Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest

Huge congratulations to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for taking home 🥇 for All Products in our 100th Contest! Another win in the books for our beloved Dr. Charlie White! Couldn’t have done it without our host Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association! Thank you for giving us the home to host such a meaningful event!

Thank you Cheese Reporter for all that you do to help spread the word!!! What a fantastic 100th Contest it was 🎉 Here’s to 100 more years 🧀 🥛 🍦 🧈 🍓 🏡🧀

The 100th Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest is currently happening. We have 9 universities represented judging 6 different product categories. I spent my morning easing nerves and taking selfies with the students!

Grateful to the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association for being our gracious hosts. Their commitment to the future of dairy has been remarkable. Special thanks to John Umhoefer and the entire team for supporting our contest and mission. 🧀 See you at Cheese Expo!! 🧀 #100years #CDPEC #dairyjudging

Hear about the inspiring journey of Tim Czmowski's judging career, that all started with CDPEC! We appreciate the dedication our judges have shown through the years, upholding a standard of excellence that spans careers and cultivates lasting connections. #100years #CDPEC #dairyproducts

Contestant: Kerry Kaylegian Competed: Fall 2000 School: University of Wisconsin, Madison Current Role: Professor and Dairy Judging Coach at Penn State University After graduating with her undergraduate in Food Science, Kerry started her career in food at Beatrice Food Ingredients in product development. After a bit, she decided she wanted to go for her master’s degree and returned to the UW in Dr. Lindsay’s lab working on a specialty butter 🧈 project. When she graduated, she started a pilot plant and applications program on specialty butter 🧈 ingredients at the Center for Dairy Research (CDR). She had heard about dairy judging when she was an undergraduate, and while working on butter applications she began training with the team under Dr. Bob Bradley to learn more about butter🧈. In the meantime, she had begun going back to school part-time for her PhD, and Dr. Bradley realized she qualified as a contestant! 💥 🎉 In the fall of 2000, Kerry competed as a graduate student on the team in San Francisco. Kerry decided to return to school full time to complete her PhD at Cornell, where she began judging dairy products at the NY State Fair. Kerry became a research associate at Penn State in 2007 and took over as coach of the Penn State team in 2012. She has loved cheese 🧀 since she was introduced to artisanal cheese when she was 14 years old and has been judging cheese for the American Cheese Society and Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association’s US and international contests since 2012. 🧀 🐭 “The thing with Dairy Judging is more than just tasting products and being able to identify defects” Kerry says. “It’s a tradition that has created legacies – for example, Bob Bradley, the coach of Wisconsin, formed me into the coach that I am. And in turn, I’ve helped foster that growth, passion and love of dairy judging in my students. One of which, Dr. Grace Lewis, will have started a team at UW River Falls. The legacy that he’s been able to create runs deep and continues to build and fuel the culture and teams that we have today. Thanks Bob!” ❤️🐄 🍓 🧀 🍦 🥛 🧈

Who said us dairy folk don't know how to have fun! 🎉 Daryl Spors, CFS shares his memory of the contest over on Bourbon Street! 🐄🧀🥛 #dairyjudging #CDPEC #100years

Contestant: Natasha Scherber Competed: Fall 2015 School: South Dakota State University Current Role: Process Technologist, Kovalus Separation Solutions Natasha was on the legendary SDSU team – as you’ve been reading the previous articles before, SDSU is no joke when it comes to their dairy judging team. 🧈 So, she started participating in dairy judging in 2012.  In 2013, she competed in the regionals as an alternate.  In 2014, she competed in the regionals and competed in the 2014 fall national competition.  In 2015, she continued on with her graduate studies and was the assistant coach of the dairy team for two years.  In those two years, the team won first place 🥇 and third place 🥉 overall.  In 2019, she began helping on the industry side of the contest.  When you’re an industry supporter, you can judge products, help collect products and work with the setting up clinics for the coaches to help proper industry standards are being communicated to the students during their training.  “The most unique part of knowing your taste buds are unique is that you’re able to give meaningful results to projects.  I still use all of my tasting and sampling knowledge on a daily basis,” Natasha says.  “I have a skill that isn’t duplicable and not everyone has it!  It’s fun, its’ valued, it’s appreciated!  And I love it!  I’m young in my career and there’s more to come to build on this.  And it’s practical!  It’s what the consumer sees!” Natasha has started coordinating and running the Regional Contest from long time coordinator, Anne Tigges.  Looking forward to her continued contributions on the board and in the contests! 🐄 🥛 🍦 🧀 🍓 🧈

Reliving memories of not only being a student but being a coach as well. Lloyd Metzger has been around this industry for quite a while and we're so glad to have him as part of our CDPEC team! 🐄🧀🥛 #dairyjudging #CDPEC #100years

Contestant: Jackie Seibel Competed: Fall 2010 School: University of Wisconsin, Madison Current Role: VP Product Development & Quality, Sartori Cheese Growing up in MN and participating in the FAA and 4H 🍀, Jackie had known about dairy and food science since she was a junior in High School. At the University of MN, she studied Food Science and had lots of internships along the way in both quality and R&D. Going into graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, she researched Dairy Protein Chemistry for Dr. John Lucey, who introduced her to Dairy Judging. Here, she learned about the sensory defects that happen in dairy products. In 2010, she competed at the Graduate level taking 1st Place 🥇 Graduate in Cheddar cheese 🧀 and 2nd Place 🥈 Graduate All Products. 🐄 Like most of us who end up participating in the contest, we get sucked back in as judges later! Jackie started off judging Butter 🧈, which in this world makes all former coaches proud! So along with Matt Buss, another Bob Bradley alum, the Butter 🧈 category has become stacked with former University of Wisconsin participants! Recently though, Jackie went back to her 1st 🥇 place win, judging Cheddar Cheese. 🧀 She says, "When you start to learn about dairy products, you learn about defects and how to prevent them. Now it's about teaching these defects to help others. It's important to have the right tools to be a detective in the industry and fix issues that can arise." When we were talking, I loved what she equated this experience to… “It's like colors,” she said. "I see your shirt, and it’s green BUT until you're taught what green looks like, and you then experience it, then you know exactly what green looks like.” Jackie is currently a board member of the CDPEC and works for Sartori Foods as the VP of Product Development and Quality. She'll be judging Cheddar Cheese 🧀 at the contest in April! 🐄 🍓 🧀 🥛 🍦