From cream to cuts

Editor’s note: information for this article was gathered by the Holmen Historical Society, in addition to independent research.

HOLMEN, Wis. — For nearly 50 years, the steady hum of cream separators defined the heart of Main Street in Holmen. The Holmen Co-Op Creamery was a cornerstone of the community, where generations of local farmers brought their milk and built their livelihoods. Today, the churns and vats are gone, but the legacy of local food production lives on as the building is now home to Holmen Locker and Meat Market, a modern business rooted in tradition.

The creamery did not start on Main Street; it started a few miles away on Long Coulee Road. In 1889, C.A. Sjolander and Henry Star committed to producing high-quality butter by gathering cream from farmers in the surrounding area and churning it at a central creamery.

With great success over the next 20 years, the creamery expanded as much as it could at the original site, building a 36- by 36-foot building in 1905. By 1922, the Holmen Co-Op Creamery secured a new space, one that would be big enough to accommodate the demand and continue to grow the creamery’s operation in the heart of the Village of Holmen.

S.P. Severson built the new structure that opened its doors in March 1923. This new, modern-for-its-time building, added new machinery and sanitation devices, in addition to a large refrigerator. The construction of the new building cost a total of $32,000, which was raised by a bond issue.

March 25 of that year saw the full transfer out of the original creamery building to the one that stands on Main Street today. At its annual meeting in 1924, the Holmen Co-Op Creamery was considered one of the most up-to-date creameries in the state.

Specializing in butter for the first 40 years of operation, the Holmen Co-Op Creamery expanded in 1927, purchasing a buttermilk dryer. The dryer would package 100 pounds of dried buttermilk into sacks, and at peak performance, packaged 11 sacks a day, which were sold to a Milwaukee company at $7 per 100 pounds.

After the U.S. involvement in World War II in 1941, the Holmen Co-op Creamery, which formally changed its name in 1932, began a new venture into a product to help support the Allied powers. The creamery spent $68,000 on a new addition to the boiler room and added new equipment, including two milk dryers, a boiler can washer, an intake scale and two milk tanks, among other equipment. This expanded machinery meant that the creamery could process milk into milk powder to be shipped overseas.

Prior to this update, the skimmed milk from the creamery was fed to pigs and calves. In 1943, the creamery set a record for production, making more than a million pounds of butter, in addition to its dried milk product.

The Holmen Co-Op Creamery held steady over the next six years before expanding once more. This new expansion would make it possible to distribute glass-bottled milk. The newly titled Holmen Dairy distributed bottles of milk in northern La Crosse County, and its distribution zone stretched 45 miles.

Expansion at the facility on Main Street continued in 1957. Completed in 1958, the creamery added a dryer room, measuring 50 feet by 30 feet, and adding a new warehouse, measuring 100 feet by 40 feet. This expansion housed a new evaporator and drier, expanded the warehouse and bagger room, and added garage facilities and new spray drying equipment. A second floor for offices was also added.

In 1959, the creamery’s 70th year of operation, the Holmen Co-Op Creamery held an open house, inviting the public in to see the technology used to produce some of the village’s top products. It celebrated the completion of an 8-year program of expansion and modernization. At the time, Holmen Co-op Creamery had 300 patrons and served between 3,500-4,000 customers.

Holmen Co-Op Creamery eclipsed $2 million in sales in 1963, benefiting from its diversified product line and high-quality milk. That year, the creamery employed 53 people, receiving 44,604,141 pounds of milk, and produced 1,855,280 pounds of butter. Its total sales of $2,217,185 were the most of any business in the village at the time.

An independent company for over 78 years, Holmen Co-Op Creamery merged with another local dairy producer, Preston Creamery of Blair, in 1967. The act allowed them to expand their markets and continue producing their individualized products. The Holmen Creamery continued its Grade A operation, serving retail outlets and homes with bottled milk and producing butter. Preston Creamery, which was a Grade B operation, continued its cheese-making operation.

The merger passed with 94% of the Preston Creamery in favor and 80.9% of Holmen stockholders in favor. On March 1, 1967, the merger became effective. The merger improved marketing facilities for several cooperative creameries that delivered milk to Blair, and without a duplication in facilities, allowed Holmen Co-Op Creamery to maximize its use for fluid milk. It made both facilities more efficient, avoiding duplication in hauling routes and expanding opportunities for Grade A operations while reducing shipping costs.

With the merger, the Western Wisconsin Dairy Cooperative was born. New directors were elected the following year, with some leadership at the individual plants staying in place.

Two years after the merger, Land O’Lakes of Minnesota purchased the Holmen Dairy milk distribution routes. The Holmen Co-Op Creamery became an intake point for fluid milk, which was bottled at the Land O’Lakes plant in Whitehall, roughly 35 miles north.

In 1971, Western Wisconsin Dairy Cooperative merged with Associated Milk Producers Inc., and in 1972, the Holmen Co-op Creamery buildings were listed for sale.

From the 1970s to 2003, several local businesses called the Holmen Co-Op Creamery building home. Those businesses ranged from an arcade to a motorcycle sales and repair business to a copier sales and service business.

Finally in 2003, Holmen Locker and Meat Market purchased the original building and the smaller addition that was added in 1957. Holmen Locker added 20 feet onto the side building, transforming it into a storefront, using the original building for its meat processing area.

After moving into the former creamery building, the Holmen Locker and Meat Market continues to be a staple in the community. Established in 1944 a block away from its current location, the current owners, Scott and Lauri Stettler, moved into the creamery buildings in 2003.

Once defined by the hum of cream separators and bottling lines, the space is now defined by meat processing and the unmistakable scent of a smokehouse.

The Stettlers are committed to providing a quality product to their customers, the same way that the original farmers were committed when they established the creamery 136 years ago.

Holmen Locker and Meat Market processes wholesale beef from Upper Iowa Beef in Lime Springs, Iowa, and pork from Glencoe Pork Company in Glencoe, Minnesota.

With a diversified product line, Holmen Locker and Meat Market also features a selection of fresh meat, microbrew beers, wines and specialty foods. True to its roots, Holmen Locker also provides hand-dipped ice cream cones and dishes, fresh-made cheese, and of course, butter.