AMES, Iowa – Matt McGarry grew up on a farm near DeWitt in eastern Iowa. His family raised hogs, cattle, chicken and even peacocks – everything but the animal that fascinated him the most: dairy cows.
“We had a neighbor who had a dairy farm, and I had a bird’s eye view. That was where the action was. It was the only dairy farm around, and there was always stuff going on. Milk trucks coming in and out, machinery activity and you’d see the cows coming in the middle of the afternoon in a big, long line,” he said.
McGarry was so interested in what was happening next door that he recalls pulling a World Book Encyclopedia off the shelf to investigate, flipping through the pages of the “D” book to find the entry on “dairy.” In high school, he joined the FFA dairy judging team. After high school, he took a job at a nearby dairy farm, and his post-graduation Plan A was to attend Iowa State University to pursue his interest in milking cows.
Plan A didn’t happen, at least not right away. And over the next four decades, McGarry’s plans progressed far deeper into the alphabet. But Saturday, Dec. 21, when he graduates with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural studies at age 56, Plan A will finally be accomplished. Next up? Starting the dairy farm he’s longed for all his life, thanks to his custom-designed education and hands-on experiences at Iowa State.
“That’s always been my dream, but now I’m tooled to do it,” McGarry said.
Long journey home
By the time McGarry graduated from high school, he was running his family farm. He got a business administration degree from a local community college, figuring he’d be set. But when the farm went up for sale, he was unable to buy it and turned back to his first passion. For 15 years, he worked at dairies across the U.S., including Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Arizona. It didn’t quite scratch the itch. Lots of work, without much say in the operation.
“That’s tough when you are committing so much of your day to it,” he said.
McGarry realized it was time to move on the day his daughter, Maddy, was born. “I only got away for a few hours and then had to go back to the dairy. It kind of hit me that I might need to think about doing something else,” he said.
So he worked in support roles in health care settings for the next 15 years, first in dialysis and then in surgery. All the while, he and his wife, Julie, also renovated and sold houses, a side hustle that eventually became their full-time job.
“I love the word ‘diversified,’ and I’ve been that way since I can remember. It’s just how I’m wired, I guess. I’m not into having all the eggs in one basket,” he said.
Renovation opportunities kept his family on the move as they hunted for favorable housing markets. In spring 2020, when Maddy graduated from Iowa State after earning bachelor’s degrees in agricultural communication and international agriculture, they celebrated the pandemic-era virtual commencement on the deck of the McGarrys’ home in Austin, Texas. Seeing his daughter graduate from the university he had once hoped to attend sent the wheels spinning in McGarry’s irons-in-the-fire mind.
“I thought, ‘Well, if she can do that, maybe I can, too,’” he said.
Personalized program
Matt McGarry, a graduating senior in agricultural studies, at the Iowa State University Dairy Farm. He had extensive dairy experience prior to coming to Iowa State and recently bought 15 acres of land near Stanhope in hopes of fulfilling his longtime dream of starting his own dairy farm. Photo by Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University. Larger image.
When their house remodeling work took the family back to Iowa, that clinched it for McGarry. Finally, he was ready to tackle Plan A. Though he was worried his two-year degree from a quarter century ago wouldn’t prove useful, much of the coursework transferred. With four full-time semesters, he could finish a degree in agricultural studies.
McGarry was drawn to the agricultural studies program’s multidisciplinary option, in which students select three emphasis areas to build their own personalized focus. That appealed to his preference for variety and was the perfect fit for a student with a specific vision. He selected dairy science, food science and international agriculture as emphasis areas, a foundation for starting a small dairy operation that integrates on-site milk processing.
“The dairy farm part I felt like I had down pretty well. But that’s not the only part of it. There’s the food part and the people part, and they’re all interconnected,” he said.
McGarry took most of his classes in-person, quickly getting over the initial stares from classmates trying to figure out if he was a professor. He has thrived academically, but many of his most valuable experiences came outside the classroom. He joined the dairy product evaluation team and has been involved all four semesters in the student incubator within the College of Agriculture and Life Science’s Start Something program.
The support he received through Start Something – a network of programs to develop entrepreneurial skills in each of Iowa State’s undergraduate colleges – was an especially influential confidence boost, giving him access to mentorship, networking and financial expertise.
“It was all the stuff you can’t really get in a book,” he said.
‘It’s never too late’
One tip McGarry heard repeatedly from guest speakers in the Start Something incubator was to travel outside the country for added perspective, advice he’ll take next month when he heads to India with an Iowa State group. In a two-week mini-internship led by animal science professor Curtis Youngs, students will learn about the Chitale Dairy farm in Bhilwadi.
The future for McGarry’s own dairy is tentative but promising. This fall, he and his wife purchased 15 acres of pasture near Stanhope to serve as the home of his as-yet unnamed operation. They hope to move in sometime later this winter. Currently, they’re renting a home in Jewell owned by Maddy, their daughter.
“I’m frantically cleaning because she’s coming back for the holiday. I don’t want to get in trouble,” McGarry joked the week before Thanksgiving.
Though much work remains before McGarry’s dairy becomes a reality, he feels well-positioned. Buying the land was big, as is the $626 million plant Daisy will break ground on in Boone next spring. Daisy’s sour cream and cottage cheese plant could potentially be an employer or a buyer, he said. But McGarry’s biggest advantage is the skills and knowledge he picked up at Iowa State.
“I hope that I can breathe a lot of life into the dairy industry, and I think my experience here and the structure of this degree has given me the tools to do it,” he said. “It’s never too late. Never say never.”
