Farmer Bill Kline has planted his last corn crop in Adams. Sometime this winter, he and his wife, Wilda, plan to move their dairy herd out of fast-growing Butler County to Mercer County, where their daughter and her husband run a farm.
As is their tradition, the Klines were showing the best of their brown-and-white Ayrshires at the Big Butler Fair. The annual July event also offered an opportunity to talk business and to socialize with friends and neighbors.
"I hear you are getting out of farming," one neighbor said to him.
That wasn't strictly true, Kline, 69, told her. His plan is to become semiretired. "They'll do most of the work now," he said of his daughter and her husband.
The son of a farmer, Kline has worked the soil all his life, raising hay, corn and oats on 150 acres to feed his 60 cows.
In conversations with farmers, former farmers and future farmers at the Big Butler Fair this month, a few themes kept coming through:
Almost everyone farming now has grown up on a farm.
Full-time farming has become rare. More and more operators hold full-time jobs off the farm to help pay the bills.
While many of the children and grandchildren of today's farmers remain interested in agricultural careers, few expect to make a living on the farm. Most say they are likely to seek education in another field.
The mismatch between stagnant farm prices and rising costs for land, hired labor, equipment and supplies creates never-ending pressure to increase productivity. That has boosted the importance of family labor at the same time that some young people living on farms want to devote more of their leisure time to sports and school activities.
Farming families
July has been a good month for the family of farmer Harold Dunn.
His daughter, Rebekah, 18, won blue ribbons for raising both the grand champion lamb and grand champion hog in the 4-H competition at the fair. Her brother, Harold Jr., 17, had the reserve champion, or second-place, hog.
Daughters Kati, 21, and Meghann, 20, also raised and showed livestock before they went off to college.
"I think they all would like to continue living in rural locations," Harold Dunn said of his children.
But he's not sure any will be farmers.
For himself, he fashioned an unusual compromise. Growing up on a farm in Butler County, he studied agriculture at Penn State University, taught the subject for seven years and then moved into school administration.
After earning a bachelor's, a master's and a doctoral degree from Penn State, he is principal of Laurel Junior-Senior High School in Lawrence County.
At the same time, he has continued to operate Whippoorwill Farm on 63 acres in Connoquenessing Township.
"Farming is a great outlet," he said. "I can get away from all the school hubbub. There is nothing better to console me at the end of a hard day."
Prices paid to farmers for meat, milk and field crops have been strong in recent months, he said, but they also reflect how tough business has been for a generation. With crossbred hogs fetching about 60 cents a pound and Hampshire lambs going for $1.05 per pound, farmers are getting close to the same prices they were paid 20 years ago, he said.
If those prices had kept up with inflation, hog prices would be $1.04 a pound and lamb prices would be $1.82.
Technology and traditional low-cost family labor have helped small farmers stay competitive, Dunn said, but they can't count on that source forever. "We have lots of farm kids who see their buddies playing Little League or getting involved with other activities," he said. "They want to do more of those things, too."
Harold Kennedy tends to more than 200 acres in Adams called Hills of Home Farm with his sons, Dale and Robert, and son-in-law, Craig Edwards.
Kennedy, 66, grew up on a farm, but for much of his life, he had to combine his agricultural efforts with a full-time job at North Pittsburgh Telephone Co.
"All three of them also have other jobs to support their real lives," he said of his sons and son-in-law.
As for farming, "I've loved it since I was a boy," he said. "Money was not the most important thing."
He hopes that at least some of his grandchildren will consider farm-related careers. "It's important that they know how food is raised," he said.
His granddaughter, Whitney Edwards, 16, was among the members of the Butler County 4-H Livestock Club showing animals at the fair. Her entries this year were a steer named Rodeo and a heifer named Viola. This year marks her second year showing cattle, and she has had seven years' experience raising pigs.
Edwards said she has her work cut out for her before the Butler Farm Show next month in Connoquenessing Township, which offers 4-H-ers another opportunity to compete for ribbons and earn bragging rights. Now 11 months old, Rodeo was up to 1,345 pounds. Since he has been gaining about 2 pounds per day, that would put him above the 1,400-pound limit for farm show competition, she said.
So in addition to seeing that he is fed and watered, Edwards will have to exercise him, walking him about a mile every day. "The judges want to see muscle up there on the loin," she said, pointing to the area below her steer's backbone.
Participation in Livestock Club competitions has given her a chance to meet other young people, she said, and it also has given her insight into the economics of modern farming.
For example, it cost more to feed the steer she raised last year than she received when the animal was sold for slaughter, she said. But if Rodeo does well in competition at the farm show this year, he should draw a higher auction price and Edwards can hope for a profit.
Although she plans to maintain her links to agriculture, she is looking elsewhere for a career. "I want to be a nurse," she said.
Fading future
Showing animals in 4-H competition more than 30 years ago sparked Dave Zattiero's interest in farming. Since 1973, he has been a dairy farmer in Adams, raising corn, hay and oats to feed his herd of 70 Guernseys, which now includes 40 milkers.
"I like being outside and I like being my own boss," Zattiero said. Now a full-time farmer, he drove a bus for 11 years to help ends meet.
While he is glad that milk prices have been rising, he predicted they will not stay up very long. But the bigger problem he faces is trying to do business in a township where farms are being replaced by housing plans, he said.
The population of Adams grew 73 percent from 3,911 in 1990 to 6,774 in 2000, according to the U.S. Census. That number continues to grow, rising by another 12 percent to an estimated 7,604 by July 2003.
"No doubt about it, farming is fading out in Adams," Zattiero said. "[Land] rents are rising and traffic is bad." If current trends continue, he predicted, he will have to relocate within a decade.
His niece and nephew, Nicole and Nathan Boyle, of Forward, both have shown diary cows but neither plans a career in farming. Nicole plans to become a veterinarian, and Nathan plans to be a teacher.
"I think most farm kids would like to farm. But most realize they won't be able to do it in this area," he said.
"In another few years, my 10 acres will be the biggest farm in Adams," said Jill Beidl-Shimkus, only half joking. She makes her living as a blacksmith, a job that allows her to pursue her avocation: breeding, raising and showing Belgian draft horses.
"Shoeing horses is my business," she said. "Horses are my love."
Assuming her back holds up for the next eight years or so, she plans to maintain both of her businesses from Pineridge Farm in Adams. Looking further into the future, she said she may eventually relocate with her gentle brown giants to wider, less expensive open spaces in the north.
The Big Butler Fair will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year, and farmer L.B. Roenigk, 88, figures he has attended more than half of them.
Helped by children and grandchildren, all of whom have other jobs, he and his wife still raise beef cattle and horses on their farm in Buffalo Township.
Recalling how he learned to drive a team of horses at age 7, Roenigk said, "It was a great way of life. But the little guy has a hard time of it now."
First Published: July 18, 2004, 4:00 a.m.