As a kid growing up on his family’s dairy in Lancaster County, Penn., Eric Weaver didn’t have to imagine what he wanted his future to look like. He was already living it.
Between helping on the farm after school, working weekends and spending long summer days alongside his father and uncle, Weaver knew early on that dairy farming was what he wanted to do. And now his childhood dream has become a reality.
“I always wanted to stay on the farm,” Weaver says. “As soon as I was out of high school, I went full time. I knew the farm is where I belonged.”
Today, Weaver is 30 years old and has spent nearly a decade building his stake in the family business alongside his father, Dennis. Together they manage a 200-cow Holstein herd, raise approximately 150 youngstock and farm about 250 acres in the same rolling hills where generations of his family have farmed since the 1700s.
Equity in the Family Business
The transition to ownership officially began in 2016, when Weaver started purchasing his uncle’s share of the cows and business. What started on the operating side of the dairy has since moved into a second phase, with portions of the farm’s real estate now included in the agreement.
“I started buying in on the cow side first,” Weaver says. “I began to buy my uncle out. And then within the last couple years I’ve started on the real estate.”
For Weaver, getting an early start helped set the pace for how the transition would unfold. The process has moved in stages, separating assets and responsibilities so ownership, financial obligations and management decisions could be built over time.
“It’s a long process, but it’s good to get a good start on it,” he says. “I feel like we’re not behind because we wanted to be aggressive.”
As the transition has progressed, Weaver’s role has expanded into broader management decisions. His involvement now includes financial planning, herd performance goals and evaluating investments in new technology as the operation continues to evolve under shared ownership. Each step has added another layer of responsibility, reflecting a steady move toward more control of the business.
How a YouTube Channel Became Part of his Daily Routine
Not long after buying into the farm, Weaver also started something he never planned out long-term. When he wasn’t out in the fields or in the barn, he spent free time watching videos of other farmers on YouTube. That interest led him to film and upload a video of his own, sharing a look at a regular day on the farm.
“I posted my first video at the end of 2018,” Weaver says. “It was just a day-in-the-life look at what I was doing around the farm. I strapped a go-pro to my head and just went about my normal day. It started with milking and then moved into working with the heifers. I had always enjoyed watching other farmers on YouTube and thought I would share some of our own work.”
That first video has grown into his YouTube channel, 10th Generation Dairyman, which now has more than 450,000 subscribers. Today, the channel covers a wide range of daily farm activity, including forage harvest, manure hauling, equipment repairs and herd management, with videos posted every two to three days.
But Weaver notes much of the viewer interest tends to build around harvest season, when fieldwork and equipment are most visible.
“The harvest videos have always been the best performing,” Weaver says. “Silage harvest, bunker and silo filling tend to draw the most attention. The viewers like to see the equipment in action.”
While most of Weaver’s videos typically draw between 45,000 and 75,000 views, his harvest content tends to break out well beyond that range. Several of those videos have reached millions, including one from 2021 that has pulled in 6.3 million views.
Weaver says his audience ranges from a mix of farmers and everyday consumers, and that shapes how he puts each video together. Some viewers know the work firsthand, while others are seeing it for the first time.
“It’s a good mix,” Weaver says. “A lot of farmers watch, but most are everyday people. It can be a challenge to find the right balance of how much to explain without getting too simplistic for farmers who already know what is going on.”
For the non-farm audience, the videos often offer a closer look at areas of production they may not otherwise see, including manure handling, crop production decisions and animal care practices.
For his farm audience, one unexpected source of feedback and learning for Weaver has been the comment section. Over time, it has connected him with other producers who offer suggestions, troubleshoot problems and compare how they handle similar situations on their own farms.
“I’ve learned quite a bit from other farmers commenting,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of good tips and advice on how to fix certain issues.”
Those comments have turned into more than just feedback on individual videos. Over time, they’ve opened the door to conversations with producers from different regions who are working through many of the same kinds of challenges, sharing what has worked on their own farms and what hasn’t.
Even as his audience has grown substantially, Weaver still says he prefers the work on the farm.
“I still like farming more than YouTubing,” he laughs. “The videos are just a way to share what I’m already doing on the farm. If I didn’t enjoy the farming side of it, I probably wouldn’t be doing any of this.”
Efficiency in a Changing Operation
As Weaver moved deeper into ownership, the farm transition prompted a closer look at where labor could be used more efficiently. At the same time, balancing management responsibilities and his YouTube channel made streamlining daily work even more important.
Like many dairies weighing new technology, Weaver considered robotic milking systems. In the end, he did not see them fitting their setup.
“We have a milking parlor already that’s here, and we have the labor for it,” Weaver says. “The math didn’t seem to work to put robot milkers in.”
Feeding, however, looked different. The daily routine of mixing and delivering feed was time-consuming work.
“That was something my dad was doing every day,” Weaver says. “It was kind of wearing on him a little bit.”
As the transition moved forward, automating the feeding part of the operation offered a way to ease the workload while keeping the farm running at the same level of consistency. Weaver ultimately landed on a Lely Vector feeding system, which now handles ration mixing and delivery through an automated setup designed to feed based on programmed groups and intake needs, reducing the need for a tractor and mixer wagon to run multiple times a day.
“I thought if we can get that job automated, then my dad can still stick around and not have to do so many chores every day,” Weaver says. “It’s freed up some of his time and made work more enjoyable.”
A New Approach to Feeding
Installing the Lely Vector feeding system required more than adding robots to the farm. As Weaver stepped further into ownership, the project became part of a broader effort to modernize infrastructure and improve how labor was used during the transition to the next generation. The family converted an existing shop into what Weaver calls a feed kitchen and reworked portions of the forage storage setup to better fit an automated feeding model.
“We did end up building three silos,” Weaver says. “We had some bunks that were needing a lot of work done, and we felt like upright silos with robot feeding was the perfect combination.”
Today, two feeding robots deliver seven different rations across the operation, covering animals from young heifers to dry cows and the milking herd. Once the feeding program is set, the system adjusts deliveries based on intake and feed availability, reducing the need for constant manual adjustment.
“You don’t have to program how much the robots feed every day,” Weaver says. “It’ll just feed them as they need it and it’ll tell you how much they ate.”
For Weaver, the value is not just in automation, but in the information it provides. The system has given a closer look at intake patterns and helped tighten ration consistency.
“It’s nice to get really good on our intake, and everything’s consistent,” he says.
Those changes have carried into broader feed management as well. Mixing now happens indoors, improving accuracy and reducing exposure to weather. It has also changed how refusals are handled, with less feed being cleaned up and moved out of pens on a daily basis.
“We’re not cleaning up refusals daily anymore,” Weaver says.
Taken together, the system has reduced labor tied to feeding while improving efficiency and limiting waste. As part of the larger transition on the farm, Weaver points to those gains as part of the long-term return.
“We’re definitely seeing a return,” he says. “It’s cash flowing. It’s paying itself off.”
Leading the Next Generation Forward
As the transition process continues, Weaver’s focus remains on strengthening the dairy he already has rather than pursuing rapid expansion. The farm’s ownership structure has steadily evolved, with his father still involved in the operation, though stepping back from tasks like feeding, and his uncle now largely out of day-to-day work. Each change has been part of a gradual hand-off, moving responsibility and decision-making into the next generation.
“We’re in a good spot where we can be intentional about how things move forward,” Weaver says.
For Weaver, stepping into an ownership role has meant thinking beyond what works today and focusing on what will hold up in the years ahead. He describes success less in terms of growth and more in terms of stability, discipline and long-term financial footing.
“It’s about building something that can stand on its own, not just for me, but for whoever comes next,” he says.
That approach has shaped decisions across the farm, from how the herd is managed to where money is invested in new technology. The goal has been to improve what is already in place rather than growing just for the sake of size.
“We’re always trying to find the next thing we can improve on,” he says.
Weaver sees his role as part of a long line of family involvement in the dairy, with each generation adapting to changing conditions and keeping the operation running.
“There’s a responsibility that comes with being the next generation,” he says. “You’re not just maintaining what’s here, you’re trying to make sure it’s stronger for the future.”
In that way, the transition is not only about ownership on paper, but about carrying forward a system that continues to evolve from one generation to the next.
