82-Lancasttr Farming, Saturday, March 22,1986
Kling family stands on (bur generations of commitment to farming
BY MARGIE FUSCO
Staff Correspondent
WEST MILTON - Fanning is a
strong tradition in the Kling
family. Duane Kling, 23, and his
brothers Scott, 22, and Andy, 16,
are the fourth generation to farm
the land around West Milton and
New Columbia, Union County.
Duane, immediate past
president of the Mifflinburg Young
Farmers Association, was named
the regional Outstanding Young
Farmer Under 30 at the Penn
sylvania Young Farmers winter
convention. He was also honored
as the Mifflinburg Area Jaycees’
Outstanding Young Farmer of the
Year.
Duane sees his honors as just
part of a four-generation com
mitment to farming. “We’re a
family,” he says. “We’ve learned
how to work together and we’ve
had some excellent teachers in our
dad and grandfather.”
The Kling tradition began with
Duane’s great-grandfather, who
purchased land on Nittany
Mountain and later moved into
West Milton, where he opened
Sunnyside Dairy. Duane’s grand
father, J. Ward Kling, bought land
in Lewisburg R.D. 3, not far from
West Milton. Today, Ward, age 75,
works that farm with his son
Richard.
When Duane and his wife, Cathy,
started their family, Richard
added a piece of bottomland to the
family holdings. He purchased a
New Columbia farm located under
the Interstate 80 roadway near the
banks of the West Branch of the
Susquehanna River.
“What we’ve got is a good
balance of land,” Duane notes.
“The New Columbia farm has good
spots and because of the drainage
it does well in drought. The
Lewisburg R.D. 3 farm is dif-
The Duane Kling family: Duane, Trent, Cathy and Katrina
. i ♦
Four generations of Klings have made their living by farming. Representing those
generations are, from left, J. Ward, great grandfather; Richard, grandfather; Scott and
ferent; it can handle wet weather
just fine. With our acreage about
equally divided, we spread the risk
and it seems to work well.”
Spreading the risk seems to be
the pattern for the current Kling
operation. Each member pursues
specific interests, to the advantage
of everyone. “We each have dif
ferent interests,” Richard says.
“It works because we adjust to
each other.”
Richard concentrates on the
poultry operation. Son Scott has
followed his lead, studying poultry
technology at Penn State. Richard
and Ward raise turkeys and
chickens, starting 8,800 turkeys
and 17,000 to 18,000 roasting
chickens at a time. Scott keeps his
own flock of chickens, raising
about 10,000 at a time which he
keeps at his aunt’s farm in West
Milton.
Duane’s interests complement,
the others. He raises about 900
hogs a year on contract, manages
his father’s beef heifers, does
much of the equipment repair
work, and most of all is in charge
of the family’s 400 tillable acres.
“Each of my boys is different,”
Richard explains. “And I try to
respect those differences.”
Although Scott has enjoyed
college. Duane didn’t find it to his
liking. He attended Penn State for
a semester in agricultural
engineering. “1 enjoyed what I
learned,” he recalls. “But I
wanted to be doing something
more. I’d sit in the classroom and
I’d start thinking about all the field
work I could be doing instead. I got
pretty restless.”
Duane returned to the farm, but
notes that leaving college didn’t
mean he ended his education. “We
keep up with things here, and we
try to make the right decisions. We
try to follow new techniques and
1
Cathy and Trent Kling work in the newly renovated kitchen of their farmhouse
jn
keep what works for us.”
He works with fertilizer and feed
companies and maintains test
plots. Duane has been cautious,
however, about adopting a single
best farming method. “We don’t go
out on the bandwagon for
something. For example, we do
some no-till, but we don’t use it
everywhere because it isn’t right
for every kind of soil. We still use
our chisel drill and moldboard
plow, because sometimes the
situation is right for them.”
Although it’s Duane who makes
the crop decisions, he still con
siders it a joint effort, which is part
of the family’s cooperative spirit.
In working together, Richard
notes, they’ve had to leam to give
and take. “I may be his father, but
I don’t know that much about
crops. If I want to know something,
I ask Duane,” he says. “When
we’re out in the fields, Duane is the
boss. When we’re in the poultry
barns, he’s the helper. Of course
nothing ever runs perfectly
smoothly. We don’t always agree.
But we know how to cooperate and
get the job done well."
When Richard speaks of his
family, he’s not stopping with his
sons. Duane and Cathy have a son
Trent, age 3, and a daughter,
Katrina, 1. When Duane and Cathy
aren’t at the main farm, they’re
very busy on their New Columbia
property. The farm includes a
large home that dates back to at
least 1837 (as far back as Union
County records go).
Cathy, an admitted town girl,
says she used to tell herself she’d
never do like her sister and marry
a farmer. But one evening at a
local roller rink she met a young
man who belonged to the same
church she did. It didn’t take long
before she knew she was about to
become a farm wife.
r
<> I
. ...
Duane Kling was recently named regional Outstanding
Young Farmer Under 30 by the Pennsylvania Farmer's
Association.
Now she and Duane are using
what spare time they can find to
renovate the New Columbia far
mhouse. They’ve gutted the first
floor, built new walls, and put in a
modern kitchen and bathroom.
Now they’re working on the front
rooms. “With five bedrooms up
stairs, we’ve got a lot ahead of us,”
Cathy admits as she talks about
plans for the summer.
“Now that they’re grown, I've
given the boys the option of going
away. I’m amazed that they’ve
come back and wanted to work the
farm.”
He shouldn’t be so amazed.
Richard and his sons are an ex
tension of the spirit that underlie)
fanning. As Trent and Katrina will
soon find out, they’re supported by
four generations of positive at
titudes about farming.
As Duane notes, “Farming >*
still all I ever wanted to do, and ill
have anything to say about it, I’®
going to go on farming the rest«
Richard, watching Trent and my life.”
There’s a lot ahead for all of the
Klings. Richard had a few
moments to reflect on the future on
a recent Monday afternoon. Duane
and Scott were busy testing their
newest purchase, a portable
welder. Ward took time out from
the bam to join Richard in looking
for the truck that was on its way to
disinfect the poultry bams. Ward
mentioned news about more farms
failing out west, and Richard noted
that the avian flu was getting close
enough to make him uneasy. But
the Klings don’t concentrate long
on negative things.
wtnesiead
tMotfiS
tr
p*.
;
Katrina in the barnyard, recalls,
“When he was learning to tails,
Scott spent so much time in the
henhouse that he used to cluck like
a chicken instead of saying words.
And when Duane was in first or
second grade and he was supposed
to count he said 30, 60, 90,
120... because that’s how he heard
his mount count eggs on a flat.”
Richard smiles and continues,
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