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Meet Saxon Creamery’s Grand Champion

We at Saxon Homestead Farm are excited to announce that Saxon Creamery’s Snowfields- Aged Butterkase cheese was awarded the top honor of Cheese & Butter Grand Champion at the 2016 World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest. This year’s contest received an unprecedented 1,130 entries of a vast array of dairy products from around North America, including cheese, butter, yogurt, cottage cheese and ice cream, to name a few.

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Judging for the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest took place August 23-25, 2016 in Madison, WI. Saxon Creamery received the following awards:

  • Cheese & Butter Grand Champion: Snowfields- Aged Butterkase
  • First place in the “Open Class Semi-Soft Cheese” class: Snowfields- Aged Butterkase
  • First place in the “Smoked Flavored Natural Cheeses” class: Big Eds- Smokehaus Gouda

Last month, Saxon Creamery also took home ribbons for its artisan cheeses at the American Cheese Society (ACS) contest on July 29, 2016. This year’s contest was one of the largest in ACS history with 109 categories of cheese, 260 cheese companies competing and 1843 entries submitted.

Saxon Creamery’s first-place winners at the ACS contest included Saxony Alpine Gruyere (Class DC) and Asiago Fresca (Class HD). The Snowfields Butterkase with chilies and mushrooms (Class KC), a limited quantity and pre-order item, received a second-place ribbon. Finally, the third-place winners were Snowfields Butterkase (Class DC) and Saxony Alpine Gruyere, young (Class DC).

The class “DC: Open Category- American Made/ International Style- made from cows milk” was one of the largest classes. Saxon Creamery had six entries in this class and earned three awards: one first-place award and two third-place awards.

Photo courtesy of Mary Francis.
Photo courtesy of Mary Francis.

Saxon Creamery cheeses are made from milk produced from one herd of cows on our farm. Our family and our employees are dedicated to producing exceptionally high-quality milk. We are proud to say our Holstein-Jersey cross-bred cows are pasture grazed and are not treated with bovine growth hormone (rBST.) The pasture production system adds unique flavor characteristics to our milk and, consequently, to Saxon Creamery cheeses.

Saxon Creamery, which opened in 2007, hand crafts artisan cheeses one wheel at a time. Saxon Creamery strives to create high-quality, great tasting cheese and is Safe Quality Food certified. The creamery’s licensed cheesemakers have more than 25 years of combined experience. Furthermore, its team members age Saxon Creamery cheeses to perfection and take pride in packaging and shipping the cheese to ensure their customers receive the very best. Moreover, Saxon Creamery has a dedicated support and sales team that strives to service and understand each customer’s needs.

With pride and gratitude to all the people that love Saxon Creamery cheese, we encourage readers to continue indulging in the family of award-winning cheeses and to feel good about doing so! Remember, it all starts in the pasture.

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At Saxon Homestead Farm we are “passionate about pasture”

Photo courtesy of Mary Francis
Photo courtesy of Mary Francis.

 

This Herald Times Reporter article paints a vivid picture of Saxon Homestead Farm for readers interested in learning more about our operation. It describes our rotational grazing system and why we have implemented it, discusses seasonal calving and what this means for our farm, and explains why we feel our pasture-based milk is so special. Read the article to discover just how  “passionate about pasture” we are at Saxon Homestead Farm!

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State-of-the-Art Agricultural Education Center in Eastern WI

The Wisconsin Agricultural Education Center (WAEC) has been a vision for more than five years for a group of individuals involved in the agricultural industry. Through their countless hours of research and exploration they have been able to bring this project to a reality.

A world-class, interactive showcase for the industry, this original learning and discovery center will focus on sustainable and responsible farming practices. It will provide visitors with the opportunity to connect with agriculture through a better understanding of where their food comes from and the tremendous impact it has on their lives and on those of everyone committed to a healthy world.

WAEC Rendering

The exciting plans for the center include:

  • 21,000 square foot discovery center
  • Interactive globe
  • 200 person conference center
  • Café and country store
  • Displays made with cutting edge technology to include simulation and hands-on activity
  • Birthing barn: visitors can watch calves being born right in front of their eyes
  • Tour the Grotegut Dairy Farm, a third generation family dairy farm focused on sustainability and best farming practices. The farm also has 2400 milking cows, 2300 young stock, 80 cow parlor and a methane digester

The Wisconsin Agricultural Education Center has made big strides in making their vision a reality. WAEC has partnered with Lakeshore Technical College and purchased 18 acres of land on the west side of Interstate 43 at exit 144. The location of the new center will be between I-43 and Gass Lake Road at the County Road C intersection. Currently the center is in the capital campaign of the project and has raised 59 percent of the $11.6 million needed to build through receiving a $5 million non-state agency grant and gifts from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and the recent gift of $1 million from Land O’ Lakes.

To learn more about the Wisconsin Agricultural Education Center and their quest to build a state-of-the-art agricultural education center, you can visit BuildWAEC.org or contact Melissa Bender, executive director at 920.693.1372 or melissa.bender@gotoltc.edu

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Report Evaluates Top Restaurants on Antibiotic Use in Meat Supply

The report Chain Reaction evaluates top U.S. restaurants in terms of their policies and approaches on antibiotic use in their meat supply. It was sponsored by six organizations including Friends of the Earth and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The report favorably recognizes both grass fed and organic production systems. What is particularly interesting is that consumers are drawn to better meat options that rely less on conventional use of grain, hormones, and antibiotics and more on organic and grass fed. At Saxon Homestead Farm, we are in line with these consumers. We “finish” our steers in summer and fall on a salad bar mixture of pasture grasses and legumes. No grain is fed to our steers once they reach their first birthday. We do not use growth hormones and do not feed any weight-gain antibiotics.