Cheese production resumes at iconic Manitoba company following fire

NEW BOTHWELL, Man. -

Cheese is moving once again on the production line at Bothwell Cheese.

On Thursday, the plant returned to nearly normal production levels roughly one month after a major fire. It meant the company had been largely unable to make their award-winning cheese.

“From what I understand, it wasn’t a very aggressive fire,” said Brian Bergen, the maintenance manager for Bothwell Cheese. “It was smouldering through the insulation.”

Firefighters were able to contain the damage to a part of the facility that processes whey, a byproduct of the cheese-making process.

“Because that room burned, we can’t filter out the raw whey,” explained Anne Hogue, Bothwell Cheese’s operations manager. “So we have a collectively larger amount of raw whey that we have disposed of.”

But you can’t just dump it down the drain.

Luckily, they won’t have to thanks to the larger New Bothwell community.

“The whey is actually being transported to some local farms and being put into their manure storage lagoon, which can then be used as a farm fertilizer,” said Robin Redstone, senior manager of corporate communications for Gay Lea Foods.

The company said it is a temporary solution to help Bothwell Cheese get back to making its award-winning products, and expects it will take several weeks to fully repair the damaged filtration room.