Wednesday, March 19, 2025
9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Augusta Civic Center
76 Community Drive, Augusta, Maine 04330 (Google Maps)
Cost: Free
A collaboration between the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Dairy Industry Association.
Welcome to the organizational page for the 2025 Maine Dairy Seminar. This annual meeting gives us an opportunity to come together as a dairy industry, learn from subject matter experts and attend a trade show. Our program this year will feature Elaine Froese. We look forward to welcoming you once again to our event.
— Sincerely, Glenda Pereira, UMaine Extension Dairy Specialist, and the Maine Dairy Industry Association Executive Committee
For Farmers:
Advanced registration is FREE (Sponsored by the Maine Dairy Industry Association, additional Event Sponsors listed below) and includes refreshments and lunch (general and food accommodation information at the bottom of this page).
For Sponsors:
- All sponsors still need to register and send in their registration form.
- Sponsoring the event or reserve exhibit space: 2025 Sponsor Packet (PDF)
Agenda
9:00 a.m. – Coffee and Refreshments
9:30 a.m. – Introductions of trade show participants and sponsors
10:00 a.m. – MDIA Annual Meeting
10:30 a.m. – Speaker: Elaine Froese
12:00 p.m. – Lunch
12:30 p.m. – Dairy Awards
12:45 p.m. – Speaker: Elaine Froese
2:45 p.m. – Maine Dairy Farm Family of the Year
3:00 p.m. – Trade Show
Speaker Bio
View a welcome message video (Loom) from Elaine Froese
Elaine Froese (pronounced ‘phrase’), CSP is a certified professional speaker, certified coach, and author. She’s a go-to expert for farm families who want better communication and conflict resolution to secure a successful farm transition. As a farmer and mother to the successor of their farm, she understands the culture of agriculture intimately.
Her superpower is helping families find harmony through understanding. Her expertise is to discuss what she calls the Undiscussabull™ – the bull in the middle of the farm family that no one wants to talk about.
She is an award-winning author who’s written 5 books over the past 25 years. Faith Today magazine has dubbed her “Canada’s Farm Whisperer”. She was awarded the Farm Management Canada Wilson Loree award for excellence in Farm Business Management, the 4-H Canada First Most Distinguished Alumna award from a pool of 350,000 alumni, as well as the Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazers award.
Elaine’s passion is to share simple, practical and actionable tools with farm families so they can talk about tough issues and get traction in their farm transition. Her topics are a catalyst to courageous conversations and conflict resolution. Expect her to WOW your audience by bringing clarity with workable and practical tools. She’s on a mission to guide farm families, across North America, to get unstuck, communicate better, find harmony through understanding, and secure a profitable farm legacy. Elaine’s goal is for everyone to be rich in relationships.
Sponsors
Keynote Sponsors ($2,000+)
Stonyfield Organic
Phoenix Feeds
Gold Sponsors ($1,000+)
Nutrien
Farm Credit East
Silver Sponsors ($500+)
Central Maine Dairy
MOFGA
Holtz Nescon Dairy Consultants
Phibro Animal Health
Morrison’s Custom Feeds
Paris Farmers Union
Animal Health Vision
Bronze Sponsors ($250+)
Select sires
UMaine Extension
Genex Cooperative
Maine Farmland Trust
Organic Valley
If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this program, please contact either Melissa Libby Babcock, at melissa.libby1@maine.edu, phone: 207.581.2788 or Glenda Pereira, at glenda.pereira@maine.edu, phone: 207.581.3240 to discuss your needs. Receiving requests for accommodations at least 7 days before the program provides a reasonable amount of time to meet the request, however, all requests will be considered.