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By Amber Bailey
AMALGA -- This town got a "hole" lot more appetizing. Because of its Swiss cheese, of course. Amalga's Cache Valley Cheese Plant was recognized as "second place Swiss" in this year's U.S. Championship Cheese Contest. "We're well known for the quality of [our] Swiss," said Kevin Haslam, human resources director. And they have the awards to prove it. Along with this year's award, the plant's walls are decorated with first, second, and third place awards in the Swiss cheese category from previous years. They also placed second in granular Cheddar cheese block. In 1996, Dairy Farmers of America's Smithfield plant and Scriber Foods, Inc. signed a 50 million pounds-per-year buying agreement. From that agreement both companies work together in the plant. DFA leases space to Scriber. Scriber buys, packages and sells the cheese and DFA makes it, said Max Thompson, Scriber buyer. "We start from a big 700 block and cut them down to the little containers that you buy in the grocery stores," Thompson said. The award-winning cheese can be found under three primary customer-marketing labels: Cache Valley, Western Family, Albertson's and Great Value. The plant also produces cheddar, Monterey jack, colby jack, and mozzarella, as well as whey and sweet cream ingredients. "Only 10 to 15 percent of the milk goes to the cheese, what's left goes to make whey," Haslam said. The milk used in the cheese comes not only from Utah dairy farmers that belong to DFA, but it also comes from Texas, New Mexico, and Oregon. >From the milk received the Utah plant has the ability to process 1.7 million pounds of cheese per day. Every year the plant produces 28 million pounds of cheese, half of which is devoted to Swiss cheese production. They also produce 19 million pounds of whey. The plant has 300 employees on site, 100 of which work for DFA. "We are a partnership and we work together," Haslam said. Before it was an award-winning cheese plant, it was the Amulated Sugar Co. The DFA had trouble finding a reliable market for their milk, but wanted one. Meanwhile, according to information from the Cache Valley Dairy Association, Ed Gossner, a boy on his father's dairy farm in Switzerland, was learning the art of cheese-making. He dreamed of the day when he could come to America and build and operate the biggest and best Swiss cheese factory in the world. In 1930 he arrived in Wisconsin and later came to Cache Valley and fulfilled that dream. It was also a dream come true for the farmers in Cache Valley. The Amulated Sugar Co. building was available and thus began the Cache Valley cheese factory.
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