WATERVILLE – The 100 farmers gathered in Waterville on Tuesday for the annual Maine Dairy Seminar got a preview of the results of an economic impact study contracted by the Maine Dairy Industry Association.

Although the final report will not be ready for weeks, the news coming out of the draft is exciting, said Julie Marie Bickford of the dairy association, and will likely leverage power for the dairy industry.

Preliminary figures, provided by Chuck Lawton of Planning Decisions, indicate the effect on Maine’s economy by the dairy industry is $570 million a year and more than 4,000 jobs are supported by the industry.

“This really surprised me,” said Bickford. “The $570 million impact is greater than potatoes. But it is the interconnectedness of the entire industry that is so important. This study will prove our worth to the Legislature that an investment in the dairy industry is an investment in the state of Maine.”

Lawton told the farmers that the “multiply factor,” the ripple effect on the rest of the economy by a specific industry, “tends to be above average when compared to other industries.”

The impact on communities studied in Kennebec County was also telling. “Nobody provides money for a beautiful view over a stone wall at the sunset,” said Lawton, “yet that is innately a part of the dairy industry.”

In towns with a higher percentage of active farms, Lawton discovered that the value of nonfarm parcels of land were higher.

“It simply was more desirable to live in a farming community,” he said.

The Dairy Seminar was an opportunity for farmers, producers and suppliers to network and learn new farming strategies. A dozen companies and organizations provided booths and information about their products and services and a number of annual dairy awards were presented.

Galen Larrabee, of the dairy group and a dairy farmer, listened intently to Lawton’s comments. He had just returned along with fellow dairyman Fred Hardy from a national meeting in Washington, D.C., where he talked about dairy issues with farmers from all over the country.

“As small a state as Maine is, they are clearly watching what we’re doing,” said Larrabee. “They are watching how we price milk, how our milk commission is set up and what our Legislature does.”

Larrabee said the other states’ representatives were particularly interested in the Governor’s Task Force on the Sustainability of the Dairy Industry. “They are working on setting up similar groups in their home states,” he said.

“The big thing is, these states are dealing with the same issues we are, just in bigger numbers,” he said.

Awards presented Tuesday included the 2004 Dairy Pioneer Award, recognizing the late Hugh “Bill Briggs of Turner; the 2004 Dairy Cattle Breeder Award to John and Alaire Palmer of Cornish; 2004 Dairy Leader Award to Burns, Perry and James Lilley of Smyrna Mills; and the 2003 Maine Dairy Farm Family of the Year to the Wright family of Wright Place Farm Inc. in Clinton.