produce many thousands of pounds of cheese each year. They make many different kinds of cheese: Colby (kohl be), cheddar, Havarti (hah var tee), Muenster (mun stur), Butterkase, Monterey Jack, Edam, Gouda (goo dah), Swiss, and Limburger. Just 4 cheese factories in Green County still make Swiss cheese. Only one of those makes it the old-fashioned way in large cheese wheels, as Casper Jaggi did.
There have been many changes in dairy farming in Green County, where Casper once worked as a cheese maker. Even though Green County still produces a lot of cheese, the numbers of dairy farms and milk cows are getting smaller. In 1975, there were 1,142 dairy farms in the county. By 2004, the number had dropped to 406. In 1980, there were 50,200 dairy cows grazing the sweeping hills of Green County. By 2006, the number of cows had declined to 31,000.
Some of the 500 styles and types of cheeses produced in Wisconsin today
While there are fewer dairy farmers across the rest of the state, too, Wisconsin still uses the milk from farmers’ cows to make about 2.4 billion pounds of cheese a year. Wisconsin is a national leader in the production of cheese and prides itself in making quality cheese. Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that requires a licensed cheese maker to oversee the production of every pound of cheese. In 2007, the state had 1,222 active licensed cheese makers.
Did You Know?
Today, 90 percent of Wisconsin’s milk becomes cheese.
