You might think Wisconsin has the dairy market cornered, but Ohio takes first place in U.S. Swiss cheese production — contributing more than 40% of the nation’s supply each year.
Ohio’s Swiss cheese manufacturing originates in the mid-to-late 1800s, when a wave of Swiss immigrants settled in Eastern and Central Ohio.
“[Ohio] reminded them [of] home,” Mike Walpole, national sales manager for Brewster Cheese, said. “Right now, there’s four major Swiss manufacturers in Ohio, and they’re all within 50 miles of each other. It’s just this tight little region around Stark County, Ohio, where it all started at, and is still at.”
For Brewster Cheese, one of the four largest cheese manufacturing companies in Ohio, these Swiss immigrant ties are particularly strong.
“Our owners immigrated from Switzerland to Ohio back in the ‘30s or ‘40s. And then in 1965 they purchased the co-op plant in Brewster, and then they started making Swiss at that time,” Walpole said. “We're on our fourth generation right now, owned by Katsy Flarida. She's the granddaughter of the original owner, so we're pretty proud of that.”
In fact, all four major Swiss cheese producing companies in Ohio — Brewster, Rothenbuhler, Pearl Valley and Guggisberg — are all still family-owned. Although these companies cumulatively produce hundreds of millions of pounds of cheese with the help of massive facilities today, these companies started off as side businesses for farmers to use up extra milk.
“[During the 1930s and 1940s], there were probably 50 or 60 small Swiss plants. … They just made a little bit of Swiss to use up the extra milk on their farms, and then it transitioned into where it is today,” Walpole said. “Today, [Brewster Cheese] produces around 100 million pounds of Swiss cheese a year.”
The Swiss Cheese making process in Ohio has greatly evolved since its genesis. Today, Ohio Swiss cheese producers have to abide by strict rules, some of which are specific to the state, making the manufacturing process in Ohio different from elsewhere. Making Swiss cheese is also an entirely different process than with other cheeses — including different ingredients, bacteria and specialized vats.
“It's a particularly scientific method of making Swiss cheese,” Walpole said. “The eyes are developed from carbon dioxide that pop through the milk during fermentation. So it's a long process. It takes us 24 hours to make one vat of cheese, and we produce quite a few vats a day, and then those are stored in a temperature building for 45 to 50 days, and they're getting right there cooled down and getting ready to cut.”
In addition to producing more Swiss cheese than any other state, Ohio also produces much more Swiss cheese than any other type of cheese each year.
In 2023, Ohio produced over 147.9 million pounds and 44% of the nation’s Swiss cheese. In prior years, Ohio has produced more than 150 million pounds of cheese and up to 49% of the national Swiss cheese output.
According to Walpole, cheese production is vital for Ohio’s agricultural economy as a whole.
“The cows never stop giving milk, so somebody's gotta take milk in 24/7, which we do,” Walpole said. “With the [storage] capacity that we have, we have over 250 farms that we purchase milk from. So just imagine those farms not having a place to go with their milk. If you go to bottling companies, they're only taking milk five days a week, and during the summer, they're taking less because there's no school.”
Ohio’s Swiss cheese market is a statistical microcosm of Ohio’s agricultural economy. On a per-acre-of-land basis, Ohio generates more than double the revenue from agricultural products than the nation — a gap that has only widened in recent years.
Agriculture, as Ohio’s most successful industry, contributes more than $124 billion yearly to the state, and Swiss cheese manufacturers in Ohio are a major contributor.
“The agricultural aspect of Ohio can't get any bigger if nobody takes the milk that [Ohio Swiss cheese producers] do,” Walpole said.
