Foremost Farms Exits 40lb Block Cheese: $13 Billion Of New US Dairy Capacity Is Closing Old Cheddar Lines

I had filed this as one small plant closing in Wisconsin. Then I saw the number behind it. US dairy makers are putting about $13 billion into new plants across 19 states. Foremost Farms says that new capacity is a reason its own plant has to go.

What Foremost Farms said

On 26 August the co-op said it will close its Marshfield, Wisconsin cheese plant in December. It will also stop making 40 lb block cheese for good. The plant dates from the 1950s and has 68 people. They were told on 24 August.

The reason given was plain. The co-op cited "increased US cheese production capacity and shifting consumer demand". A cheese maker has named the industry's building boom as a reason for a closure. That is rare, and it is worth reading twice.

The boom behind the closure

The $13 billion figure comes from the International Dairy Foods Association. It covers more than 50 projects due to open between 2025 and early 2028. Cheese takes the largest slice at $3.2 billion. New York leads with $2.8 billion, then Texas at $1.5 billion and Wisconsin at $1.1 billion.

The trade body expects the new plants to take 15 billion more pounds of milk a year by 2030. Wisconsin is both the third biggest builder and the state losing a cheese plant. New money and old closures sit in the same place.

Marshfield is the second co-op cheese closure of the summer. In June, Dairy Farmers of America said it would shut its St Albans plant in Vermont. About 80 jobs go there.

The price that makes the case

The cheese board tells the same story. On 2 September, 40 lb blocks closed at $1.475 a pound on the Chicago exchange. Barrels closed at $1.5325. Blocks usually sell above barrels, and right now they sell below them. The format Foremost is leaving is the one getting the worst price on the board.

Export prices point the same way. At the 1 September Global Dairy Trade auction, cheddar fell 6.6% to $3,503 a tonne. That is $1.59 a pound. The October contract dropped 12.4% to $3,185 a tonne, or about $1.44 a pound. Mozzarella held at $4,244 a tonne, up 0.3%.

So cheddar sold abroad for October now prices close to the Chicago block. The old plant sold into both markets. Neither is paying well.

Where the new cheese goes

The new plants were never built for the home block market. The US Dairy Export Council says more than 60% of new cheese made in the last two years went abroad. The boom is an export bet, and the export price of cheddar just fell 12% for October. Mozzarella, the pizza cheese, held its price. That is what the biggest new plants make.

Leprino's new complex in Lubbock, Texas makes mozzarella. Hilmar's plant in Dodge City, Kansas makes cheese and whey protein at scale. Bongards said in August it will spend $135 million to add 180 million pounds a year of process cheese. None of them is building a 40 lb cheddar block line.

Why co-ops close first

A co-op has to take its members' milk. It cannot cut supply the way a brand owner can. So when the board price falls, the weakest plant carries the loss. A 1950s plant with 68 people making a bulk block cannot stand next to a new export plant. Foremost has six other Wisconsin plants and one in Michigan. The milk will move to them.

What to read from it

Count the closures as well as the openings. The $13 billion is a gross figure. Nobody publishes the net. Watch the gap between blocks and barrels. When blocks stay below barrels, more block lines will close. Watch the October cheddar contract too. If it stays under $1.50 a pound, the export bet gets tested early.

One closure rarely moves a market on its own. What matters is whether the same pattern shows up in other states and in other cheese types. That is the level at which we build the Global Cheese Database 2026. It tracks production, imports, exports and demand for 39 cheese types in 48 countries, in tonnes. The 2026 edition is being built now, and the waitlist gives you a free sample country chapter.