Creeping across the pasture land. Got dirt on
the boots and a working hand. From the milk house
home to the auction call. These are the folks
standing strong and tall. Yeah, this is... Alright
folks, welcome back to the Bullvine Podcast.
Today I've got a story for you that's just, well,
it's one for the books. We've been diving deep
into an operation that's not just turning heads,
they're rewriting the playbook for what a family
dairy farm can achieve in this crazy industry.
You've probably heard the name McCarty Family
Farms. These are the folks who just got named
World Dairy Expo's 2025 Dairy Producer of the
Year. And let me tell you, this isn't just some
pat on the back. This is recognition for a journey
that's taken them from a tiny 15 -cow dairy in
Pennsylvania to a nearly 20 ,000 -cow powerhouse
across multiple states. But it's not just about
the numbers, impressive as they are. It's how
they've done it, staying true to family values,
pushing the boundaries of sustainability, and
frankly, showing a lot of us what's possible.
So grab a coffee, settle in, because you're going
to want to hear how the McCarty magic happened.
Our story kicks off way back in 1914. Taylor
McCarty, the great -grandfather of the brothers
running the show today, starts milking cows near
Sugar Run, Pennsylvania. And even back then,
they were doing something right. Taylor's small
herd actually got recognized by the National
Dairy Association for their exceptional butterfat.
Ken McCarty, the youngest of the four brothers,
shared in an interview that his great -granddad
was, and I quote, kind of an innovative guy.
He sold tractors when everyone else was still
using horse and buggy. Now that's forward thinking
for the early 1900s. Fast forward, Ken's grandfather,
Harold, expands the herd to about 40 Holsteins.
Then, Ken's parents, Tom and Judy, who were actually
teachers, can you believe it, they jumped in
full -time in 1970. They built a new barn for
150 cows, and by 1981, the Pennsylvania governor
was touring their place, calling it one of the
most progressive dairies in the state. But here's
where so many family farm stories take a tough
turn. The 90s hit, and Tom and Judy realized
all four of their sons, Mike, Clay, Dave, and
Ken, wanted to come back to the farm. Amazing,
right? But their Pennsylvania setup just couldn't
support that kind of growth. Ken shared in an
interview that his dad sat them down and said,
and this is a direct quote from Ken, Hey, we
either need to completely change what we're doing
or we need to think about moving. Otherwise,
we're probably not going to survive this. Talk
about a crossroads. So what do they do? After
a ton of research, they take this enormous leap
of faith. They pack up, buy a wheat farm in northwest
Kansas, and start fresh with 250 cows on April
1, 2000. April Fool's Day. Ken apparently laughs
about how many of their big life -changing moves
happened on that exact date. And get this, the
Pennsylvania operation they left? Ken described
it in an interview as wildly inefficient. He
said, we were farming about 1 ,000 acres on 135
different fields spread 28 miles one way across
the river through multiple towns. Yikes. Plus,
they'd already battled through 200 -year floods
just three years apart and weathered the brutal
interest rate crisis of the 80s. So, moving west?
It wasn't just about getting bigger. It was about
survival and giving their family legacy a real
future. So, they land in Kansas and things start
moving. That initial 250 cow herd quickly grows
to 800 as the brothers return. Then, in 2008,
something pretty cool happens. A local economic
development group in Bird City, Kansas, actually
approaches them about building a second dairy.
Why? Because they'd seen how dairies could breathe
life back into rural communities and schools.
Ken explained in an interview, At the time, we
weren't financially capable of taking on that.
But through creative financing, where the economic
development group took a second position to our
primary lender, they made it happen. That's smart
community partnership right there. By 2009, they're
named Kansas Distinguished Dairy Farm Family
of the Year. They keep expanding thoughtfully,
adding another spot in Scott City, growing to
about 7 ,000 milking cows. But then 2009 hits
the whole industry like a ton of bricks. Remember
those milk prices? The McCartys, thankfully,
had hedged about 50 % of their production. It
was a tough lesson that really cemented their
focus on risk management. a theme you'll hear
a lot in their story. Then, in 2010, the real
game changer, a simple phone call about different
ways to market their milk leads to this revolutionary
partnership with Danone, Danone Yogurt back then.
Ken stated in an interview, we met with them
in April 2010, the vision of a direct supply
model immediately aligned between their teams
and ours. This was huge. But to make it work,
they needed something most dairies only dream
of. their own on -farm processing plant. Now,
think about this. Most of us, we ship our milk
off, and that's the last we see of it. In 2012,
the McCartys decide to flip that script. They
build an on -farm milk processing facility at
their Rexford, Kansas location. Talk about a
steep learning curve. Ken admitted with a laugh
in an interview, we had no experience running
a milk processing plant prior to 2012. We were
heavily dependent on the Danone teams to help
us develop our skill set. He also shared that
they even hired their veterinarian, who was savvy
with process flow and Lean Six Sigma, to help
lay the groundwork for managing the plant. And
the people they recruited with plant experience?
Ken proudly noted in that interview, most of
those team members are still with us 13 years
later. That says something, doesn't it? Initially,
that plant was designed for about half a million
pounds of raw milk a day. Today, they've expanded
it to handle up to 2 .2 million pounds daily
and are currently running about 1 .4 to 1 .5
million pounds through it from their western
operations. So, why is this on -farm processing
such a secret sauce? Well, for starters, they
get real -time feedback on milk quality. Imagine
knowing within hours, not days or weeks, if there's
an issue with components or somatic cell counts.
It creates this incredible closed -loop system
where the farm team and the plant team are working
in perfect sync. The plant condenses milk before
shipping it to Danone, it separates and pasteurizes
cream, and get this, it even reclaims water from
the milk that they then use for cleaning and
irrigation. Because of this, they've cut down
the number of trucks they need on the road, by
75%. That's a massive win for efficiency and
for the environment. And this vertical integration
has totally transformed their approach to herd
health and antibiotic stewardship. Ken explained
in an interview, we have limited the potential
milk residue antibiotics that we use on farm
to almost zero. Those that we do use are really
tightly controlled, typically at one location
that is not a milk producing site. It's our dry
cow and calving facility. Smart. Of course, it's
not without its own unique challenges. As their
cows got more productive, routinely hitting 4
.5 to 4 .6 % butterfat, their processing plant
separators, which weren't designed for that richness,
actually had to run slower. Ken noted, most dairymen,
their connection to that separator ends at the
back of a milk tanker. We see it all the way
through. That's a level of integration most of
us can only imagine. So, Their Western operations
are humming, but the McCarty's are always looking
ahead. By 2017, even with their expanded processing
capacity, they were eyeing new opportunities.
This led them east, to Ohio, where they partnered
with another fantastic fourth -generation farming
family, the Van Tilburgs, creating the McCarty
-Van Tilburg Partnership, or MVP Dairy. Ken shared
in an interview, the Van Tilburgs wanted to connect
their crops more directly to finished goods.
We brought our Danone relationship and dairy
expertise. They brought the land and local reputation.
That MVP dairy opened in November 2018, milking
about 4 ,000 cows and shipping raw milk directly
to Danone's yogurt plant just 18 miles down the
road. And here's what's so impressive about how
these guys operate. They took what they learned
in Ohio, especially about tunnel -ventilated
barn designs, and brought those innovations back
to improve their Kansas operations. That's continuous
improvement in action. This led to what they
call Rexford 2 .0. The newest Kansas facility
now includes two 120 -cow Delaval rotaries with
four six -row tunnel -ventilated freestall barns
feeding each rotary. That's eight total barns,
tail -to -tail, sharing common feed lanes and
manure management. It's all about optimizing
cow flow, labor efficiency, and crucially, cow
comfort. Meanwhile, they transitioned their Beaver
City, Nebraska, location into a specialized heifer
raising facility. See the strategy? Specialization
and optimization at every turn. And through all
this, that strong relationship with the known
North America remains central. Now I know what
you're thinking. Four brothers, a massive complex
operation, how do they make it all work without
wanting to throttle each other? Well, the McCarty
brothers seem to have cracked the code. Each
one has found his own lane. Ken, the youngest,
as he described in an interview, oversees the
processing plant, the genetics work, and leads
their environmental sustainability and animal
welfare initiatives. He did say with a bit of
a smile, my preference is working directly with
cows, but I spend a lot more time in front of
a laptop than I ever really intended to. I think
a few of us can relate to that. His brother Dave,
he handles, in Ken's words from that interview,
Basically everything financial. Banking, budgeting
with Danone, overseeing the office team, a more
than full -time job, I'm sure. Then you have
the two oldest brothers, Clay and Mike. They're
focused on the farm operations, feed buying,
and managing the farming side of the business.
Their secret to cohesion? Ken put it simply in
the interview. We more or less stay out of each
other's areas. It's about genuine respect for
each other's strengths and a shared commitment
to that family legacy. They've used their complementary
skills to build something pretty incredible.
And they're already looking to the future, with
11 members of the fifth generation, ranging in
age from 8 to 24. The oldest is just starting
to join the business after college. Ken acknowledges
it's a different world. He and his brothers grew
up with a shovel and a pitchfork, but today's
dairy industry? It demands tech savvy, business
smarts, and a deep understanding of environmental
stewardship. Succession planning is clearly on
their minds. Let's talk about people, because
any operation this size hinges on a great team.
The McCartys employ over 200 team members, and
one of the things that really stands out is their
commitment to employee care and retention. Ken
stated in an interview, Great employees are the
backbone of any successful operation. We strive
to offer competitive compensation packages with
comprehensive benefits including health insurance
and 401K plans, which helps us attract and retain
quality team members. Now, Ken was also upfront
that recent inflation has made it challenging
to keep pace with rising costs, but their dedication
to creating a positive work environment through
both compensation and culture remains strong.
This approach has fostered remarkable stability
in their workforce. Many employees have been
with them for 10, 15, even 25 years. In rural
communities, that makes them an employer of choice.
Their whole management philosophy is wrapped
up in what they call their DIRT principles. Dedication,
integrity, respect, and teamwork. These aren't
just words on a wall. They guide everything from
daily milking routines to long -term business
decisions. They've invested in a full HR team
focused on engagement and training, and they
lead by example, living by their dad Tom's wisdom.
If you ask a team member to be a foot deep in
manure, you best be two feet. Love that. And
here's a clever practice they've implemented,
as Ken described. They use third -party remote
monitoring not just to spot problems, but to
catch employees doing things right. Ken said,
when our remote viewers notice our team members
scratching a cow's ear or doing positive things,
We use that as training tools. That's how you
build a culture of genuine animal care. So how
do you manage consistency across multiple sites,
multiple states, and all those cows? Ken emphasized
in an interview their deep reliance on standardization
and protocols. Each farm operates the same synchronization
protocols, treatment protocols, breeding strategies,
vaccination strategies, he explained. We work
with the same nutritionist. use the same training
protocols, and consult with the same independent
experts. But it's not just about having protocols.
It's about standardizing data entry and how things
are coded. Ken admitted this took a couple of
years to really nail down. Think about it. How
do you define a retained placenta? Making sure
everyone in their system defined it and entered
it the exact same way was crucial for streamlined
data analysis and farm management. He said in
that interview, As we've stepped away from day
-to -day cow -side activities and into more of
a true ownership and management role, that standardization
has really made our systems better. As opposed
to managing by feel, we allow the data to drive
many of our decisions. But, and this is important,
they haven't abandoned traditional cow sense.
They've augmented it with technology and analytics.
Ken even noted that, in some ways, their current
team members are even better cow people than
he and his brothers were. thanks to that powerful
combination of data -driven protocols and hands
-on training. It's a fascinating blend of high
-tech and high -touch. Now, let's talk sustainability,
because this is where the McCartys are truly
setting industry standards. In December 2020,
they achieved B Corp certification. For those
of you who don't know, that's a huge deal. It
means they're meeting the absolute highest standards
of social and environmental performance transparency,
and accountability. They're one of the very few
dairy farms globally to hit this mark. Ken put
it this way in an interview. Becoming a certified
B Corp amplified our commitment by prioritizing
mission -driven collaboration with our partners
to drive real systemic change and create impact
at scale. And their sustainability metrics, they're
impressive when you stack them up against industry
benchmarks. They've achieved a reduction of 8
,474 tons of CO2 equivalent. Now, while the dairy
industry has decreased greenhouse gas intensity
since 1971, total emissions have actually gone
up due to production growth. So, the McCarty's
are significantly outpacing that trend. They
implement cover crops on 95 % of MVP dairy's
4 ,500 acres. That's far beyond typical adoption
rates. And their innovative manure management
It aligns with research showing advanced tech
can slash GHG emissions from manure by 58 to
80%. They've achieved these results partly through
just getting better at what they do, increasing
milk production by 14 to 15 % without using synthetic
growth hormones. Ken explained in an interview
all that has been achieved by improved feeding,
milking procedures, and the elimination of stress.
Their resource conservation is top -notch too.
We learned they worked with Kansas State University
to redesign sand reclamation units that now capture
over 97 % of sand for reuse as bedding. Smart
cow cooling systems that don't waste water, continuous
evaluation of electrical and fuel use, it's all
part of the package. They've even become the
first farm in the world to achieve the highest
animal welfare status from Validus. And they
don't just protect the environment, they actively
enhance it. We're talking planted trees, pollinator
habitats, over 58 wildlife boxes, and 25 acres
of native plants just for pollinators. A 2024
study out of Ireland actually validates their
whole approach, showing that implementing climate
change mitigation strategies can cut emissions
and increase farm net savings. The McCartys are
living proof that environmental and economic
sustainability can and absolutely should go hand
in hand. Okay, so they've got the family dynamics,
the team, the operations, and sustainability
dialed in. But what about the curveballs? The
things you just can't predict? Ken was asked
in an interview about the industry's biggest
challenges, and his answer was immediate. Risk
mitigation in an increasingly unpredictable world.
They were called black swan events because they
were pretty dang rare, he observed. but it seems
like black swan events happen about every six
months anymore. He mentioned consolidation, dwindling
consumer connection to ag, geopolitical impacts.
Sound familiar? The McCarty's approach? It's
all about long -term stability, not short -term
gambles. That crucial Danone relationship allows
them to take a much longer -term view of management
strategies, investments, and risk management,
as Ken stated. What does that look like in practice?
securing energy costs years in advance acquiring
more cropland to stabilize feed costs developing
solid relationships with equipment providers
to minimize maintenance surprises essentially
creating systems designed to weather market volatility
ken acknowledges that tools like lrp and drp
didn't even exist 25 years ago so the industry
is getting better at managing risk but it's still
a massive challenge to implement comprehensive
risk management while juggling the day -to -day
chaos of running a farm. Their focus on stability
over speculation is a powerful lesson for all
of us. So what's a day really like at a McCarty
farm? Well, from what we've gathered and from
detailed reports from their Rexford operation,
it's impressive. The day starts early, of course,
but what seems to stand out is the calm, methodical
vibe. In the control room of one of those 120
-cow rotary parlors, Large monitors display real
-time data on every single cow, milk flow, yield,
conductivity that might flag mastitis, activity
patterns. Reports indicate a herdsman might point
to a dot on the screen and note, her activity
spiked last night, she's showing signs of heat.
She'll be bred today. It's that seamless dance
between technology and deep biological understanding
that defines their system. In the barns, that
tunnel ventilation creates a comfortable environment,
even on a hot Kansas day. Cows are lounging on
clean, reclaimed sand bedding, feed lanes are
pristine, and the communication between the farm
and the processing plant teams? It's reportedly
constant. A milk tanker arrives at the plant,
gets tested immediately, and those results are
back with the farm managers within the hour.
Talk about a rapid feedback loop. The commitment
to animal welfare is evident in their protocols
and certifications. Cows move easily through
well -designed handling systems, employees are
trained to use gentle voices and touch when interacting
with the animals, and vet protocols prioritize
prevention. And their water reclamation system?
Ken shared in his interview, nothing goes to
waste here. That's part of our commitment to
being good stewards. It truly is high -tech meeting
high -touch. All this dedication, innovation,
and sheer hard work culminated in March 2025,
when Ken, Mike, Tom, Dave, and Clay McCarty were
named World Dairy Expo's 2025 Dairy Producer
of the Year. It's the industry's top honor, recognizing
excellence in efficient production, quality breeding,
and progressive management. So, what really makes
them deserving? So many things, but here are
a few standouts. That vertical integration model
gives them incredible control and stability.
Their direct supply relationship with Danone
is a model of economic resilience. Their B Corp
certification? That's verified commitment, folks.
Despite their size, they've held on to those
core family values and that hands -on approach.
They consistently adopt and adapt technology
to make things better. And with that fifth generation
starting to come in, they're a textbook case.
of successful farm succession. Ken was asked
in an interview what makes him most proud. His
answer was pretty profound. Survival is honestly
the thing that I take a lot of pride in. Very
few businesses ever make it beyond the first
generation, let alone the second or the third.
And we've been fortunate enough to survive to
the fourth generation, hopefully survive to the
fifth, but not only survive, but we've been able
to prosper in the dairy industry. And that's
a hell of a lot of fun. He also said something
that really resonated, to be able to survive
and to prosper and to do it in such a way in
an industry that you actually love being in.
I don't feel like I go to work any day. I just
get to go do what I enjoy. And when asked about
retirement, never. I love what I do. That passion,
that genuine love for dairying, it's evident
in everything they do. So what's the bottom line
here? What can we all take away from the McCarty
success story? First, vertical integration, if
you can swing it even on a smaller scale, can
create incredible stability and control. Second,
standardized protocols combined with solid data
are your best friends for managing complexity
and making smart decisions. Don't ditch the cow
sense, but give it some high -octane backup.
Third, sustainability and profitability are not
enemies. The McCartys prove they can and should
drive each other. Fourth, For family operations,
clear roles and responsibilities are absolute
gold. Respect each other's lanes. And finally,
thinking long -term, even when the short -term
is screaming at you, is crucial for building
resilience. We've learned that one of their team
members put it this way. The McCartys aren't
just building a business, they're building a
legacy. And that focus on long -term sustainability,
environmental, social, and economic, has put
them right at the forefront of our evolving industry.
They show that scale and sustainability aren't
mutually exclusive. Nearly 20 ,000 cows, and
they're setting industry standards for environmental
performance and animal welfare. From everything
we've learned about their story, it's not just
the incredible growth that's impressive. It's
how they've done it, with integrity, relentless
innovation, and a genuine commitment to their
people, their animals, and the planet. In an
era where family farms face so many headwinds,
McCarty Family Farms is a powerful testament
that with vision, guts, and a whole lot of hard
work, the family farm doesn't just have a place
in modern agriculture, it can and should lead
the way. And that, my friends, is why their recognition
as World Dairy Expo's 2025 Dairy Producer of
the Year isn't just well -deserved. It's a damn
hopeful sign for the future of dairy farming
in America. What's the one piece of McCarty magic
you're going to think about bringing to your
operation? Chew on that one. Thanks for tuning
in to the Bullvine Podcast. We'll catch you next
time with more insights to help you dominate
the dairy game.