About Milton Creamery
The Musser Family has solely owned and operated Milton Creamery since 2006. Rufus and Jane moved from Pennsylvania to Milton, IA in 1992 for a change of pace from growing and selling produce to dairy farming. They milked cows and farmed 170 acres and eventually discovered cheesemaking. The Mussers, their neighbors and friends spent over four years researching the viability of creating a business from the ground up. After much research, education and outside expertise, they made the commitment to move forward with the project. On May 8, 2006, Milton Creamery made its first batch of cheese.
Rufus III, his wife Jane and their son, Rufus IV “Junior”, currently work with local Amish dairy farmers and manage a local team of nearly 30 people. Their family operation produces artisan cheese with milk from local Amish farms, which employ traditional practices, such as hand-milking, allowing seasonal grazing, and not using growth hormones. In 2009, they brought home their first cheese award from the U.S. Cheese Championship. Prairie Breeze™ won Best of Class in the Open Hard category. Many more blue ribbons have been awarded across multiple categories and cheeses. Milton Creamery expanded their facility to support operations and cheesemaking growth in early 2020. The project added a 17,000 square foot facility designed to age up to 1.5 million pounds of their award-winning Prairie Breeze™ and other cheeses.
Fine cheese starts with the right milk. From the very beginning, Milton Creamery has been adamant that all milk comes from local, small-scale dairy farms. All milk is sourced from 30 miles of the facility, and all of their dairy farmers’ herds have no more than 120 animals and are managed and milked by the immediate family. The farmers who provide milk to Milton Creamery do not give their cows artificial growth hormones, like rBGH and rBST.