Tag: Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery

Ellsworth Wins Top Prize at NMPF Dairy Contest; Lanco Pennland Takes Reserve

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

A Habanero Ghost Jack from Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery took the top prize in NMPF’s annual cheese and dairy products competition, while Lanco Pennland took the overall Reserve Chairman’s award with its Sweet Cheddar, victories celebrated at the Joint Annual Meeting cheese reception Nov. 12.

Judges noted the high quality of the jack cheese combined with the delicate balance of flavor with the habanero and ghost peppers in giving its top award to Ellsworth for its cheese produced by Team Menomonie of Menomonie, WI. The Sweet Cheddar, produced in Hancock, MD by the team of “Kylie and Ben,” was one of several awards won by Lanco Pennland, which as a new member participated in its first NMPF cheese contest this year.

The annual dairy product contest, commonly called “the cheese contest,” offers NMPF members an opportunity to showcase the top-quality products. Butter was added to the contest in 2024, and yogurt in 2022. Fourteen NMPF cooperative members submitted 240 entries and more than 3,000 pounds of dairy products for this year’s contest.

Contest judges included Allison Reynolds from USDA, Timothy Meyers, College of DuPage, Gina Mode, Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Luis A. Jimenez-Maroto, also with the Center for Dairy Research.

The top prizes, the Chairman’s Award and the Reserve Chairman’s, are decided by judges’ consensus.

In other awards, the best Italian also went to Lanco Pennland for its provolone. The best cottage cheese was awarded to Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. for its Regular, small curd cottage cheese produced in Carbondale, IL by their Carbondale team. The best butter went to Agri-Mark, Inc. for its Salted 83 butterfat Euro Style Butter made in West Springfield, MA and best yogurt went to Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. for its vanilla yogurt made in Wichita, KS by its Wichita Culture Team.

A full list of winners is here.

Ellsworth Wins NMPF Dairy Products Competition

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery took top honors in this year’s NMPF Dairy Products Competition, winning the Chairman’s Award with its Garden Vegetable with Sweet Basil Rub from Menomonie, WI.

This year’s annual edition of the contest for member cooperatives featured butter for the first time. The contest included 250 entries from 13 participating NMPF co-ops, a total of more than 3,500 pounds of cheese, yogurt and butter.

The entered products are assessed against scoring standards for cheese, yogurt or butter. NMPF thanks the judges for helping with the contest this year: Allison Reynolds (head judge), USDA, Dairy Grading Branch, Turlock, CA; Timothy Meyers, College of DuPage, Glenn Ellyn, IL; Gina Mode, Center for Dairy Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Chad Galer, Dairy Management Inc., Rosemont, IL.

Ellsworth’s champion cheese was made by Team Menomonie. Upstate Niagara Cooperative won the Reserve Chairman’s Award for its Salted Butter produced in Batavia, NY. Best in Class awards included:

  • Best Cheddar – Mild cheddar from Agri-Mark, Inc., Chateaugay, NY made by Team Chateaugay
  • Best Cottage Cheese – Chive cottage cheese from Dairy Farmers of America, Farmington, MN made by Kemps LLC
  • Best Italian – Provolone Non-Smoked w/ Lipase (Vat #13) from Foremost Farms, Richland Center, WI made by Bryan Allen and the Clayton Team
  • Best Yogurt – 10% Plain Greek Yogurt from Agri‐Mark, Inc., Cabot, VT made by the Cabot Culture Plant

Extra dairy products from the contest were donated to Chefs to End Hunger, which provides meals to the hungry by redistributing the excess prepared food that would normally go to waste in hotels, restaurants, and other food service operations to local charitable organizations to serve the meals.

Ellsworth Wins Top Cheese Prize; Scholarship Program Raises $12,000

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Ellsworth took the top prize, while a yogurt also took high honors in the first-ever inclusion of that category, in prizes awarded in the annual dairy contest held in conjunction with NMPF’s annual meeting.

The NMPF Chairman’s Award went to Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery for their Pepperoni with Marinara Rub cheese, which achieved a 99.8 score. Agri-Mark received the Chairman’s Reserve Award for its 10% Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt, which also won the award for best yogurt. Tillamook County Creamery Association earned the Best Cheddar award for its 2012 Makers Reserve, while Foremost Farms won the best Italian Cheese for its Mozzarella, and Prairie Farms won the Best Cottage Cheese competition as well as the most overall ribbons, with 18.

Some of the other highlights of this year’s meeting at the Gaylord Rockies hotel included:

  • The NMPF Town Hall meeting Tuesday morning, which provided an interactive session with the organization’s staff to explain key policy issues;
  • A look at the current consumer, dairy and retail market landscape from John Crawford of IRI;
  • A presentation from CoBank CEO Tom Halverson about the economic outlook for U.S. agriculture in 2023;
  • An on-stage sustainability podcast with NMPF staff and industry experts;
  • Discussions of current domestic and international sales and strategies for future success;
  • An exploration of nutrition issues and efforts related to various childhood cohorts – from pre-natal to infants to school-aged youths;
  • A forecast on the November elections from The Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman.
  • NMPF and dairy industry organizations promoted next year’s hosting of the IDF World Dairy Summit in Chicago, part of an industry focus on food security over the coming year. The summit was also promoted at a panel held Oct. 20 in Des Moines, Iowa as part of the annual World Food Prize conference.
  • The NMPF National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program raised more than $12,000 through its annual raffle and fundraising efforts. The scholarship program supports graduate students enrolled in Master’s or doctoral programs who are actively pursuing dairy-related fields of research that directly benefit milk marketing cooperatives and the U.S. dairy industry at large.

Next year’s NMPF meeting will be held November 12-15 at the Rosen Shingle Creek hotel in Orlando, FL.