Land O’Lakes, Inc., Arden Hills, Minn., announced plans to realign its Eastern Wisconsin milk supply strategy, which includes a multi-year investment in the milk shed and increasing capacity at its Kiel, Wis., cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese production plant.

“Wisconsin is a key growth area for Land O'Lakes, and decisions such as this will help us achieve our aggressive growth goals,” says Chris Policinski, president and CEO. “The investments at our Kiel plant will provide our members with increased opportunities to grow production in this critical region for our company.”

As part of the realignment, the company is making a multi-million dollar investment to increase capacity and expand receiving at its Kiel plant through improvements in plant infrastructure. Among the improvements will be new milk silos, new cheese vats, upgraded whey receiving and a new vat room.

Land O’Lakes also announced plans to discontinue manufacturing semi-soft Italian cheese produced at its Denmark, Wis., plant, which has not been profitable in recent years. The plant will cease production and permanently close July 1. Member milk that was shipped to the Denmark facility will be sold to an unrelated third party beginning July 1.