On the open plains of western Kansas, where the horizon stretches wide and the wind almost never stops, sits a dairy operation built on grit, risk and the belief that bold decisions can change everything. Today, McCarty Family Farms is known across the industry for its scale and cutting-edge innovation, but its story starts 1,500 miles away in a tie-stall barn in northeastern Pennsylvania.
“We’re fourth-generation family dairymen, originally born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania,” says Ken McCarty, one of the four brothers who own and operate McCarty Family Farms.
For more than a century, the family milked cows in the Northeast. But in the late 1990s, their parents made a decision that would redefine the family’s future: sell nearly everything, load what they could haul and move halfway across the country to Kansas.
“All that credit is due to our parents,” Ken says. “They have a big vision, and they have some serious intestinal fortitude. My brothers and I talk about this often, and we’re not sure we would have that faith and that courage at that age — to risk it all, pick our families up, move 1,500 miles and bet it all on us. Thankfully, it works out so far.”
In 1999, the family sold just over 200 cows and their equipment to head West. The brothers say they arrived somewhat naive, and that may have been their saving grace.
“When we left Pennsylvania, we sold 212 milking cows and just our equipment,” says Clay McCarty, one of the brothers who owns and operates the farm today. “We came out here a little naive, which is good. We’re so convinced we succeed that we don’t know how to fail. And that’s good, because the first five to seven years, we’re one mistake away from failure — probably closer to extinction than we ever realize.”
Building a Culture of Commitment
Despite long days, tight margins and constant uncertainty, the McCartys found support in the people who took the leap with them.
“We’re just determined we’re not going to fail,” Clay says. “We’re very fortunate. A lot of our guys who start with us in 2000 are still with us in 2025. We’re able to create a culture early where guys are willing to sacrifice — and they see us sacrificing, working 20-hour days.”
A Second Big Leap: Processing Their Own Milk
In 2012, the McCartys took another bold step and built their own milk processing plant — a move nearly as risky as the family’s relocation.
“In 2012, when we start that, we have no idea how to run a milk processing plant,” Ken says. “But we believe it’s the right thing to do for our partnership with our customer, the right thing for our farm and our family — and thankfully, it works out.”
The plant, built in partnership with Danone North America, allows the family to add value to their milk and reach markets far beyond Kansas. The McCartys have four dairy farms today, and Danone says McCarty Family Farms’ partnership is vital, supplying milk that helps churn out Danone’s yogurts and other products.
The relationship between McCarty’s and Danone is also a model for Danone’s farmer partnerships and involves initiatives to improve sustainability, such as water conservation and soil health projects.
Innovation as a Way of Life
Since establishing their operation in Kansas, McCarty Family Farms has grown to milk around 20,000 cows across multiple states and now employs nearly 250 team members. But what truly sets the operation apart is how deeply the family embraces technology, not as a trend but as a necessity.
“When it comes to technology, we don’t jump into anything lightly,” Ken says. “We spend a lot of time vetting technology, working with industry experts, people smarter than us. And we’re always searching for technologies that can fill a gap in our business.”
Those gaps — labor shortages, market competition, demands for traceability, animal welfare and sustainability — are pushing the family to innovate continually.
“As labor becomes a bigger challenge, as markets become more competitive, as demand for increased traceability or enhanced animal welfare or optimized sustainability grows, all of that forces us to look for innovation,” Ken says. “A lot of that comes through technology, whether it’s genetic evaluations, breeding strategies based on genomics, methane capture or feed additives that reduce enteric emissions and drive down our carbon footprint.”
Ken says the ability to collect granular, cow-specific data and then act on it is fueling the operation today, and the next frontier is already in sight.
“I think a few things are really going to push our farms and our business to the next level,” Ken says. “Machine learning and artificial intelligence — using those tools to create predictive analytics and tell us what’s going to happen to a cow before it happens — and robotics. Our farms run 24/7/365 in a diminishing labor pool. Robotics allow us to keep scaling and run our farms how we want, when we want, and turn labor into a more fixed cost.”
Looking Ahead: Water and Labor Still Loom Large
For all the technological gains, two challenges remain front and center.
“Front of mind in northwest Kansas is water,” Clay says. “It’s Kansas, Nebraska, Texas — this whole Ogallala Aquifer. How we manage that moving forward massively affects how our operations run. And if you look across the nation, the big bear in the room is labor. It’s hard to get, and there’s a lot of noise around immigration.”
A Fifth Generation Steps In
Still, the McCartys remain optimistic in part because the fifth generation is already stepping into the operation, tech-savvy and ready for the challenges ahead.
“We’re trying to bring back the fifth generation,” Clay says. “We’re a pretty young group. Ken’s in his early 40s, so there’s a lot of life left in us. We’re going to have to continue to diversify and be innovative and adopt the technologies that come our way.”
A Family That Redefined What a Dairy Can Be
From a small Pennsylvania barn to a high-tech dairy powerhouse on the High Plains, the McCarty family doesn’t just operate a dairy; they redefine the possibilities of modern milk production. They blend tradition with technology, risk with resilience, and vision with action.
For their continued leadership and groundbreaking commitment to innovation, McCarty Family Farms is the 2025 Milk Business Conference Leader in Technology Award winner.
