The big cheese

O'Brien County is well-known for its lush cornfields and rich soils. Now, it's safe to add cheese to the list.

Mild cheddar and Monterey jack made at AMPI's plant in Sanborn were featured in the first-place shredded cheese blend entry at the 2023 United States Championship Cheese Contest. The blend was cut and packaged at AMPI's Portage, Wis., facility.

"The dedication of our dairy farm families and cheesemakers, and all of the team members in between, ensures consistent championship-caliber cheese that we are proud to deliver to our customers in the U.S. and around the globe," said AMPI Senior Vice President of Operations Mike Wolkow in a news release.

This isn't the first time AMPI's Sanborn plant has taken home top honors in a cheese contest. The facility has been lauded for its products several times in the past and owns many gold medals to its name.

AMPI's entries topped nearly 2,250 contenders from 197 companies and cooperatives across 35 U.S. states in the biennial competition hosted recently by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. The cooperative was distinguished as the only dairy farmer-owned company to have two entries named to the elite group of Top 20 finishers revealed at the competition. It was the first time AMPI achieved the specific honor.

The second AMPI cheese in the Top 20 is a Ghost Pepper Jack, a spicy cheese produced by cheesemakers working at AMPI's Jim Falls, Wis., facility.

AMPI is headquartered in New Ulm, Minn., and owned by dairy farm families from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. It is the largest farmer-owned cheese cooperative in the U.S.