HANOVER — With massive farms increasingly dominating the dairy landscape, the future of small-scale dairy farming was very much in question on Saturday during a panel discussion at Dartmouth College.

Megafarms, shrinking milk prices and environmental sustainability were all hot topics at the Cows, Land, and Labor Conference, which drew experts from across the country and farmers from the Upper Valley in search of solutions to the industry’s woes.

Panelist Andrew Novakovic, a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell, asserted that making enough money from milk is a concern among producers worldwide, not just in New England.

“This conversation goes back 100 years,” Novakovic said while presenting in Filene Auditorium. “How can I get a decent price and improve the marketing of my milk?”

Over the last few decades, larger farms have gradually pushed out many small family farms that couldn’t compete.

Novakovic said the largest domestic cattle farm he knows of, located in Oregon, houses 35,000 cows. Another one on the Pennsylvania-Maryland border has more than 20,000, according to the professor.

Organic Valley Cooperative, represented on Saturday’s panel by New England Manager John Cleary, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Cleary said his organization sets a model of sustainable standards, and farms that meet them are offered Organic Valley’s branding.

Panelist Melanie Dupuis, an environmental studies and science professor at Pace University, described organic agriculture as an alternative food system.

“But what are others?” she asked. “Can hill farms survive in mass markets that are not necessarily artisanal cheese at the farmers market?”

Supply management, fair pricing, dual-purpose cattle and school lunches were among other subjects covered during the far-reaching discussion.

Niko Horster, a Vershire beef farmer and president of the Vermont Grass Farmers Association, was impressed by the slate for the two-day conference.

“What is really unique here, is that we have all three, sort-of, influencers in how to solve problems in this sector all in the same room,” Horster said. “The farmers themselves, the policy people, the NGOs that work on changing policy and stuff like that and the scientists who do the research that needs to be done in order to support innovation. So that conversation is really cool.”

Panelist Lorraine Lewandrowski, a New York-based dairy farmer and attorney, concurred: “It’s totally unique. We never have this where people go across disciplines. Very rarely do you have a farmer at these things, and we have numerous farmers here.”

Garcia, chairman of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies, helped coordinate the event. He said his work exploring the college’s relationship to Upper Valley farming was the original inspiration for the gathering. He has a group of students building an exhibit about that relationship that will be on display in Baker-Berry Library mid-May through graduation.

Horster, who served as a panelist on Friday, said there was tension around scientific data that was addressed.

“Over dinner we said, ‘OK, why don’t you come out to the farm and we’ll look at your proposal of what you want to measure because I can tell you by your proposal whether you’re going to get results that are useful to me or not,’ ” Horster said. “They were so excited about it. … It really sparked great ideas, so we want to bring that spirit back.”