“I am not patient. I don’t sit around and wait for things to happen,” Garrett Bailey, a 26-year-old dairy farmer, says about himself. “I like ideas. I like projects. I am always trying to make things better for the cows, and I take pride in making things good for my employees.”

Today, Garrett is the fourth generation at Walker Farms and recently transitioned into managing the animal health and dairy farm employees. He is stepping into this next era of the family’s multifaceted business alongside his parents and uncle.

Walker Farms in eastern New York milks 1,400 cows, raises 1,200 heifers, and is drawing up plans to expand to 2,700 cows on a green site. Additionally, their farm store — Walker’s Farm, Home, & Tack — has grown and adapted to meet the changing needs of local farmers and the rural community. Much of their success starts with the people, culture, and a legacy passed down from multiple generations. Garrett leans into it and shares his clear goals to grow the herd, support an environment where his employees want to take pride in their work, and have healthy, comfortable cows.

The era of “wheeling and dealing” 

In the 1930s is when Garrett’s great-grandparents started the family’s farming legacy. In the 1960s his grandparents moved the farm and herd of 30 cows to its current location in Fort Ann, New York. Garrett characterized his grandfather as an entrepreneur and somewhat of a “wheeler and dealer.” He recalls a story that gets shared often about his grandpa selling the entire herd more than once and buying all new cattle.

This may be who Garrett inherited his tenacity from. And while an amusing story, he took this as a lesson in adaptability and business acumen because so much of what Walker Farms is today, his grandparents cultivated. They diversified the farm to include a retail farm store and a trucking company.

Garrett recalls that the business grew from his grandfather’s deeply rooted beliefs in supporting his neighbors and their farms. At the time there were many small farms in the area and his grandfather recognized the need for affordable, accessible feed and took the initiative to fill it.

“My grandpa always wanted to help local farmers, so he started a feed mill where he sold feed to the locals.” The business was simple, “It started with selling 100-pound bags of corn meal and from there grew with the need for other feeds. My grandparents eventually built a store from the feed business they started on their back porch. That’s when our family started working with Cargill.”

A better transition

Garrett’s career aspirations included working and learning from other people. His parents and uncle shared this belief and supported him in gaining experience off the farm after college.

“There was never a discussion between my family about me returning home right after college. I wanted to have time away and they also wanted that for me.”

He worked on a large dairy which he says gave him the repetition to broaden his knowledge of animal health, operational efficiencies, and people management — areas he would manage when he returned to his family’s farm. After two years, he found himself ready and wanting to take on more responsibility. Garrett was bouncing ideas around with family friend and Walker Farm’s Cargill consultant, Russ Saville. In conversation, Russ suggested it may be time to return to the family farm. He offered to talk through the process with Garrett’s uncle, mom, and dad who were managing the farm’s operations at the time.

This transition could be a possibility, but Garrett hadn’t known exactly when or how it would happen. What concerned him most was that his family trusted his capabilities and were comfortable entrusting him with the family legacy. He never wanted the transition to feel like it was a gift or assumed. 

“I have heard my mother say that she would do anything in this world to protect this business. That stuck with me. Remembering her intent reassured me that they had faith in me and felt 100% comfortable with the decision.”

Once Russ, Garrett, and the family started talking, it was clearer for everyone involved that the farm had the resources and potential to move forward with succession. Russ has been the nutritionist on farm for more than 20 years. His longtime knowledge of the operation and relationships with family members made his mediation and knowledge extremely helpful. 

“The transition was as smooth as it could be,” Garrett shares. “Russ Saville helped immensely with that. He was a mediator as well as someone who knew our family’s operation from all his years doing our nutrition work. Having someone there who could say the hard things made it easier for me and for my family.”

Russ was able to help bridge the generational gap and be an intermediary for the more difficult conversations. Garrett’s return involved months of planning, open communication, and deliberate meetings with both the family and farm’s advisors. Having a trusted communicator like Russ is what Garrett feels allotted him the autonomy needed to lead the farm. 

Leaning into consultants

Garrett is quick to admit he doesn’t have all the answers and leans into outside experts like Russ and Cargill’s team to perform farm audits, troubleshoot, and help him make key decisions.
“The on-farm audits and support from the people at Cargill are the most valuable parts of Cargill.” Garrett shares, “I’ll be honest, I couldn’t have done it without them.”
The partnership goes far beyond nutrition. Yes, Cargill provides the dairy with calf starter and lactation feed mixes, but Garrett has found that so much of the impact comes from the team of people working with Russ. 

The team from Cargill includes:

• Russ Saville, Cargill Dairy Focus Consultant, guided the family’s transition and continues to lead herd nutrition at Walker farms.
• Dr. Andy Austin, DVM, Cargill Technical Specialist, provides herd health support and consulting.
• Colin McCarthy, Dairy Tech Specialist, trained Garrett’s employees in hoof trimming which is improving cow comfort and costs savings. Colin is also bilingual and provides translation for critical farm meetings.
• Molly Diven, Calf & Heifer Specialist provides calf, heifer, and support services.

“I capitalize on all the help I can get,” Garrett says. “I know I don’t know everything, and I know I will never know everything. I like opinions, I like ideas, and I like people being brutally honest with me.”

Garrett’s shares what’s next and some advice

Even though Garrett grew up on his family’s farm, he felt strongly to take the time to learn as an employee so he could better understand the operation as a manager. He worked with in every area getting to know the employees and standard operating procedures: from calves, to parlor, to mixing feed. That choice has set the tone for the farm’s culture. Garrett finds that trust must be a two-way street and building that trust starts with understanding why what we do matters.

“Explain the why. That’s really what I’ve tried to do,” Garrett says. “I trust all my people to make high-level decisions and do high-level things every day. If you just tell them what to do, you won’t get buy-in. But when you explain why, then it becomes their idea too — and they care more.”

Garrett elaborates and says that proper training is a big part of this philosophy. Whether it’s hoof trimming, calf care, or milking procedures, he believes in equipping his people with the knowledge and confidence to succeed.

“My team of people care immensely. They’re invested, and I think that comes from knowing why we do things and having the trust in themselves and each other to make decisions.”

With expansion plans underway to grow from 1,400 to 2,700 cows at a green site. Garrett knows the future will bring challenges and opportunity. And he’s ready.

“This is our farm’s future, and the people around me trust me to plan what’s happening next.”

His advice to other producers is simple but impactful:

• Be open to ideas.
• Use every resource available.
• Smooth family transitions benefit from outside mediation.
• Welcome brutal honesty.
• Keep the focus on the cows.

Garrett sees Cargill as an integral part to this next era of more cattle, a new site, and novel challenges. Whether it’s Dr. Andy Austin offering herd health insights, Colin training employees, Molly adding to calf raising SOPs, or Russ bringing data-driven improvements to feeding programs, the collaboration has become a mainstay of Walker Farm’s strategy.