The cheese being judged Tuesday at Madison Area Technical College was one of roughly 1,400 submissions of cheese, milk, butter and ice cream to the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest. By the end of Thursday, judges had ranked every submission from 93 categories and named the winners.
“It’s a job that takes training, you’ve got to get started somewhere. It takes training to know exactly what the flavor is, what the body and texture is,” said Robert Bradley, the contest’s head judge. “It’s a fact of knowing and understanding, having enough training in your background to know what to do and what to call it.”
The Wisconsin Dairy Products Association, which hosts the contest, on Thursday announced the dairy product contest grand champions in the categories of ice cream, cheese and butter, and Grade A product. Madison’s Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream won with its vanilla bean ice cream, Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, of Waterloo, won with its chocolate mascarpone, and Prairie Farms Dairy, from Carbondale, Illinois, won with its cottage cheese.
The winning products will be auctioned off during the World Dairy Expo, which will be held from Sept. 28 through Oct. 2 at the Alliant Energy Center.
Contest winners can use the results in marketing and to stand out among their peers. In addition to the grand champions, there are also class winners in each category. Those that don’t win, who Legreid said traditionally still receive grades in the mid-90s, receive feedback from judges to better their product.
“It’s the fastest-growing dairy contest ever,” Legreid said. “It has been breaking all records.”
One of the Madison area’s signature events, the World Dairy Expo was founded in 1967 and has grown into one of the premier agriculture expositions in the world. The expo includes shows, exhibitors, seminars and food events.
The event traditionally brings in 62,000 people from 100 countries for a week each fall to the community, serves as a major economic boon for hotels and restaurants and also draws high-profile visits, such as from then-U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in 2019.
Event officials earlier this year solicited proposals for alternative locations outside of Dane County, due to the county’s COVID-19-related restrictions on dining and public gatherings that were in place at the time.
With hopes of keeping the event — the largest convention and exposition in Dane County, with an estimated annual economic impact of more than $45 million — in Madison, county officials offered the expo a 10-year contract extension in March.
Under the proposed contract, the 2021 and 2022 events would be hosted by the county at no cost to the expo to help recoup losses from 2020.
Ultimately, the expo’s board agreed in April to keep the event, which has been held in Madison since it began more than 50 years ago, at the Alliant Energy Center. The board has not yet announced a formal decision on the county’s offer of a contract extension, and officials with the expo and Alliant Energy Center said in a joint statement Wednesday that organizers remain focused on the fall event and conversations on the contract remain ongoing.
The expo and Alliant Energy Center said plans for the 2021 event are proceeding “full steam ahead,” according to the statement, with new educational and networking features, and organizers are maintaining regular contact with county and public health officials.
While the Alliant Energy Center announced earlier this week that attendees will need to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to gain entry, officials said that rule is not applicable to the upcoming expo. Officials also said they are hopeful Public Health Madison and Dane County’s new mask order, which requires everyone age 2 and older to wear a face covering or mask in any indoor public setting, will not be extended beyond its current Sept. 16 expiration date.
The overhead doors of the New Holland Pavilions, which are used for housing cattle, will remain open during the event and the facility will make use of its on-site ventilation system, officials said.
“World Dairy Expo is optimistic masks will not be required in the pavilions during our event even if the face covering order is extended,” according to the statement.
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