20 www.FarmProgress.com ● July 2015
The Farmer
Livestock/Poultry
BALANCING SUPPLY, DEMAND:
Stored butter goes through a “microfixing” process (left) that softens butter
so it can be pumped around the plant.
Butter churns its
way back on top
D
AIRY diehards never ever gave up
on butter, even in the dark days of
nonfat this and hydrogenated that.
Since 2012, butter has regained U.S.
market share and reached its highest percapita consumption in 40 years: 5.5 pounds
per person annually. That’s up from a low
of 4.2 pounds per person in 1997.
Butter still plays a prominent role in
the state’s dairy industry, even though the
number of creameries has dwindled over
time, the same as dairy farm numbers. Yet,
Minnesota continues to hold its own as a
dairy manufacturing state, rather than a
marketer of fluid milk.
Given the resurgence of butter, we recently took a tour of the Associated Milk
Producers Inc. butter plant in New Ulm.
AMPI is a regional dairy co-op with 2,500
members across the Midwest producing
5.8 billion pounds of milk. The co-op
makes nearly 10% of the nation’s butter,
ranking it among the top five U.S. butter
manufacturers.
Leading the butter plant tour was
Key Points
BY PAULA MOHR
■ Butter consumption is back up
after a 40-year lull.
■ Cooking shows have helped boost
butter’s presence.
■ AMPI in New Ulm is one of the top
five butter-makers in the U.S.
Bill Swan, division plant
manager. This is what we
learned that day:
■ The butter plant
gets a tanker — 48,000
pounds of cream — every
eight hours. The cream
SWAN
goes through various
quality and taste checks. If it’s good,
workers pump it through a pasteurizer
and into a silo. Pasteurizing melts the fat,
and sitting in the silo lets the fat globules
go back together.
■ Cream flows into one of four stainless-steel, multi-chambered churns, which
first beat the cream into little shapes that
look like grains of rice. These rice-shaped
pieces then drop into a separator that
rolls the little pieces into snowball-sized
shapes. The rolling action helps separate the liquid — buttermilk — from the
solids. The solids enter a third section of
the churn where the milkfat is blended further with augers and metal plates. Salt is
added here, too. Throughout the churning
process, cream is kept at a constant 52
degrees F.
A tanker of cream goes through the four
churns in about 45 minutes.
■ AMPI makes and packages butter
several ways, depending on customer
preference. Production lines can make it
whipped or nonwhipped, and package it
into 1-pound solids, quarter sticks, butter
pats (also called “continental chips”) and
butter cups.
■ AMPI butter can be found everywhere — Sysco Foods, the largest food
distributor in the U.S.; Wal-Mart; Cracker
Barrel. Sales are evenly split between retail
and food service customers.
■ Cream supplies for butter drop off
in summer because ice cream plants need
it. Come fall, however, butter production
triples, due to seasonal baking demand.
■ In the U.S., butter’s standard of identity is a minimum of 80% milkfat. It consists
only of cream and a little salt. No coloring
is added. If it appears lighter in color, that
simply means air was mixed into it.
■ When you see a USDA AA label on
the carton, that means the butter is the
best quality available. Not all cartons list
this, so buyer beware.
■ AMPI provides the hand-packed,
90-pound butter blocks that are artistically transformed into Princess Kay butterheads every year at the Minnesota State
Fair.
Marshall Reece, AMPI’s vice president
of sales and marketing, says he continues
to see the resurgence of butter. He attri-
CHOICE PRODUCT: Quarter sticks of
butter are in high demand, starting in the
fall. AMPI starts building quarter stick
inventory in August and September.
butes growing demand for
butter to the numerous
food shows on television.
“Ten years ago, there
were one or two shows.
Now there are channels, such as the Food
REECE
Network. [The cooks] are
entertainers, and they do it with butter.
We have a whole generation growing up,
watching and being exposed to cooking
and making everything with butter.”
Another avenue for increasing butter
sales is consumer demand for butter that
contains higher milkfat. European-style
butter, which may or may not be made
in Europe, contains a minimum of 87%
milkfat. AMPI expects European butter
sales to increase in both food service and
retail sales outlets.
Sheryl Meshke, AMPI co-president and
chief executive officer, points out another
reason why butter is rebounding in sales:
It’s a basic, true dairy product — pure
cream, clean and wholesome.
At AMPI, butter makes
of 15% of total sales.
Cheese is its top seller.
AMPI made nearly 10%
of the nation’s Americantype cheese last year.
That includes cheddar,
colby and Monterey Jack.
MESHKE
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