MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – For Tyler McCann, managing an ice cream manufacturing business, selling farm equipment, and helping on his family farm isn’t way too much – it’s everyday life. “I do better when I’m busy,” McCann said.

McCann juggles his hectic schedule by co-owning Round Hill Dairy, working as a John Deere salesman, and farming nearly 1,200 acres alongside his father and uncle near Mount Vernon. He credits his ability to manage his challenging responsibilities to a work ethic instilled by his upbringing in rural Mount Vernon.

“Because my dad was a farmer, and he taught me the work ethic from a young age, I’m able to prioritize and get a lot of things done, McCann said, attributing his success to getting up early and starting the day before dawn.

When asked how he manages the demands of three careers, McCann emphasizes the importance of flexibility. “I like to plan,” he said. “I’m a big planner, but you have to be very fluid, day to day, meaning if this needs to be done, but something comes up, you kind of have to set precedence on what is most urgent and address that first.”

His daily routine is a testament to this structure. “I get up super early and I’m in at the ice cream shop every morning just to assess the situation, see how the day is planning out... and make sure everything is going along before then I go to the farm and help out however I can,” he said.

McCann’s roots run deep in the region. “My great-grandpa Burke was a farmer, and my grandpa McCann hauled milk for Kroger Co. for quite some time,” he said. Currently, the farming operation focuses on corn, wheat, soybeans, and dad’s specialty, straw and square-baled hay.

The ice cream venture, however, is a revival of local history. Round Hill Dairy was originally established in the early 1950s by Henry and Alice Curtis. The business changed hands after 1980 until 2018, when McCann and Johnny Curtis (Henry and Alice’s grandson), re-established the brand.

“One of my best friends, Johnny Curtis, called me while I was a sophomore at Bowling Green State University with the opportunity to start an ice cream shop in Mount Vernon,” McCann recalled. “We wanted to bring it back to life, so to speak.”

The operation now includes two storefronts in Mount Vernon, both of which feature Round Hill Dairy ice cream. The main location is built for transparency: “You walk in and you see displayed all the flavors that we have, then you walk into our dining room, and there are two big observing windows where people can watch us make ice cream,” McCann said.

Round Hill Dairy is not a seasonal operation but a year-round business. While the storefront is seasonal, the back end remains open year-round for wholesale manufacturing. “We supply pints, quarts, half gallons, and three-gallon tubs all year round,” McCann said. “The storefront ends, but the wholesale manufacturing part of ice cream stays alive for 12 months.”

Initially focused only on retail sales, the pandemic forced a pivot. Storefront sales took a drastic hit, forcing McCann to drum up business to stay alive. “I found the need in our area and surrounding counties, and that’s when the wholesale accounts took off,” he said. This expansion rapidly increased their capacity, putting them on track to produce 450,000 to 500,000 hard gallons of ice cream this year.

McCann is completely involved in production. “I make all the ice cream now,” he said.

McCann leverages his college background in marketing and entrepreneurship to feature Ohio’s dairy farmers on the Round Hill website. “I had to be different in Knox County,” he said. “One thing I really wanted to focus on was supporting the great state I grew up in. Putting an image to it for the consumers that way, when they’re eating that ice cream, they can go on and read about the farms that we’re acquiring our milk from.”

Local farmers don’t supply dairy mix directly to Round Hill Dairy. They contract with two in-state dairies.

Round Hill’s dairy mix is supplied primarily through ARP’s Dairy in Defiance, Ohio, and Borden Dairy in Cleveland. By leveraging their suppliers, McCann has eliminated the need for on-site pasteurization. The mix comes pre-blended to Round Hill Dairy’s exact specifications, streamlining the process.

While the milk comes from northern Ohio, other ingredients are sourced nationally. “A lot of our key ingredients in terms of fruit purees come from I.Rice & Co. because it’s a true fruit puree,” McCann said. Using processed purees, which come sealed in shelf-stable cans, solves the logistical challenge of Ohio’s short growing season. “Fresh fruits and stuff in Ohio are very seasonal,” he said. Additionally, he ensures that all packaging, including pints and quarts, is sourced from the United States.

Despite the success of Round Hill Dairy, McCann intends to maintain his tireless schedule. “As long as I can keep delivering a good product to my customers with quality service, I want to keep doing so as long as I can,” he said about his career in sales. “The farming thing, as long as there’s not pressure in our area in terms of real estate development, I want to do it as long as I can, too.”

However, his primary vision for the future of Round Hill Dairy is to shift the ice cream business back toward retail by adding additional storefronts and reducing reliance on wholesale. “I’d love to go all over the state of Ohio and then just kind of see where it can self-sustain itself, not push it too far – just kind of see what the market can bear and see how we can serve other communities,” he said.