Bonus 4 – Worlds Collide: Behind the Scenes with a Farmer and Comedian

Sarah Hetke  0:00 

Hello everybody. I’m Sarah hotkey with jury management incorporated and I’m so happy to bring you a bonus episode of The your very checkoff podcast where we speak with guests about how your checkoff is building sales and trust of dairy. Today I’m joined by New York dairy farmer Tyler Beck, who recently was part of a new strategy checkoff did in partnership with milk pet. Tyler and his family hosted Vanessa bear, a comedian and actress on their farm to produce dairy diaries, which provides an up close look at the realities of dairy farming. You can see dairy diaries on the Roku channel. And Tyler, thanks so much for joining me today. Let’s have you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself, your family and your farm.

Tyler Beck  0:41 

So we are about 2000 cow dairy located in south central upstate New York. I’m a fourth generation dairy farmer. Today I farm with my brother, my father and outside business partner. We crop on about 4000 acres and have two little milking centers. And yeah, at a wild weekend back in full week back in November with Vanessa and about a crew of 50 Hollywood producers joining her on farm.

Speaker 1  1:10 

Yeah, what a unique opportunity, you know, to be asked to host the celebrity on your farm. What was your initial reaction when you were asked?

Speaker 2  1:17 

Well, when mm Kelsea reached out with Dairy Checkoff, we I was basically being nice, yeah, throw us in the pool, like yada yada yada just not thinking too much of it, then a couple of short zoom interviews and figuring out they’re going to go a different direction, because there’s they’re looking at farms, not only in New York, but all across the country. So I figured the chances were pretty small. And then they reached out saying they wanted to schedule an in person interview. And I went to my brother and said, we really have to consider this because I think there’s only a couple of farms left and there’s pretty good chance to they’ll want to come here and ended up being near justice Goldilocks far not too big, not too small, decent size. They liked our proximity to Cornell and our, our puka milk ingredients to the plant were involved with our farmer own plant. They really like the story about how all that ties together and our group of 30 farmers here that sell their milk to their own plant and then market it. So all that came together and they said yeah, we’re in if you’re in so we jumped in and and committed. Yeah, you

Speaker 1  2:16 

do have a really unique farm story. And this just adds to it. So tell us what the interactions with Vanessa were like,

Speaker 2  2:24 

you can tell she was a professional comedian. She was hilarious to work with very quirky love the skits I researched ahead of time for Saturday Night Live just to prep myself about who I would be working with for a week. And I mean, she was she was up for anything which made the week really fun. She started milking cow by hand. And then we got to show the real parlor how we milk today’s age, not how we did it 56 years ago, and then she got to load that milk into the parlor and hopped in with a truck driver and took it to our plant and then unloaded it and saw how we processed it, processed it and how the end result looked. And I think it was really cool to take not only her but the consumer through her eyes through that entire process of milk out of the cow to the parlor, out of the tank and then to the plant. And then alongside that she understood how we deal with the manure on the other end, and then how we’re prepping and feeding the cow all year round, and providing her the nutrition to make that milk. So she really saw a full circle view.

Speaker 1  3:19 

Yeah, that’s really impressive. Or, you know, I’m gonna guess she doesn’t have a lot of experience on farms and probably especially not on dairy farms. So that’s a really holistic view of what today’s dairy industry looks like. And you spent an entire week with her and these producers so obviously you have a lot of memories from that. But you know, do you have just one favorite memory that sticks out in your mind with her

Speaker 2  3:44 

probably my top two favorites would be her eating the cow episode, and eating all the different foods she had throughout the different buckets of the foods labeled in front of her. And after we said cut she took a big mouthful, I think it was cornmeal and wanted to be brave and shut down then and then in the background had a big a big jug of water she basically had to flush out with for a few minutes. So that was fun to and to see that behind the scene just trying to be brave, but didn’t quite have the same stomach. The cows have to enjoy it. And then her just reading the cow facts kind of after a few days, they went down to the pasture and walked some dry cows and she just read some dairy facts to them and she really put a twist on it and it was fun to just watch her do her thing and

Speaker 1  4:29 

their jaws 40,000 times a day. Hey, guess what? So can I It’s called being a blabber mouth. I’m sure as you now watch the finished product. You have such a unique perspective on having seen all of that behind the scenes and then you got to see how it all came together with the finished product. So sounds like a really neat opportunity for you and your family. So my last question for you is you know when you think about efforts like this, that checkoff is leading why is this important for farmers like you and for the dairy industry as a whole

Speaker 2  4:59 

but think farmers are really good at everything they do, up until the point of marketing their product that they work so hard to make to the consumer. I mean, they’re, it’s very common for farms to be all around the country, operating 24/7 So they’re on call making sure their businesses going, going, going going day in day out throughout the year. And they worked so hard to get every pound of milk from the cow out the door. And then after that, they kind of washed their hands and they’re like, Alright, on to the next process. And they don’t continue on with the, the marketing part of to the consumer and, and just how important it is, especially nowadays where people are more interested than ever and reading the back of the labels and really understanding where the food comes from. And they want to be able to pronounce every ingredient on the package and they really want to see the full story. So I think this is a really unique way we allowed basically full transparency and cooperation and showed people basically where their milk comes from and if it’s milk that they’re consuming through ice cream through yogurt cheese or just straight milk on the shelf, and hopefully have a sounder understanding of the backstory on it and how it gets to the fridge.

Speaker 1  6:02 

Absolutely. Well Tyler, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. And for our dairy farmers who are listening if you want to learn more about the work that your checkoff is doing to build sales and trust of dairy, make sure to subscribe to the ordinary checkoff podcast and visit us dairy.com Thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai