At Beck Farms in New York, technology is the key to growing the operation for the future.
Tyler Beck sounded reluctant to take credit for the recognition bestowed on him and his brother, Austin, at the recent New York State Agricultural Society Forum.
The Next Generation Farmer Award “goes beyond just myself and my brother, but as a reflection of our team of 35 people,” Tyler said. “It’s not just one person running this operation every day. It’s a big crew with many moving parts.”
Tyler and his brother run Beck Farms in Freeville, N.Y., following in the footsteps of their great-grandfather Martin Beck, who began farming as a sharecropper in 1921. Martin’s son, Ron, and Ron’s son, Russ, carried on the legacy.
“We do the same thing as Great-grandpa, but it just looks a little different,” Tyler said. “It’s about treating the land and cows right. We just use technology a lot deeper and a lot more at the forefront than 100 years ago. It was 20 cows back then, and we’ve taken it to thousands.”
Ron Beck, the brothers’ grandfather, has retired.
Technology has helped the Becks build the farm over the years. Russ grew the farm from a 300-head dairy to 1,500 head. Since the brothers joined the operation, they have grown it to 2,000 cows.
They hope to grow cow numbers to 3,500 head in the next three years. This includes replacing the 20-year-old milking parlor with a new facility and a new freestall barn.
“We’re breeding the animals for the next wave of animals,” Tyler said. “The process takes about three years. In the U.S., the heifer population is at an all-time low, and [they] are expensive, so we want to grow them on our own and save costs. We know our own genetics and can raise them with our own standards.”
AERIAL VIEW: This 4,300-acre farm in Freeville, N.Y., includes two dairy operations: Beck Farms and Alpine Dairy in nearby Vigil. (Photo courtesy of the Beck family)
The farm’s “cow Fitbits” provide a numerical score related to cow health attributes.
“You don’t have to guess as to when to breed or treat a cow,” Tyler said. “It makes it so much easier. You have a black-and-white standard operating procedure as to when to breed them. It’s not just a feeling. The data is real now.”
He sees advances like these as helping farmers become more efficient and capable of tracking how many workers are needed to care for and milk a given number of cows. This kind of precision can help save on labor costs and contribute to cow culling decisions.
Family tradition
For Tyler and Austin, farming “is a proud family tradition. It’s more of a lifestyle than a job for us. It’s not bank hours every day. It’s always something different,” Tyler says. “It’s very rewarding to work with many different areas of the business, from computer time with number crunching to working with employees to being a vet working with the cows. It’s very exciting because it’s always changing.”
Tyler is the dairy manager at both locations, overseeing cow care and milk production. Austin oversees equipment maintenance, manure management and crop operations. The farm sells milk to Cayuga Milk Ingredients in Auburn, N.Y.
The 2024 TV series “Dairy Diaries,” streamed on Roku, featured a tour of Beck Farms.
HERD GROWTH: Tyler and Austin Beck hope to expand the herd by 1,500 head over the next three years. This will include replacing the 20-year-old milking parlor with a new facility and construction of a new freestall barn. (Photo courtesy of the Beck family)
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