Events & Education
Upcoming Events, Courses and Workshops:
CONNECT U by Dairy Connection | Online Courses: Ongoing
Created, produced, and hosted by Dairy Connection, CONNECT U is an online educational resource featuring presentations on a variety of dairy science topics. This easily-accessible, low-cost (often free) education and technical information platform is geared to assist cheesemakers, cheese retailers, and anyone interested in diving into the science of making cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products. All presentations are available a la carte, and new content and topics are added regularly. Learn more and enroll here: https://connectu.dairyconnection.com/
Artisan Cheesemakers Winter Conference by the Vermont Cheese Council | Online: Feb. 25-26, 2025
This two-day online event provides exposure to new ideas and educational experiences for artisan cheesemakers to advance their cheesemaking and business practices, as well as our industry as a whole. Presentations this year are: Descriptive Sensory Analysis with Roy Deroschers, and Art of Affinage with Eric Meredith. Learn more here: https://vtcheese.com/conference/
Bolstering Your Dairy Foods Business Through Successful Third Party Audits by NC State University | Online: Feb. 28, 2025, 2:00PM ET
Learn tips for passing audits such as Supplier Assurance, SQF, and more. Time will be reserved for participants to ask questions. Learn more here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/vrq4gt6
Business Miniversity by the Vermont Cheese Council | Online: 90 minutes every Wednesday at 12:00PM ET, March 5- April 30, 2025
Business Miniversity is a skill development series for cheesemakers, farmers, and food producers of all flavors. Similar to an "introduction to business" course, this series covers topics such as leadership, management, finances and margins, strategy, and marketing. Sessions are designed for attendees to walk away with actionable information about managing a team or running a business. Learn more here: https://vtcheese.com/bmini/
Artisan Food Safety Resource Hub | Online
Dairy products produced on farm, by artisans, and by small companies continue to drive rapid growth with unique cheese, yogurt and ice cream products sold at retail, restaurants or farmers markets around the country. To help these processors and assure the dairy industry continues to provide safe and nutritional products, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy has developed resources for artisan and farmstead producers to make important food safety information more accessible. Find numerous resources, including several in Spanish, here: https://www.usdairy.com/about-us/innovation-center/food-safety/artisan-and-farmstead-dairy
Oregon Dairy Industries (ODI) Annual Conference | Salem, OR: April 15-16, 2025
ODI presents its 113th annual conference, promising a dynamic program with expert speakers covering the most relevant topics facing our industry today. To learn more, visit: https://www.oregondairyindustries.com/event-5757996
CheeseCon 2025 | Madison, WI: April 15-17
Join Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and Center for Dairy Research as they host exhibits, seminars and networking opportunities designed to help you grow your dairy business. CheeseCon combines stimulating educational seminars, valuable networking opportunities, exciting celebrations honoring industry greats, and a sprawling exhibit floor -- all with a dairy processing focus. To learn more about this event, visit: https://cheesecon.org/
Science of Farmstead Cheese | Online Course: Ongoing
Understand the fundamentals of cheese and milk chemistry with this self-paced online course. Modules include: Cheese, Culture and the Cheesemaker; Milk Chemistry; 10 Steps of Cheesemaking; Starter Culture Technology; Rennet and Coagulation; Salting and Molding; Cheese Aging Chemistry; Cheese Analysis and Evaluation; Course Summary and Next Steps. Cost of this course is $699 (discount available to Vermont Cheese Council members -- contact VCC for the discount code). Cost ranges from $20 to $135. To learn more about this course, visit: https://vermontcheese.thinkific.com/courses/science-of-farmstead-cheese
UW Center for Dairy Research Shortcourses | Madison, WI: Ongoing
The University of Wisconsin CDR offers a variety of shortcourses throughout the year (often including courses in Spanish). To learn more and view the current schedule, visit: https://www.cdr.wisc.edu/education
Food Safety Basics for Artisan Cheesemakers | Online Course: Ongoing
This online course is intended to equip artisan and farmstead cheesemakers with basic knowledge about food safety concepts and serve as a primer for further training programs, such as how to develop and implement a preventative controls food safety management plan. For a limited time, this $175 course is available at no cost when you use discount code DC-FREE at registration. To learn more, visit: https://units.cals.ncsu.edu/foodsafety/food-safety-basics-for-artisan-cheesemakers/
Environmental Monitoring in the Dairy Industry | Online Course: Ongoing
This online course, developed by North Carolina State University, is intended to provide users with the knowledge and skills required to develop and implement an Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP) in the food industry. In this course, users will learn alongside virtual dairy processors in a virtual dairy processing facility to simulate on-the-job training. Fee for this on-demand course is $350. To learn more, visit: https://units.cals.ncsu.edu/foodsafety/environmental-monitoring-in-the-dairy-industry/
Artisan Dairy Food Safety Plan Coaching | Online: Ongoing
Do you have questions about your food safety plan? Are you a new or expanding artisan dairy producer? Are you curious about what steps you need to take to be FSMA compliant? Cornell University experts are here to help via regular "office hours" Q&A sessions. These FREE sessions take place twice per month, every month on Zoom. Each session will focus on a different food safety topic, but there will also be time for questions about any specific food safety plan. There is NO COST to attend the Online Dairy Food Safety Chat sessions. Bring your food safety plan and your questions! Learn more here: https://cals.cornell.edu/northeast-dairy-foods-research-center/artisan-support
Dairy Science and Sanitation | Online Course: Ongoing
Available from Cornell University in either Spanish or English, this online self-paced Dairy Science and Sanitation workshop is tailored to dairy processing personnel and is designed to help participants understand the basic principles of dairy science and safety, as well as emphasize dairy processing establishment needs related to dairy sanitation to ensure that proper programs are conducted in their establishments. To learn more, visit: https://dairyextension.foodscience.cornell.edu/programs/certificate-program/basic-dairy-science-and-sanitation/