His decision follows concerns expressed by umpires about the legality of his action this season.
That concern prompted Beard to get biometric testing at the ICC-accredited facility in Brisbane, where testing revealed his elbow exceeded the allowed 15 degrees of tolerance.
The 25-year-old has not been banned but has elected to stand down to undergo remedial work.
Beard, who is 12th man for Otago in its Plunket Shield game against Canterbury in Rangiora this week, was not available for comment yesterday but Otago Cricket Association chief executive Ross Dykes said Beard was understandably worried for his playing future.
''He is a pretty pragmatic young man but I think this would affect anybody,'' Dykes said.
''Naturally, he is having a little bit of difficulty coping with it. But he is a really sensible young man and he knows if he wants to keep playing cricket ... then he has to work on his action.''
New Zealand Cricket spin-bowling coach Paul Wiseman, who worked with Kane Williamson to remodel his action, will be available to assist Beard make the necessary changes.
''It is not something that is going to happen overnight. But if Kane was able to do it in four months, then maybe that is a realistic time frame,'' Dykes said.
That time frame will rule out Beard for the remainder of the summer.
For seasoned cricket spectators, the revelation Beard has been chucking will probably not come as a great shock.
''I don't know that his action has materially or visibly changed over the last four or five years,'' Dykes responded when asked whether Beard's action has deteriorated as a result of playing twenty20 cricket.
''But it is a bit like anything. When it becomes familiar, you perhaps don't notice changes. I just think it is something we are all more aware of now than we used to be.''
NZC head of cricket Lindsay Crocker acknowledged there had been a push to clamp down on illegal actions.
''I think it is fair to say that,'' Crocker said.
''Internationally there has been a push and we've followed that lead, really.''
''Most of it will be done away from the public eye. We go through this process of taking the player aside quietly and promoting a voluntary process, rather than this semi-draconian measure of standing back, reporting them and then banning them.''
Crocker accepted criticism NZC had been slow to act in regard to Beard's action and had not been as proactive when it came to policing suspect actions as it would like.
''I guess there is a heightened vigilance now and you are right to wonder why we didn't do it early. That's perfectly reasonable.
''To take that a bit further, what we will do this year is to observe age group cricket and those emerging players ... If they find something as worthy of some scrutiny, then we'll advise those players early, so at least they'll have an opportunity then to remodel before they get as far with it.
''Ideally, we want those things to be detected far earlier. It is probably an area of the game that has been left ... but it is good to see there has been a clamp down now.''
Beard might not be the last player this summer to be found to have an illegal action. Crocker revealed another player had been tested and was awaiting results.
