The opening keynote and three additional education sessions have been announced for CheeseCon, set for April 4-6 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wis. 

The opening keynote panel is now ready to kick off Wednesday, April 5 with dairy’s "most crucial issue." “Sustainability Now: Implementing, not Discussing, Sustainable Practices in Dairy” features leaders from Leprino Foods, Harbor Environmental, and Nestle S.A. describing the imperative to develop and measure sustainability targets to meet consumer expectations and buyers’ demands.

“Each morning at CheeseCon, after our high-energy opening events, attendees will have a broad array of concurrent education options,” said John Umhoefer, WCMA Executive Director. “Center for Dairy Research cheese and whey seminars, food safety, milk pricing, and specialty cheese production are ready, and now sustainability, dairy exporting, and cheese evaluation join the lineup.”

 A new concurrent session Wednesday morning is the follow-up partner to the Opening Keynote. This Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy technical session will present “Implementing Sustainable Practices Now,” featuring experts from Harbor Environmental, Foremost Farms, Leprino Foods, and Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. These sustainability experts will discuss the tools that have been custom built for U.S. dairy processors to understand and measure greenhouse gas emissions across their operations and how your competitors are measuring and reporting on sustainability metrics both on-farm and in-plant.

 A new Thursday morning concurrent session joins an already strong lineup of education seminars. U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) has built “Market Outlook and Opportunities for Cheese Exports.” USDEC experts Megan Sheets and William Loux join with Wisconsin-based resource partners to share the outlook for dairy exports as well as new market research, sales support, grant support, and additional tools to advance growth of U.S. dairy sales overseas.

 Thursday afternoon adds a new take on a popular workshop at CheeseCon. The 1:30 p.m. workshop “Learning the Art of Technical Cheese Grading” features Jim Mueller, Chief Judge from the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, and other expert cheese evaluators offering an informative, hands-on exploration of defect evaluation in commodity and specialty cheeses.