{"id":497567,"date":"2026-06-17T16:09:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/497567\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:09:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:09:39","slug":"from-waste-to-gold-how-wisconsin-cheesemakers-are-cashing-in-on-the-protein-boom-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/497567\/","title":{"rendered":"From waste to gold: How Wisconsin cheesemakers are cashing in on the protein boom | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wisconsin leads in whey production as demand soars<\/p>\n


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\"Making<\/p>\n

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Ryan Lynch<\/a><\/p>\n

MUSCODA, Wis. (WKOW) \u2014 A former cheese byproduct is now driving major growth for Wisconsin’s dairy industry as demand for whey protein products continues to surge.<\/p>\n

The dairy industry contributes nearly $53 billion to Wisconsin’s economy every year. Cheesemakers produced 3.64 billion pounds of cheese last year, creating massive amounts of whey as a byproduct.<\/p>\n

As the nation’s top cheese producer, Wisconsin now produces more dry whey than any other state in the country, accounting for about a third of total national production, according to Leonard Polzin, a dairy markets and policy outreach specialist at UW-Madison. That whey is dried, shipped to other suppliers and eventually put into products ranging from drinks to waffles.<\/p>\n

“Milk has been around since the beginning of time, and now for something new, like whey protein to become popular from such an old product like milk is just a benefit for dairy farmers and Wisconsin and people in general,” said Scott Meister of Meister Cheese.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

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Ryan Lynch<\/a><\/p>\n

The national push for\u00a0more protein starts in Wisconsin when milk becomes cheese and cheese curds are separated from liquid whey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen a lot of diet fads come and go, but I think this protein fad has staying power,” Meister said.<\/p>\n

Before protein became popular, farmers had to find ways to dispose of whey. Meister said they would spread it on their farm for fertilizer value, but it was also a burden to dispose of.<\/p>\n

What was once disposable has become liquid gold for cheesemakers in Wisconsin. Meister said the demand is outstripping the supply right now.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin cheesemakers and farmers are leading the movement as the country’s number one cheese producer and number one producer of the dry whey that goes into products people are craving.<\/p>\n

“My grandpa and father would be impressed by how the industry has come to utilize all the value that comes in with the milk,” Meister said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wisconsin leads in whey production as demand soars Ryan Lynch MUSCODA, Wis. (WKOW) \u2014 A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[229037,184,163,85,46,43,543,5567,38],"class_list":["post-497567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-dairymonth","tag-economy","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-nutrition","tag-state","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}