DBIA Boosts Midwest Dairy Industry with $2.9M in Grants

MADISON, WI – The Dairy Business Innovation Alliance (DBIA), a partnership between the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) and the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA), has announced a new infusion of $2.9 million in Dairy Business Builder grants to 28 Midwestern dairy businesses. More than half of the recipients are farmstead businesses, and 64 percent are receiving grant funds for the first time, highlighting DBIA’s focus on nurturing a diverse array of small and medium-sized enterprises.

“At its core, DBIA is about nurturing new innovators and growing dairy processing businesses,” said John Umhoefer, WCMA’s Executive Director. “It’s exciting to see dairy farms and small businesses making new dairy product offerings in the Midwest and gratifying to help these emerging businesses succeed.”

“The growing popularity of this program is obvious with applications from many new dairy businesses. We continue to be a critically important supporter of farmstead operations and smaller dairy businesses across our region, and this program helps cultivate their growth and durability,” said John Lucey, CDR Director.

The Dairy Business Builder grant program supports projects designed to diversify on-farm activity, create value-added products, enhance dairy by-products, or create or expand export programs. This round’s grant recipients are:

• Actus Nutrition of Eden Prairie, MN: Actus Nutrition produces high protein dairy ingredients for both domestic and international markets. This award will help expand their product offerings and better meet the increasing market demands for high quality, functional dairy proteins.

• Amish Country Dairy of Shipshewana, IN: Amish Country Dairy is a five-year-old company bottling fluid milk. This award will help Amish Country Dairy produce and market cheese and expand their existing business.

• BigGoat Farm of Houghton, MI: BigGoat Farm is a family‑owned Michigan dairy developing a licensed Grade A goat creamery that will produce chevre, cajeta, and seasonal gelato. This award will help BigGoat Farm equip its creamery, creating a new local access point for fresh, regionally produced dairy products.

• Calanna Specialty Foods of Chilton, WI: Larry and Clara Hedrich are co-founders of Calanna Specialty Foods focusing on goat products and are seeking new opportunities for goat milk. This award will help conduct a feasibility study into the efficacy of bottling goat milk and potentially provide a future market for Grade A goat milk.

• Cinnamon Ridge of Donahue, IA: Cinnamon Ridge is a farmstead operation making cheese with milk from their jersey cows. This award will help them reduce their labor expenses by automating the labeling for both their pouches and block cheese. This will help Cinnamon Ridge stay competitive with their customers and allow them to use their people more efficiently.

• Country Creamery Farm of Burbank, OH: Country Creamery Farm is an on-farm processing facility connecting customers to the farm and country. This award will help purchase ice cream equipment and take their ice cream to new levels and reach new markets.

• Decatur Dairy of Broadhead, WI: Decatur Dairy is a 3rd generation family-owned Cheese manufacturer that specializes in Muenster, Havarti, cheese curds, and string cheese. This award will allow Decatur Dairy to increase production and streamline their string cheese manufacturing line and connect with new markets.

• De Dames Ice Cream of Thorp, WI: De Dames Ice Cream is a sister-owned, Dutch-inspired farmstead ice cream business. This award will help De Dames Ice Cream purchase production equipment needed to launch ice cream manufacturing, allowing the business to bring authentic Dutch-inspired flavors to customers throughout Wisconsin.

• Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery of Ellsworth, WI: Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery is a 116-year-old dairy cooperative that produces cheese curds, specialty cheeses, and pasteurized processed cheese. This award will enable the cooperative to achieve higher standards in cheesemaking and produce a wider variety of dairy products through milk standardization.

• Farm Life Creamery of Ethan, SD: Farm Life Creamery is a small dairy processing business that uses milk from their family dairy farm to produce bottled milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and other value-added dairy products. This award, focused on operational expansion and production efficiency, will help Farm Life Creamery acquire key pieces of equipment that will remove bottlenecks in their operation.

• Flint Hills Pints of Alma, KS: Flint Hills Pints is a woman-owned, fifth-generation family farm business and proud From the Land of Kansas member. This award will help expand production of Flint Hills Pints’ freeze-dried SPACE ICE CREAM through new equipment and increased production capacity, creating additional opportunities for value-added dairy products while supporting Kansas agriculture and rural economic growth.

• Florence Creamery of Little Hocking, OH: Florence Creamery is a family owned and operated on-farm creamery that produces, processes, and delivers vat pasteurized, non-homogenized milk, cheese curds, and ice cream. This award will help Florence Creamery upgrade their current ice cream equipment as well as add new equipment, which will make the ice cream making process more efficient and allow them to produce and sell more ice cream.

• Hansen’s Farm Fresh Dairy of Hudson, IA: Hansen’s Dairy is a 150-cow dairy farm with on-site production of milk, butter, cheese curds, cream and ice cream. This award will help Hansen’s Dairy purchase a new bottle-filler and cheese press, allowing them to increase the efficiency of their milk-bottling process and add aged cheeses to their value-added product line.

• Hardeman Cheese of Decatur, NE: Hardeman Cheese is a new, Dutch family‑owned artisan cheese company creating high‑quality, value‑added traditional Dutch dairy products. This award will help purchase essential equipment needed to begin commercial production and support local milk processing. With this support, Hardeman Cheese will contribute to small‑town economic growth and help strengthen the value‑added dairy sector in northeast Nebraska.

• Hidden Springs Creamery of Westby, WI: Hidden Springs Creamery is a farmstead sheep farm and creamery that produces award winning sheep milk cheeses. This award will help Hidden Springs purchase equipment necessary to make sheep milk yogurt, allowing them to bring a new product to the market that has growing demand.

• Imporium Creamery of Goshen, IN: This award will help establish Imporium Creamery through support for the design, purchase, and installation of a container-based creamery for small-vat cheese production. Initial production will focus on a consistent line of high-quality fresh cheese curds, allowing the creamery to expand processing capacity and bring locally crafted dairy products directly to consumers.

• Lamers Dairy of Appleton, WI: Lamers Dairy, founded in 1913, is a fifth=-generation dairy processor and the only remaining family owned and operated fluid dairy processor regulated under Federal Order 30. This award will help purchase a new separator with nearly double the processing capacity of their current separator, which will significantly improve operational efficiency, reduce processing bottlenecks, and position Lamers Dairy to pursue growth opportunities.

• Ludwig Dairy of Elk Grove Village, IL: Ludwig Dairy is a second-generation, family-run dairy manufacturer producing premium cultured dairy products with a focus on quality, consistency, and tradition. This award will help Ludwig Dairy expand and modernize their production facility to support growing demand and strengthen long-term partnerships with local dairy farmers and customers.

• Matlock Creamery of Milford, IN: Matlock Creamery is a small, family-owned dairy business focused on producing non-homogenized milk. As an eighth-generation dairy family, they combine traditional stewardship with modern food-safety practices to create locally processed milk while building a sustainable future for their farm, family, and community. This award will help establish milk bottling at the Creamery.

• Milkhaus Dairy of Fennimore, WI: Milkhaus Dairy is a first-generation farmstead dairy that is slowly switching their herd to produce A2 milk. They are currently producing five award-winning A2 protein cheeses. This award will support a feasibility study on product and market opportunities.

• Noga Foods of Schiller Park, IL: Noga Foods is a fourth-generation, family-owned and operated specialty cheese processor and converter for smoked, processed, organic, and Kosher cheeses in a variety of formats including loaves, chunks, shreds, slices, and cubes. This award will support investments in enhanced packaging capabilities that enable the company to better serve evolving customer needs and expand market opportunities.

• Pleasant View Dairy of Highland, IN: Pleasant View Dairy is a dairy processor producing fluid dairy products for retail, school, and wholesale customers throughout Northwest Indiana and the Chicago area. This award will help Pleasant View Dairy modernize their processing operations through equipment upgrades that increase production capacity, improve product consistency, and support continued growth.

• Prairie Creek Creamery of Harrisburg, MO: Prairie Creek Creamery is the successor to the former Goatsbeard Farm and will produce artisanal goat’s milk cheeses like Chevre, Feta, Camembert, and various aged cheeses. This award will allow Prairie Creek Creamery to revitalize the dairy by updating/replacing outdated and dysfunctional equipment and support the purchase of equipment to produce smaller batches of cheese.

• Roelli Cheese Company of Shullsburg, WI: Roelli Cheese Company produces multiple varieties of specialty and artisan cheese. This award will help them expand their production capabilities to meet increasing demand.

• Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese of Kewaunee, WI: Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese is a farmstead cheese company specializing in cheese curds, mozzarella cheese whips, and string cheese made from milk sourced directly from their family dairy farm. This award will help implement an automated packaging system to increase efficiency, expand production capacity, and support continued growth in wholesale and private label partnerships.

• Sanilac Creamery of Ann Arbor, MI: Sanilac Creamery is an artisan dairy processor producing fresh quark, chèvre, cream cheese, brie, and gelato from locally sourced cow and goat milk. This award will help Sanilac Creamery install an ultrafiltration membrane system to modernize their quark and cream cheese production, replacing a labor-intensive draining process with a closed, sanitary process that improves efficiency and supports new product development.

• Sirocco Ridge Farmstead Creamery of Henryville, IN: Sirocco Ridge Farmstead Creamery makes goat cheeses and goat milk gelato. The four-year-old Creamery will use this award to expand into making freeze dried whey and freeze-dried milk to expand their value-added market.

• Wiskerchen Cheese of Auburndale, WI: Founded in 1936, Wiskerchen Cheese is a 4th generation Cheese manufacturing company. This award will allow continued investment in their whey processing and storage facilities, allowing for additional value-added dairy sales.

DBIA’s grant programs advance the organization’s mission to support small and mid-size dairy processors across its 11-state service area of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

The DBIA is supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was created in the 2018 federal Farm Bill. Since then, DBIA has awarded more than $26 million across 329 grants to Midwestern dairy farms and businesses. The program also offers technical assistance to dairy farmers and processors in participating states.