Blog
Certification, education, advocacy, events, industry news and the members behind them — written by the Federation, for the people who make, age, sell and buy the cheese.
The cave line on your utility bill
Spring temperature swings make cave humidity and airflow harder to hold steady, and harder on the power bill. A look at the course built for exactly that problem.
Read postA workshop built around your actual costs
Our Prairie Costing workshop is later this month in Madison. It's built for members who've watched their feed and energy lines move faster than their price sheet.
Read postThe labeling question worth watching
A decades-old federal proposal on how ultrafiltered milk gets labeled in standardized cheese is moving again. Here's what it could change and how to weigh in.
Read postThe credential that's really about your palate
The Sensory Evaluation Certificate gets pitched as a step toward judging. Most members who take it never judge a single competition, and use it for something more practical…
Read postThe quality manager after a consolidation
A composite of members whose small creamery employer was folded into a larger operation this year. Their job didn't change. Almost everything around it did.
Read postThe export numbers that came in steady
First-quarter trade figures show US cheese exports still climbing, even as members brace for tariff news elsewhere. A look at what's actually moving, and what isn't yet.
Read postMember spotlight: six weeks into affinage
Priya Natarajan left a desk job in February to apprentice in a cave. Six weeks in, she told us what surprised her most about the trade she chose.
Read postThe margin deadline nobody celebrates
The federal margin-protection enrollment window for dairy operations closes this month. We look at why it matters more than usual this year, and what it doesn't fix.
Read postThe creamery that cut its lineup on purpose
One farmstead member cut her product line from nine cheeses to four this spring — not because the demand disappeared, but because the math on the other five…
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