Mt. Ulla dairy producer awarded top honors in state, regional competitions

BOONE — A Mt. Ulla dairy farm took home top honors for its chocolate milk and tied for first in white milk during a recent regional dairy competition.

Lutheridge Jersey Dairy Farm claimed the title for best-unhomogenized chocolate milk in the Got to Be NC Competition while tying for first place with Cheek Farmstead Creamery in Fleetwood/Hamptonville for the best-unhomogenized milk category in the Got to Be NC and Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives competitions.

One of the farm’s owners, Leigh Anne Wetmore, said that being recognized for quality dairy was “very special.”

Wetmore’s ties to the family farm strengthened that sentiment. Her maiden name is Luther, and her father, Ted and Uncle Ben farmed the land in western Rowan County until Ted’s death in 2013.

However, Ted and Ben had not been in the dairy business since 1997, when citing fatigue, they transitioned to producing replacement heifers that they sold to dairy across the country and even internationally.

After Ted passed away in 2013, the farm’s stock of cows dwindled to a small herd.

“A year or two after daddy died, Richard (brother) and I were standing out in the hay barn one day and were talking, and we said, ‘What are we going to do?'” Wetmore said.

Hoping to restore the dairy to its former glory, Leigh Anne and her husband, Mark, as well as Richard and his wife, Robin, purchased Ben’s half of the farm in 2016.

“Since my brother and I took over the farm with our children, this is the biggest accomplishment we have won,” Wetmore said of their recent recognition.

The legacy they are carrying on now bears the toil and sweat of the latest Luther generation.

“My brother and I each have two children,” Wetmore said.

Richard’s children are Jonathan Luther and Lauren Luther, who own some cows on the farm.

Wetmore’s son Steven is the manager on the farm and is responsible for mixing the chocolate milk that was honored, in addition to other tasks around the property. Wetmore also has another son named Daniel.

The recent honors come after years of hard work, where success was not guaranteed but earned. Reviving the dairy farm wasn’t a quick or easy process . When Ted and Ben sold many of their dairy cows, they also sold off much of the equipment needed to milk them. Even if Lutheridge was able to grow its herd and buy the equipment to milk them, they’d need a place to sell the milk.

Turned down by several dairy co-ops because they were “small and wanted to stay small,” Lutheridge was in desperate need of a buyer. At the same time, Alfonso Siano, the owner of the family-run and Charlotte-based cheese company, was searching for the right milk supplier to make his fresh mozzarella. Siano heard about Lutheridge and started experimenting with their milk.

“He would take samples, and we would go get gallon jugs and just take them to him, and he would make samples of it that he would try,” Wetmore said. “After a while, he finally figured out that our milk, rich in protein and butter fat, was the kind of milk he wanted.”

The two struck a partnership that allowed Lutheridge to expand its operations by purchasing much-needed equipment, including a milk pasteurizer. The family now milks about 70 cows twice a day to keep up with demand. Not long after the Siano partnership materialized, Lutheridge found another buyer in Boxcarr Handmade Cheese near Raleigh. The artisanal cheese company uses the farm’s milk to make a number of its award-winning cheeses.

The most recent award for chocolate and white milk specifically recognized unhomogenized products.

Homogenization is any of several processes used to make a mixture of two mutually non-soluble liquids the same throughout. This is achieved by turning one of the liquids into a state consisting of extremely small particles distributed uniformly throughout the other liquid.

Unhomogenized milk does not have that consistency. With milk in its natural state, the cream rises to the top because it is less dense.

“All milk sold in N.C. has to be pasteurized , which is the process of heating up and killing bacteria,” Wetmore said. “But most milk is homogenized, too. It’s a process that we don’t do. It takes out nutrients, so our milk is richer and healthier.”

Whatever they are doing must be working because Lutheridge Jersey Dairy Farm took home two top-place finishes.

In total, nine North Carolina dairies received honors for fluid milk and cheeses in state and regional dairy competitions held recently by the Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Got to Be NC program.

“North Carolina’s dairy farmers have diversified their operations in the last five years to boost their bottom lines,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “Not only are they continuing the long-held tradition of milk production, but are also creating high-quality cheese, ice cream and eggnog. Their ingenuity has contributed over $3.9 billion to the state’s $111.1 billion agriculture and agribusiness industry.”

The Southeast Farmstead Dairy Products and the Got to Be NC Dairy competitions were held concurrently, and several products received top honors in both competitions. Got to Be NC Dairy awards will be presented on Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. in McGough Arena at the N.C. Mountain State Fair in Fletcher, prior to the open dairy cattle show.

Other North Carolina winners include:

• Riverbend Creamery’s eggnog was named Milk of the Year in both competitions. The Lincolnton dairy was also recognized for Best Homogenized Chocolate Milk in both competitions.
• Homeland Creamery in Julian was declared Best Homogenized Milk in both competitions.
• Howling Cow Creamery at N.C. State University in Raleigh won Best Homogenized Low-Fat Milk and Best Homogenized Low-Fat Chocolate Milk in both competitions.
• White Tree Farm in Statesville tied for first place in the Fresh Cheese of the Year with its European Chevre, sharing the honor with Grass Roots Farm and Dairy in Marshall for its Sheep’s Milk Feta.
• Looking Glass Creamery in Columbus was awarded Best Sharp Cheddar Cheese in both competitions for its Drover’s Road Cheddar.
• Celebrity Dairy in Siler City won both competitions for Best Plain Chevre.

The Southeast Farmstead Dairy Products Competition is a program of the Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives (SDBII) based at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s Animal Science Department. Manufacturers of dairy products from a single herd that is produced or processed in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico were eligible to compete. SDBII’s mission is to spur growth for dairy producers and processors in the Southeast by helping them modernize and diversify through the production of value-added dairy products.

The Got to Be NC Dairy Competition is a program within the NCDA&CS Marketing Division designed to promote producers and processors within the state.

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