Bob Aschenbrock, chief judge of the competition, said the success by Wisconsin cheesemakers goes back to the quality of the milk produced by the state’s farmers and the work of the state agriculture officials and the Center for Dairy Research at UW-Madison.

“We’ve got the right climate here in Wisconsin, the right feed, and it produces a well-balanced cheese,” said Aschenbrock, a longtime cheesemaker.

“They’ve improved the milk supply immensely in the last 15 to 20 years. When I was making cheese back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was nothing like it is today. Everybody else follows our lead, basically,” he said.

Other top honors went to Wisconsin Muenster makers, who took the top nine spots, including Randy Pitman of Mill Creek Cheese in Arena, who took first place.

State cheesemakers also swept the hard Hispanic cheeses category, while Pine River Pre-Pack in Newton took the top three spots in the cold pack cheese category. In the cold pack cheese spread category, state cheesemakers took 10 of the top 11 places, including a first-place finish by Greg May of Bel Brands USA in Little Chute.