Mississippi State will produce about 300,000 pounds of cheese in 2001, but the cupboard will be bare after Christmas, the biggest buying time of the year.

The Edward W. Custer Dairy Processing Plant is best known for making three-pound, red wax-coated cannonballs of Edam cheese stamped with the MSU logo. Each year, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station plant produces 55,000 of these signature products, along with another 2,000 reduced-fat versions of the same.

But there are several other products in MSU's cheese line. Cheddar is a popular item, and the plant makes 46,000 two-pound blocks of this cheese. In addition, the dairy plant makes 8,000 two-pound wheels of Vallagret, 7,500 two-pound jalapeno pepper blocks, 3,500 20-ounce jalapeno pepper spreads, and 3,500 20-ounce cheddar spreads.

"We're pretty much operating at 100 percent capacity," said David Hall, dairy plant manager. "It would be real difficult for us to increase production much more without some massive equipment changes and expansion."

All the cheese is made with Mississippi State milk, produced mostly at the university's dairy farm in Sessums operated by the Animal and Dairy Science Department. When this summer's heat slowed milk production, the dairy plant supplemented its milk supply from MSU's dairy at the Coastal Plains Experiment Station in Newton.

"We produce cheese year-round, five days a week with the exception of the two weeks we're out for Christmas," Hall said. "We sell cheese all year, but about 90 percent of our sales are at Christmas.

"We finished making Edam for Christmas at the end of August. What we're making now is for Easter sales."

Cheese fans within shopping distance of Starkville can buy the products year-round, but the rest of the country has to wait for cool weather when the cheese can be shipped. Cheese is shipped from November through mid-December, and from the end of March through April.

Ordering deadlines are Nov. 1 for Christmas delivery and March 15 for Easter.

For prices and more information about the cheeses, visit the MAFES Sales Store online at http://www.msstate.edu/dept/fst/Homepage/SalesStore/.