Barn Gothic

Three Generations and the Death of the Family Dairy Farm

By: Ryan Dennis

Narrated by: Will Tulin

When Ryan Dennis's father was crushed by heavy machinery on their New York dairy farm, both men accepted the accident as a risk of agricultural life. But it was harder to comprehend being crushed by low milk prices, big banks, and the policies that destroyed America's family farms.

Even though Ryan grew up watching his father and grandfather struggle to survive, he always thought he would follow in their footsteps and take over the family farm. But as he milked cows and fed calves, the world outside the barn was changing. Between 2003 and 2020, 40,000 dairy farms went out of business in the United States.

Barn Gothic is an elegy for family farmers and an intimate portrait of three generations laboring to be fathers and sons while their livelihood falls apart. Beautifully told with a farmer's restraint and a poet's grace, it is a story of personal loss amid corporate corruption and of finding a way forward when everything you know disappears.

©2025 Ryan Andrew Dennis (P)2025 Tantor Media

Dennis Farm History

Loved the trip down memory lane. Grandpa Dennis (Clair) was a tough bird. He would never call me by my name because he didn’t like it! Loved the book!

Fantastic story about what us, modern family, farmers face.

Thank you for telling your story. A lot of consumers are so disconnected from farms now I think a lot of them don’t realize what it takes, or what seeing all these dilapidated old barns around means. Every single one has a story to tell. I’m a 28 year old dairy farmer in CNY, and lost my father a few years ago. This story really hit home. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me at the end.