The winning cheese at an internationally renowned cheese contest held in Wisconsin several weeks ago was recently auctioned off for more than $8,000 at a banquet held to commemorate the contest’s prize winners.

A 24-pound Vermeer cheese, produced by the Friesland Campina dairy company in the Netherlands, won the World Championship Cheese Contest and was bought by an Illinois dairy distributer for $8,400, according to John Umhoefer, executive director for the Wisconsin Cheese Makes Association, an organization that hosts the event.

He added the auction, held at the competition’s banquet in Milwaukee Thursday evening, raised nearly $140,000 to be donated to the association’s educational and research programs.

The highest-selling competition winner, a set of three cheeses made by a company in Brodhead, Wis., was auctioned off for $16,000. Umhoefer said the most expensive cheese auctioned off at the banquet, held every two years, was a Wisconsin cheddar bought for $20,000 several years ago.

Umhoefer said the competition is considered to be a major event in the dairy industry and attracts an international crowd each year it is held. Spectators bought approximately 400 tickets to watch the final judging of the cheeses, held at Monona Terrace last month.

“It’s a great event, and we have a lot of fun hosting it,” Umhoefer said. “I was even yodeling last night.”

Cheeses from 24 countries and 30 states were judged at the competition. Wisconsin had a sweeping victory in the competition, winning 30 of the 82 classes, the most of any state, Umhoefer added.

Agriculture professor Brian Gould commented on the impact of cheese on Wisconsin’s economy, stating it had substantial importance within the dairy industry.

He noted that although Wisconsin is not the nation’s leading producer of milk, the state does produce the most cheese.

“There’s been a revitalization in the dairy industry,” Gould said. “The dairy industry is under a lot of stress nationally, but Wisconsin’s industry has continued to grow.”

According to Gould, Gov. Scott Walker recently introduced an initiative to grow Wisconsin’s dairy industry by increasing milk production by 30 billion pounds before 2020, an example of the industry’s current optimism in the state.