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Clark County Cheesemaker Wins 62nd State OYF Award
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 01/26/2015

A central Wisconsin cheesemaker, who was born and raised in The Netherlands, has been named the winner of the 2015 Wisconsin Outstanding Young Farmer award. Marieke Penterman of Thorp earned the title in Weston on Saturday night after competing against six other finalists. Penterman and her husband, Rolf, own and operate Holland's Family Cheese and Penterman Farm LLC.

Marieke and Rolf began farming in the Thorp area in 2002, and have since grown their operation to about 800-cows. After constuling with the Dairy Business Innovation Center in 2006, she put together a business plan to start a cheesemaking facility and obtained her cheesemaker's license in order to produce Gouda cheese, which is a staple dairy product in her homeland.

"Within four months of starting the cheese business, someone encouraged us to enter an international cheese product competition, where our Foenegreek entry took first prize in its class, which was the largest class in the whole competition," Penterman told Wisconsin Ag Connection. "Since then, we have won many national and international awards."

Some of those awards were quite prestigious. In 2011, Marieke was named the Grand Master Cheesemaker at the Wisconsin State Fair, the first woman to win the award, for her Gouda Belegen. Her cheese also went on to win Grand Champion at the U.S. Cheese Championship in 2013.

She also said it was an honor to compete with other producers for the OYF award.

"All farmers need some positive recognition, especially in times when there's bad publicity about agriculture," she said. "At our farm, we all care about our cows and we encourage consumers who may not know what goes into making their favoite dairy products to come and see how these foods are made."

Penterman was also the winner of the annual 'Speak up for Agriculture' award over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Craig and Nicole Schmidt of Juneau were named first runners-up for the OYF competition. They own a dairy and grain operation with 155 cows and 670 acres of cropland. The second runner-up was Amy Raboine from Reedsburg.

Other finalists were Andrew & Beth Belter, Athens; Tom & Amanda Cornette, Luxemburg; and Jeremy Miess, Muscoda.

Meanwhile, the 2014 state winner, Todd Augustian from Kewaunee, was recently named as a top 20 finalists for the same award at the national level. Wisconsin has had 16 national winners in its six-decade history of the program.

The Wisconsin OYF program was developed in 1954 to recognize the younger generation of successful agriculturists in the state. Winners are selected based on progress in their agricultural career, soil and water conservation and contributions to community, state and nation.


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