Lanco Pennland Wins Top Prize at NMPF Dairy Product Contest
October 21, 2026
A Reserve Extreme Irish Cheddar from Lanco Pennland took the top prize in NMPF’s annual dairy product competition. Land O’Lakes, Inc. and California Dairies, Inc. received Reserve Chairman’s award recognitions for their Sharp Cheddar and Danish 85% Salted butter. The winners were celebrated at the Joint Annual Meeting cheese reception last night, where more than 700 attendees sampled the winning products.
The judges lauded the balanced flavors of the Irish cheddar, which pairs a “bold, tongue-tingling lactic bite with a lush, sweet-butter flavor base” when they awarded its top prize to Lanco Pennland for its cheese produced by Team Pennland of Hancock, MD. The Irish cheddar was also named best cheddar and led a sweep of the Extra Sharp Cheddar class. The Land O’Lakes Sharp Cheddar was produced in Kiel, WI, by the Kiel Cheese Team, and the California Dairies Inc. butter was made in Visalia, CA.
The annual dairy product contest offers NMPF members an opportunity to showcase their top-quality products. Fourteen NMPF cooperative members submitted 217 entries and 2,700 pounds of dairy products for this year’s contest.
Contest judges included Allison Reynolds from USDA, Luis Jimenez-Maroto from the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, Tim Meyers from the College of DuPage and Gina Mode from the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research.
In other awards, the best Italian went to Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. for its Heat Treated Gorgonzola produced in Mindoro, WI, by Team Mindoro. Prairie Farms also took best cottage cheese for its Regular (4%) small curd cottage cheese, produced in Carbondale, IL. The best butter went to California Dairies Inc. for its Danish 85% Salted butter. The best yogurt went to Agri-Mark, Inc. for its 10% Plain Greek Yogurt, made in Cabot, VT, by Cabot Creamery.
A full list of winners is here.
Products not used in judging will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
