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Just how much cheese does it take to be the country’s leading cheese maker? Well over two billion pounds.

Wisconsin cheese plants and artisans churned out 2.6 billion pounds in 2010, according to new figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, almost a half-billion more than those in California, where 2.2 billion pounds of the milk-based delight were manufactured.

For several years, California has nipped at Wisconsin’s heels. In 2005, an article in Milwaukee Magazine warned the state’s preeminence could be in danger. A year later, The New York Times proclaimed Wisconsin’s “crown of cheese is within California’s reach.”

Wisconsinites bristle at the suggestion. This state has already lost (in 1993) its distinction as top milk producer to the Golden State.

But Wisconsin’s robust specialty cheese industry is helping the state hang onto its cheddary bragging rights.  The state produced 552 million pounds of specialty cheese in 2010, 21 percent of overall production and 48 million pounds more than in 2009.

In 2010, feta was the top specialty cheese (71 million pounds), followed by Hispanic cheeses (about 59 million pounds), parmesan (46 million pounds) and provolone (about 43 million pounds).

In all, Wisconsin produced about a quarter of the nation’s cheese.

And even if the Badger State were to lose, in some future year, its “crown of cheese,” all would not be lost, says the magazine: “California might overrun us producing bland Cheddars and mundane mozzarellas – the big commodities – but our ­cheeses have the taste and complexity that come from almost 170 years of tradition. So what if California is the K-Mart of cheese? We’re the specialty store.”

So there.

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