In 2025, Maine is celebrating the Year of Youth in Agriculture, an initiative dedicated to inspiring and supporting the next generation of farmers, foresters, and agricultural leaders. Throughout the year, Real Maine will spotlight young people, along with farms and producers, and their connection to youth in agriculture.
Jason Bagley, 18, is a senior at Mt. Blue High School who helps to run Bagley Bog Farm in Farmington, his family’s first-generation dairy farm, along with his father Dan, mother Lilly, and 14-year-old brother Andrew.
His farm currently has 13 cows. Jason says his family bought their first Milking Shorthorn when he was 9 years old. He remembers that he and his family traveled to a herd dispersal sale in Vermont, where they went through and pinpointed heifers they were interested in buying, but unfortunately, all of them were out of their price range. Someone who was at the sale saw that young Jason was upset, and by the time his family was back in Maine, that person had called his father, and arrangements were made to pick up a cow that Jason still has to this day.
On the farm, Jason’s responsibilities include daily cleaning, feeding and watering, giving input on breeding decisions, milking, raising calves, various maintenance duties, and helping with veterinary checks.
His family has shown their cattle across the country, including at the Eastern States Exposition in Massachusetts, the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin, and the North American International Livestock Show in Kentucky. They have also shown cattle at several Maine agricultural fairs, including Fryeburg, Windsor, Skowhegan, and Union.
Jason is a member of the Franklin County Dairy Club, where he has served as president and vice president. He is heavily involved in 4-H activities and has been on the state of Maine’s dairy team for the past four years, participating on the quiz bowl, fitting, and judging teams. He has placed several times individually and on his teams. He says he enjoys mentoring and helping other 4-Hers.
“I have a lot of mentors across the United States that have helped me become the cattleman I am today, and I want to continue to mentor other youth in any way possible, like my mentors do for me,” Jason said. “The dairy industry is a small community that relies on one another, and if I can continue the tradition of mentoring or sparking the fire within, I will.”
He has helped to run youth clinics in Franklin County, along with clinics in Vermont and New Hampshire.
Upon graduating from high school, Jason plans to attend Washington County Community College for metal fabrication. After college, his aim is to have his own mobile welding truck that will travel throughout New England to help farmers and foresters, along with continuing the small herd at home.
We asked Jason to elaborate on his connection to agriculture.
What does Youth in Agriculture mean to you?
Youth in Agriculture continues the programs, genetics, and legacies that the older generations have spent hundreds of years building and improving upon. The next generation needs to educate the public about where their food and all other byproducts of agriculture are used in their everyday lives. We are the generation to come up with new, informative, functional, and economical ways to farm while keeping animal comfort as our number one goal.
Youth in Agriculture has many aspects, from livestock to crops to forestry and beyond. Agriculture surrounds everyone in ways most people don’t even realize.
When I think of Youth in Agriculture, my first thought goes to the next generations taking over farms, and the little kids working side by side with the older kids, learning as they go. I also think of all my mentors who have helped me be better at every aspect of farming, who believed in me before I believed in myself, and who are pushing me to succeed every step in my agriculture journey.
What inspires you to be among the next generation of farmers?
To continue family traditions. My dad showed cattle growing up in New Hampshire, and my mom showed cattle throughout Maine. That was how they met, showing cattle at Fryeburg Fair.
I want to continue to strive to be a better cattleman each and every day, with better genetics, better cattle, and more functional and economical ways to farm on our land without sacrificing the old-school values of farming.
I want to help educate the public so there’s no such disconnect about where food comes from, to stop the myths surrounding agriculture, and to just speak the honest truth, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
In the show world, the best feeling in the world is hearing your farm name announced over the loudspeakers for a banner, Premier Award, or Best Bred and Owned. My ultimate goal is to hear my farm name announced over several nationals – either for animals I still own or animals I have sold. I want to be an elite dairyman, like the ones I often speak to at shows, or just over the phone, telling old stories and remembering the dairymen that are no longer with us.
