By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE
Glasgow Daily Times
GLASGOW —
A local industry can now claim bragging rights as being one of the “big cheeses” in the dairy world.
The Bluegrass Dairy & Food team recently captured a first-place award for their Monterey Jack at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wis.
The event, sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association, drew more than 2,300 competitors from around the globe. Contestants from more than 20 nations and 30 U.S. states participated with entries in numerous cheese categories.
Bluegrass Dairy, which placed third with a Colby cheese entry the first time it was ever in the competition two years ago, scored the highest score of any cheese entered in any category for their Monterey Jack this year – 99.9.
The first-place finish has caused an immediate uptick in business for the company, which has been in operation locally since 1995, according to Billy Joe Williams, president.
“It has already increased our sales. It’s drawn attention to Kentucky as a quality cheese producer,” he said. “It certainly has given us more sales for Monterey Jack. The next week after the award we got a call out of the blue wanting our Monterey Jack. They had tasted it at the World’s Cheese and wanted a full tractor-trailer load of it and that’s repeat business.”
Wisconsin cheesemakers may have been making whine out of sour grapes when they quipped to Williams, “We didn’t know you made cheese in Kentucky” after his company’s win.
Of the 2,313 total entries, Bluegrass competed in a field of 40 entrants for Monterey Jack. The panel of 30 judges from 12 nations awarded the local dairy production operation the nearly perfect score.
Bluegrass makes several cheese varieties including Monterey Jack, Colby, Cheddar, Parmesan, Romano, Gouda and Edam, as well as cheese powders that are used in numerous snack foods.
Rick Gulley, Bluegrass Dairy plant manager, entered eight samples of different cheeses for the contest. Of those entries, the Gouda, Cheddar and Colby placed third, fourth and fifth in their individual categories. Awards are given for the top three places only.
“They say the top seven is really difficult. We had scores of 98 or better on several pieces of cheese,” he said.
When visiting Bluegrass Dairy, the first thing one notices is how many different operations are going on simultaneously. One production line is dedicated to making the different varieties of cheese. There are three more drying systems at the plant where they dry dairy and non-dairy ingredients.
Between 20 and 25 trucks on average arrive daily to unload their liquid cargos. Each truck can hold 50,000 pounds of raw milk and may travel from as far away as Michigan and northern Illinois. The operation has dual unloading bays where the milk is pumped from the trucks in a process that takes approximately 30 minutes. After they are empty, the trucks are washed onsite before leaving about an hour after first hooking up in one of the bays.
When beginning the cheesemaking process, 40,000 pounds of the raw milk is transferred into vats, which will then become 4,000 pounds of cheese. From the vats, the mixture goes into troughs where the curds and whey are separated by mechanical methods. The cheese is then loaded into boxed forms that each hold 640 pounds of cheese. The forms are stored so the cheese can go through an aging process. The time of aging varies based on the variety of cheese.
Two millions pounds of cheese are in the aging process at any one time, according to Williams. Some of it is stored at the facility in Glasgow. The rest is stored in Springfield, but all the cheese is produced in the local plant.
Williams gives much of his company’s success in the cheese competition to Gulley even though he said his plant manager shies away from the attention.
“When he entered (the samples at the competition), he entered as ‘Bluegrass team.” He’s the team,” Williams said. “He has got a lot of cheese experience. He’s the one that brings this pride in developing new cheeses that we’ve been making.”
In turn, Gulley believes it is the hard work of the approximately 125 employees of the company that make the difference.
“I’m proud of this bunch around here and what they’ve done,” he said. “This is a group effort around here. All for one and one for all.”
Both men also attribute the success of their products to the good, quality milk with which they begin.
“I think the state of Kentucky does a good job of that,” Gulley said.
As far as developing new cheeses and other products, the two said it’s an ever-changing business.
“We never quit, we just keep going,” Gulley said.
“Whatever the customer demands, if they want a special cheese, Rick will make it,” Williams said.
Bluegrass Dairy & Food also won the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce 2009 Industry of the Year Award.
For more contest results, visit www.worldchampioncheese.org
