Anna Landmark had a career in political consulting before she turned to dairy. She always had an interest in protecting small family farms and sustainable agriculture, she says, but didn't find the right avenue to make waves with public policy. So she decided to try a more practical approach: a business that would practice the values that others preached. Landmark apprenticed with Cedar Grove Cheese in her home state of Wisconsin before starting a creamery of her own. Maybe it was something in her genes: her grandparents and six generations of ancestors before them were dairy farmers.
That was in 2013. She won her first ribbon from the American Cheese Society two years later for a cheese called Petit Nuage. In 2025, Landmark Creamery has stacked up nearly two dozen awards for their deeply delicious sheep's and cow's milk cheeses. Landmark has even brought back the labor-intensive Petit Nuage to serve at a restaurant named after the cheese, called Little Cloud. A meal there is like a crash course in artisan dairy, featuring local milk, butter, buttermilk, and cheese from Landmark's aging room.
"The American sheep dairy industry is now where the goat dairy industry was in the 1970s," Landmark says. Wisconsin is big cow country, but Landmark has always been interested in sheep as a more sustainable farm animal that's lighter on the land. "Sheep manure is compostable, so you don't have the same issues with water pollution as cow dairies. If you're trying to encourage people to get into dairying, they can buy a small plot of land and need less to get started."
Sheep's milk has more protein than cow's milk and about twice the butterfat, so it makes rich, expressive cheese like the minerally Rebel Miel, popcorn-like Sweet Annie, and the fruity, citrusy Anabasque, which is Landmark's flagship. Most sheep dairies struggle to produce milk year-round, but Ms. J & Co.'s 600 Assaf ewes are bred on a rotating schedule to provide Landmark a steady supply for cheesemaking.
Up until last year, Landmark rented time slots at Cedar Grove to make batches of her cheese. In 2024 she struck a new deal with Chalet Cheese Cooperative, a facility just 15 minutes from Ms. J & Co. farm. Landmark still rents out days to make cheese, but now she can process as much as 120,000 gallons of milk at a time, compared to the 4,000 gallon capacity at Cedar Grove. Close proximity to the milk's source means it spends less time sloshing around in transport, which is better for the delicate fat and protein molecules Landmark needs to make good, consistent cheese.
The increase in volume is important. Landmark made 20,000 pounds of cheese in 2024 and has been doubling its production of butter year over year. The price of American sheep milk is becoming more favorable to European imports, Landmark explains, as farmers in Spain, Italy, France, and Greece struggle with drought, an aging workforce, and a paucity of new, young farmers to take up the mantle.
Sheep's milk may still be an oddball in Wisconsin, but the state offers a wealth of public and private resources to help up-and-coming producers like Landmark. "The Wisconsin dairy industry has been very welcoming," she says. "There's so much support from the government and private industry." Artisan cheese isn't made in a vacuum; grants, connections, infrastructure, and incubator programs are all necessary to nourish a dairy economy that puts flavor and environmental footprint above profit. If we want a future with great local cheese, now's the time to invest.
At Saxelby, we've viewed Landmark Creamery as a bellwether of new talent that seeks to reshape the dairy industry into something better for workers, animals, the environment, and us cheese lovers. So it's happy news that Landmark has no intentions to slow down. "I still love the process," she says. "The mix of science and creativity—it's a challenge I enjoy to make every single batch perfect every single time." We can taste the passion in every wheel.
Try Landmark Creamery's cheeses today!
Photo of Anna Landmark and Little Cloud's head chef Ben Serum courtesy of Landmark Creamery.
