Rueben Nilsson has been hired as the new Wuethrich Family/Grassland Dairy Center of Excellence manager at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He replaces Michelle Farner, who spent a decade making the new dairy plant a reality before leaving in November.
Nilsson has spent nearly two decades involved in the dairy industry. He has worked in numerous jobs at several dairy plants and has overseen operations at them.
“I wanted to return to the vats, to have a direct hand in helping create what gets produced,” Nilsson said. “I really do enjoy the ins and outs of creating and being able to find ways to make better-tasting products.”
Nilsson has a background in food science and decided he wanted to make artisanal cheese. He worked at the Caves of Faribault, from 2006-14, helping make high-quality cheeses. He left there to help operate the dairy plant Lone Grazer Creamery.
“Through the years, as my career in dairy progressed, I wore all the different hats,” Nilsson said. “Now I’m excited to see what I can do with the dairy plant here at UW-River Falls.”
Those experiences will serve Nilsson well as he seeks to turn the new dairy pilot plant into an operation in which students learn how to make dairy products and that will serve as a training site for the dairy industry. The plant also will serve as a “test site” of sorts, Nilsson said, a place to experiment a bit with different varieties of cheese and ice cream.
Nilsson is fine-tuning plant operations and said he hopes to begin producing dairy products as soon as January.
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