Lifeway Foods Inc., the Illinois-based makers of kefir, saw third quarter sales jump 26% to $5.2 million from $4.1 million for the same period a year ago. Earnings increased to $.07 per share for the quarter, from $.06 per share for the same three-month period in 2004.

Wisconsin-based Marathon Cheese, Co. has plans to build a $27 million packaging plant on a 40-acre site in southwestern Idaho.

CLOVIS, N.M.-Southwest Cheese Co. received its first delivery of milk in October and has begun test production on one of the lines of its enormous new plant.

Brewmaster and beer/food author Garrett Oliver, of the Brooklyn Brewery recently conducted a series of tastings that he calls "The Cheese Wars-Beer vs. Wine With Cheese."

CONCORD, N.H.-Stonyfield Farm has developed such a need for organic milk it wants to pay state inspectors to travel to New Zealand dairy farms so it can import milk products to boost its organic yogurt production.

A series of new "got milk?" ads continues the departure from the milk-deprivation approach of past campaigns and instead skewers the recent baseball steroids scandal, depicting milk as a performance enhancer.

Groupe Danone stayed in the news last month, even without further speculation about takeover bids.

Schreiber Foods Inc. is entering the yogurt market by purchasing Hilltop Valley Dairy, a single-facility operation in Richland Center, Wis.

WASHINGTON D.C.-Three weeks after the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program's expiration date, New England and Midwestern legislators were working to resuscitate the program, calling it a safety net for small farms.

TOKYO-Meiji Dairies Corp. said last month it will spend more than $100 million to construct a natural-cheese operation that will have an annual output capacity of 20,000 tons, one of the largest in Japan.