Excerpt from WCMA news. Read the full story here.
The WCMA Vanguard Award recognizes cheesemakers or cheese manufacturing employees whose work has helped to blaze new trails in dairy operations. In 2025, the Vanguard Award will be presented to Wayne Gjersvig and Rod Kregel.
Wayne Gjersvig grew up on a dairy farm in Western Minnesota and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in food science from the University of Minnesota. After serving in the U.S. Army, Wayne was hired by Foremost McKesson as Lab Supervisor in Plover, WI in 1970. He became Pilot Plant Manager at Foremost Research Center in Dublin, CA, in 1976 and then Technical Services Manager in Appleton, WI in 1980.
In 1984, Wisconsin Dairies (now Foremost Farms) purchased all whey operations from Foremost McKesson. Wayne held positions in Technical Services and Operations Management at Foremost Farms until his retirement in 2008. Later that year, he established Side Road Solutions consulting services to the dairy industry. Wayne’s accomplishment in whey and ingredient processing include:
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- Improving the electrodialysis process for demineralization of whey products.
- Assisting on early research into whey ultrafiltration.
- Developing a test to measure protein denaturation in whey products.
- Coordinating projects on use of ultrafiltration and microfiltration for production of high protein whey and reverse osmosis technology for whey demineralization.
- Providing specifications and assisting in whey evaporators startups.
- Improving processes for the manufacture of pharmaceutical lactose.
- Increasing efficiency of whey drying processes through use of heat exchangers, dust collectors and modern control systems.
- Implementing energy measuring protocols and energy savings equipment and procedures in dairy plants.
Wayne was also accomplished in cheese processing, including:
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- Collaborating on projects to study Staphylococcus aureus growth and toxin production in cheese.
- Assisting on projects to study the effect of somatic cell count levels on cheese yields.
- Coordinating studies of single-strain starter cultures and improved culture media.
- Collecting carbon footprint data from numerous cheese plants.