With a Rise in More American Eating Cottage Cheese, Wisconsin Dairy Plants are Rising to Meet Demand

Thursday, February 12th, 2026 -- 8:00 AM

(Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Protein-obsessed Americans are eating more cottage cheese: in bowls, spread on toast or turned into the latest low-carb dessert.

According to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Public Radio, the rising star of the dairy case is also driving new investments in dairy processing in Wisconsin. Associated Milk Producers Inc., a cooperative with farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and four other states, recently announced plans to convert its plant in the Trempealeau County city of Blair from production of cheddar cheese to cottage cheese.

The plant will shut down this spring, temporarily laying off its workers, before coming back online at the start of next year. Sarah Schmidt, vice president of marketing for AMPI, said cottage cheese demand has seen double-digit growth in recent years.

And it’s likely to see more, thanks to the current way Americans are thinking about their diets. “It’s this return to natural, return to minimally-processed, and this idea that we need protein,” Schmidt said. “Cottage cheese is a great deliverer of that.”

Annual per capita cottage cheese consumption hit 2.4 pounds in 2024, according to Schmidt. That’s just two years after 2022 consumption hit a record low of 1.9 pounds per person.

Back in the 1970s, when cottage cheese was king, consumption reached roughly 5 pounds per person, Schmidt said. “So if we’re at 2.4 (pounds) in 2024 and we have been as high as five, there is a tremendous amount of growth there to get back to where we were,” she said.

Schmidt said the demand for cottage cheese is outpacing national production capacity, creating an opportunity for the cooperative to step in to fill the space while also turning their farmers’ milk into a higher-value product.

John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, said the higher demand for protein that’s boosting cottage cheese and other dairy products is not just a social media phenomenon.

He pointed out that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recently released under the current administration call increased the recommended protein intake, as well as promoted full-fat dairy products as health options. Umhoefer said cottage cheese is also likely to see a boost from a growing number of people taking GLP-1 weight loss medications.

“There’s 28 million people in the United States on those GLP-1 drugs,” said Umhoefer, pointing to a recent study by Cornell University. “They tend to reduce food intake and they look for concentrated sources of protein.”

Umhoefer called the cottage cheese craze a “win-win” in the dairy supply chain, saying that farmers often receive a bonus in their check from producing more protein in their milk.

And he said AMPI is far from the only processor going all-in. Daisy Brand broke ground last summer in central Iowa on a multimillion-dollar processing plant to produce cottage cheese and sour cream.

In southwestern Wisconsin, Westby Cooperative Creamery is already working on a $14 million expansion and modernization project, which is currently the only cottage cheese plant in the state.

The state-of-the-art equipment is expected to become operational by this fall, allowing the cooperative to expand its cottage cheese production by 50 percent. Emily Bialkowski, sales and marketing manager for the cooperative, said adding fully enclosed tanks to their system will allow them to cut their processing time in half while using less water and manual labor.

“Because cottage cheese is in such high demand, by moving to modernize this production equipment, we are ensuring the long-term future for our farmers and them having a place for their milk to go,” she said.

That security is even more important given the recent decline in milk prices that has challenged profitability for most dairy farms. Bialkowski said the new plant’s efficiencies will also help return more profits back to their members, many of whom operate small, family farms.

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