From Wisconsin to Thailand, a dairy partnership

RIVER FALLS, Wis. — A troupe from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls ventured across the globe this summer to visit Thailand. Grace Lewis, an assistant professor of food science, and Reuben Nilsson, the UWRF dairy plant manager, and others took part in a 10-day trip to Southeast Asia to learn more about Thailand’s emerging dairy industry and to collaborate on its future.

“The dairy industry in Thailand is on the rise,” Lewis said. “There’s a lot of interest in dairy, whether using it in their beverages or consuming different cheeses. One of the primary drivers is the high protein content.”

Thailand’s dairy industry has been increasing over the last 15 years. In 2010, there was a total of 280,000 dairy cows in the country. By 2022, that number had grown to 442,000, a 58% increase according to Dairy Global.

With that influx in dairy cattle, the purpose of UWRF’s trip was to increase collaboration between the Wisconsin dairy industry and Thailand. Lewis and Nilsson, along with Navaeh Bolinger, a recent UWRF graduate, Randy Swenson, director of quality and grading for Wisconsin Aging & Grading Cheese Inc., and Kevin Thaisen, UWRF assistant professor of geology, set out to form relationships and find collaborative opportunities.

While in Thailand, the group visited Bangkok, the country’s capital, as well as the northern city of Chiang Mai. They visited dairy farmers, cheesemakers, restaurant groups, retailers, research and development-based companies, exporters, importers and universities to help gain a better understanding of the Thai dairy industry.

To help with dairy development in Thailand, UWRF’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences signed a memorandum of understanding with Chiang Mai University’s faculty of agriculture to establish a symbiotic relationship between the departments at the two institutions.

Chiang Mai University is among Thailand’s leading agricultural sciences institutions, establishing its Faculty of Agriculture in 1964.

“With the memorandum of understanding, we hope we can establish some faculty exchange, some short courses in Thailand and some courses here, some grant writing, a little of everything,” Lewis said. “I think it’s a good way for the dairy industry to grow and improve and improve their efficiency at the farm level as well as the processing level.”

Establishing the relationship between Thailand and Wisconsin can also open new opportunities for Wisconsin products in Thailand.

“Working together, we think there can also be an increase specifically in dairy sales of Wisconsin cheese,” Lewis said. “Telling the Wisconsin farmer story and bringing awareness really helps connect the people of Thailand with the Wisconsin dairy industry.”

Wisconsin cheese has garnered a following across the ocean, as the novelty of natural American cheeses in Thai grocery stores gains steam.

“In one of the higher-end groceries, brie is a popular cheese because it is relatively mild,” Nilsson said. “It’s nothing like what you get in Thai cuisine. Some of the Wisconsin-flavored cheeses people would talk about were the Sartori BellVitano cheeses and a morel and leek Jack cheese. Their market is looking for more novelty and appeal to the more adventurous diners.”

Along with Lewis, Nilsson and the rest of the UWRF crew, Apilak and Sukanya Sirikeratikul of Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin were also part of the travel party. While in different grocery stores, the group saw several Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin marketing materials.

“The marketing support from the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin helps tell that story and let retailers communicate that to consumers,” Lewis said.

It describes the diversity in Wisconsin dairy, from multi-generational small farms to larger farms, Lewis said.

Nilsson said the Wisconsin cheese brand helps consumers understand more about the product they have the chance to purchase.

“Consuming these more natural cheeses helps separate the idea of highly processed American food,” Nilsson said.

Thailand’s dairy industry consists mostly of smaller farms, averaging 20 milking cows per farm. Smaller farms, in addition to a hotter climate and inferior genetics, are some of the hurdles the Thai dairy industry faces.

“Cows produce a lot less because of those conditions,” Lewis said. “Because of that, there is a lot of work being done on the processing side of things.”

Thailand also has a focus on farm-to-fork for more natural products. As part of the trip, the group visited a Jersey cattle farm with some on-farm processing.

“The farmstead cheeses have a very similar story to what we see here,” Nilsson said. “They are trying to add value to the product. There are some distinct differences in production, but their sanitation procedures were on par with quality standards, and the cheese we tasted was pretty uniformly great.”

Collaboration was a key focus on the trip. Lewis and Nilsson attempted to lay a foundation that would help lead to further education for Thai farmers to aid in production and processing in addition to developing a Wisconsin dairy product that could find a market on grocery store shelves in Thailand.

“With this trip, we wanted to lay the foundation for some larger funding streams to really try to have that exchange program set up,” Nilsson said. “Having courses here and in Thailand, people will go back to Thailand and just really grow the dairy industry on both sides, as well as dairy consumption.”

Part of that collaboration was working with Dacheeso, Chiang Mai’s original artisan cheese company. Lewis and Nilsson’s group met a cheesemaker who had started making cheese with her husband in 1988. After her husband’s passing, the craft continued.

“It was amazing talking to her,” Nilsson said. “She’s so motivated to make the best product and was trying to implement everything she thought could help and everything she had learned. She made a phenomenal product.”

The product is so tremendous that Lewis and Nilsson encouraged the cheesemaker to enter her product into world competitions.

The trip helped connect people from different sides of the globe who share a passion for dairy and producing high-quality products as they continue to collaborate to improve dairy production.