Indiana’s Kuehnert Dairy is expanding and is using a recent grant from the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance to make it happen.
The $100,000 award will be used to create a cheese curd manufacturing facility on their farm. Owner Andrew Kuehnert says the facility will be able to milk in the morning and have a value-added product available by the afternoon.
He says the funding will be used to purchase cheese-making equipment, product packaging, and marketing and promotion services.
Kuehnert says he’s dreamed of making farm-fresh cheese curds since realizing the state of Indiana lacked such a product. He says the plan is to sell at their on-site retail store, local grocers, and direct to consumers online.
The Dairy Business Innovation Alliance (DBIA), a partnership between the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) and the Center for Dairy Research (CDR). It awarded 41 grants totaling nearly $4 million to dairy-related operations across the Midwest.