neighbors. Dannon sees value and focuses
on what McCarty Family Farms bring to
the community.
According to Clay, community growth
is the key to what the McCartys have
brought to each community.
“We started in Rexford, which only
produces 10-12 graduates per year,” Clay
said. “We had 30 employees who put
40-50 kids in the school thus increasing
state funding for the school. Our farm also
provides housing for each employee so
we own 15 homes in a community of 250
people.”
The Bird City Century II Development
Foundation approached the McCartys
about building another dairy in Bird City
to stimulate their local economy and
school after seeing the growth in Rexford.
“A group came and toured the Rexford
farm mid-summer and by the following
spring, construction began in Bird City,”
Clay said. “This development group saw
what a positive impact McCarty Family
Farms had on the town of Rexford and
they wanted the same for their town and
school. This never would have happened
in Pennsylvania, where agriculture is only
a small piece of the economy. Here in
Kansas, agriculture is everything.
“The writing skills Mike and I gained
in college have been a great asset. We
have written many business and financial
plans and presentations to help our farm
grow to where it is today. Lycoming
exposed me to opportunity – it helped me
to think differently about being a farm kid
and building my own business.
“Playing football showed me I was
a small fish in the big sea. I was a good
ball player, but college taught me
how to compete and excel. I learned
to interact with all kinds of people on
the football field and in the classroom.
Lycoming is surprisingly diverse for
such a small school. This prepared me
for relationships with the global business
leaders at Danone in France.”
Dannon places tremendous value on
community, economic and environmental
sustainability. Caring for natural
resources is a big part of what the
McCartys do every day.
“The processing practices related
to our farm are very important to our
sustainability,” Mike said. “We condense
10 tanker loads or 500,000 pounds of raw
milk into four tanker loads of finished
product per day. The finished product
consists of three loads of pasteurized
condensed skim milk and one load of
pasteurized 42 percent cream.”
“The on-farm evaporator technology
we have installed in our processing
plant is one-of-a-kind and the first in the
nation on a working farm,” Clay said.
“Milk from all three dairies goes through
the processing plant. The evaporator is
critical to reducing carbon footprints.
This eliminates overall emissions of
extra trucking and is important for
environmental sustainability.
“We each live and work in these
communities, so it’s in our best interest
to make good choices for our farm. We
are excited about our future. It has taken
a lot of hard work to get to this point.
I’m lucky, though; I get to work with
the best partners in the world – my
brothers.”
McCarty Family Farms Facts
Number of employees:
105
Land owned:
1,000 acres
Cows milked per day:
approximately
7,200
Amount of milk from cows per day:
approximately 59,000 gallons
Milk processed per day:
500,000 lbs.
Amount of water reclaimed daily from
condensing milk:
39,000 gallons/day
Reduction in number of trucks
required to ship milk:
75 percent
Trucks of condensed skim milk
shipped to Dannon® per day:
3
Trucks of cream shipped to Daisy®
per day:
1
Timeline
1914
– McCarty family begins
milking cows in Pennsylvania
1992
– Tom and Judy expanded
from 150 cows to 350
1999
– Tom and Judy buy a wheat
farm near Rexford, Kan.
2000
– McCarty family begins
milking 225 cows in Rexford
2007
– Community of Bird City,
Kan., asks family to consider
building another dairy
2008
– McCarty family begins
milking cows at new Bird City farm
2010
– The Dannon Company
and McCarty Family Farms
begin discussions that lead to a
collaboration
2011
– McCarty family begins
milking cows at Scott City farm
and starts building processing
plant at Rexford Dairy
2012
– First shipment sent from
processing plant to Dannon
Tom and Judy McCarty are surrounded by
their four sons.
The McCarty Family Farms own 1,000 acres in Kansas.
10
LYCOMING COLLEGE 2014 WINTER MAGAZINE