The 2025 United States Championship Cheese Contest® is officially underway! Now through Thursday, March 6, more than 2,400 cheeses, butters, cultured dairy products, and dry dairy products will be evaluated by a skilled team of nationally renowned judges.
“For dairy manufacturers and processors across the country, success at this competition is the pinnacle of excellence,” said John Umhoefer, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA), which hosts the Contest. "We’re honored to offer them this opportunity to grow their businesses, take pride in their craft, and enjoy the unique camaraderie and connection of this industry.”
Preliminary Rounds of judging are open for public observation from 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. today, Tuesday, March 4 and tomorrow, Wednesday, March 5 at Resch Expo in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Attendance is free, and samples will be available. Live judging demonstrations will be held at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. each day. The event culminates with the exciting announcement of the 2025 U.S. Champion Cheese live online at USChampionCheese.org on Thursday, March 6 at 2:00 p.m. (CT).
Hosted biennially by WCMA since 1981, this competition is the largest technical dairy products evaluation in the nation. In 2023, Europa, an aged gouda made by the team at Arethusa Farm Dairy in Bantam, Connecticut, earned the U.S. Champion Cheese title with an impressive score of 98.739 points out of 100.
This year, a total of 2,414 entries have been submitted across 117 classes by dairy manufacturers from 31 U.S. states. These products will be evaluated by a judging team comprised of 38 cheese graders, cheese buyers, dairy science professors, and researchers hailing from 15 states.
