The Illinois Holstein Association held its annual State Picnic, Sunday, September 16, 2012, at Ludwig Farms and Ludwig Farmstead Creamery. Thank you to the Ludwig Family who graciously opened their operation to about 150 Holstein enthusiasts for beautiful day filled with fellowship and fun!

Ludwig Farms is home to several national and state show winning Holsteins. Guests were able to tour their cow and heifer facility and see show winner such as Huntcliff Goldwyn Nani-ET, HHM All-American Milking Fall Yearling 2011. Nani is fresh and ready to hit the tanbark this fall!

Visitors also saw many of the Goldwyn daughters of Ma-Tom-Ba Terrason Enigma VG-87 3Y. In total, there are 5 full sisters all scored VG-89 or higher, including Ludwigs-DG Goldwyn Ellie-ET EX-92, and Nominated All-American Junior 2-year-old in 2011. She was the All-Illinois Junior 3-year-old and Reserve Intermediate Champion at the Illinois Championship Show this past July.

Beyond the extreme quality of animals on the farm, visitors also got a firsthand look at Ludwig Farmstead Creamery, which currently is producing several raw-milk cheeses and pasteurized cheese and ice cream. The creamery was a vision of Jake Ludwig, who studied cheese making in Pennsylvania and helped build and design the facility in Fithian. Sadly, Jake lost his life before the cheese production came to fruition. In 2010, the Ludwigs hired Fons Smits to continue Jake’s dream. Over the past two years, they have been developing and producing cheeses and even had two Grand Champion cheeses at the Illinois State Fair this past summer.

Visitors were able to view the cheese making process, kids helped “stir” a batch, and everyone enjoyed samples of both the cheeses and ice cream.

The Illinois Holstein Association would like to greatly thank the Ludwig Family and all the guests of the picnic this year!

Dave and Jaqueline Ludwig with Ludwigs-DG Goldwyn Ellie-ET

Cheesemaker, Fons Smits explaining part of the cheese making process to the picnic guests

Connie Turley samples several of the award-winning cheeses produced at Ludwig Farmstead Creamery

Thanks to Julie Ashton for sharing this report and photos!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 3:35 pm by mherberg and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.