Video: Plant Upgrades Cause Short-Term MSU Cheese Shortage

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s a Mississippi State tradition that has been carried on for generations.

MSU is not only known for the cowbell but also making their very own cheese.

The dairy plant on campus has recently seen a number of upgrades but that has slowed down cheese production this year.
For more than 75 years, the signature red cannonball cheese has been a Mississippi State symbol.

“Anybody associated with MSU that is familiar with our cheese, is proud to say ‘yes, we get MSU cheese,'” said MSU’s dairy plant supervisor, Julie Wilson.

This year, The Custer Dairy Processing Plant on the MSU campus, received a number of upgrades to make sure they continue producing top of the line products.

“We had a new floor put in and we had a lot of electrical upgrades and plumbing upgrades that were needed,” said Wilson.

Along with these essential upgrades, comes a short-term cheese shortage.

The plant was forced to stop production for more than two months while new equipment was being installed.

Wilson says there is no way to make up the lost time but the cheese-makers will continue producing  thousands of pounds of cheese, five days a week.

“But unfortunately, there would just be no way to undo that lost time. We hate it, we wish we could but just with the equipment that we have, the capacity it has, and the milk that we have. We’re producing at a normal rate but there’s no way we could make up what we lost,” said Wilson.

With tailgate season and the holidays quickly approaching, Wilson is encouraging everyone to place their cheese orders early.

“Do it immediately. Normally our business is first come, first serve and its always been that way and it’s still going to be that way but the fact that we are behind in production, we’re not going to have the same volume of cheese that we normally have, if it’s really important to you to get MSU cheese, I would say get your order in now,” said Wilson.

To place a cheese orders online visit, https://msucheese.com/ or call (662) 325-2338.