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 margin that kept sliding
July's federal dairy margin fell to its lowest reading since the spring of 2020, and the reasons are worth understanding before you set your fall budget.
Read postPricing when your inputs won't hold still
Pricing & Margin for Specialty Cheese was built for a market that sits still. Here's how members are adapting the same framework to a summer where feed costs…
Read postA wholesale negotiation you can run from your kitchen table
This afternoon's free wholesale negotiation webinar is built for the season we're actually in: buyers you'll probably never meet in person and prices you still have to defend.
Read postA milk price, and the feed price underneath it
Class III and Class IV prices have been drifting toward each other this summer, but for members west of the Mississippi, the number that matters more is what's…
Read postYour margin and your time
A new survey of artisan cheesemakers found most losing product to quality issues every year. It's a margin problem as much as a craft one, and it's exactly…
Read postThe stand that watched the conference too
One member ran her farmers market stand and streamed the Annual Conference on a phone propped against the cooler, at a market that's finally back to something like…
Read postA conference with no parking lot
The ICF Annual Conference 2021 opens tomorrow, fully virtual for the second year running. Here's what's different from last year's version, and how to make the most of…
Read postThe creamery budgeting hay before cheese
A drought-stressed feed market has one Midwest farmstead member rewriting her production math for the second half of the year, cheese case first and cave second.
Read postFinishing your CCP before conference week
The Certified Cheese Professional credential is the federation's broadest capstone, and members finishing it before the Annual Conference can get their new title recognized live.
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