Since 1995, presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” Dairy Foods is proud to highlight and celebrate 10 fascinating women working in the multifaceted dairy industry who are carving out their own unique path to success.

When making artisanal cheese, the lion’s share of the milk used — 10 pounds of milk to produce 1 pound of cheese — comes from 1.27 million dairy cows in Wisconsin. 

Since expanding operations and moving from New Gloucester, Maine, 120 miles Northeast to Bangor, home of world-famous horror author Stephen King, Pineland Farms Dairy Co.’s growth and reputation has been anything but scary.

The healthy hydrating refreshment of cool, nutritious, and delicious milk will never go out of style. Founded in 2004, Pineland Farms uses 100% fresh Maine milk from nearby farms — around 20 within a 50-mile radius of Bangor — to handcraft 3,200 to 6,400 pounds of specialty cheeses a day.

From an early age, the following six women have been involved with the dairy industry for most of their lives. Running around her parents’ dairy farm, Venae Watts, fifth-generation owner of Minerva Dairy, Minerva, Ohio, recalls her first job was to add up the milk tickets from the receiving bay. 

When U.S. American gymnast and seven-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles goes for the gold at the XXXIII Olympic Summer Games in Paris next year, the 4’ 8” dynamo will bring her artistry, strength, and power to the vault (Yurchenko double pike vault, now named the Biles II), floor exercise, balance beam, and parallel bars.

The pickleball craze is sweeping the nation. While the sport began in Washington State in 1965, the number of people playing pickleball today is skyrocketing.

Natural cheese — and the diverse types of shredded, chunks, slices, string/stick, crumbled, cubes, ricotta, and all other forms — generated $17.4 billion in dollar sales, a year-over-year (YoY) increase of 7%.

In 1959’s “The Sound of Music,” Governess Maria (Julie Andrews) teaches the Von Trapp children how to sing "Do-Re-Mi." From the first strains all the way to “T,” the music scale’s highest note, in “Tea, a drink with jam and bread,” the youngsters learn how to sing “a million different tunes by mixing up the notes.”

Growth of specific plant-based dairy alternatives like plant-based cheese, milks (soy, almond, etc.), ice cream, yogurt, and pea protein have been trending upwards. But is the subcategory niche or firmly “planted” in consumers’ minds?