812-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, February 6, 1988
The Kellers Believe
Nothing Brings Togetherness Like The Family Farm
BY LOU ANN GOOD
LITITZ While many fanners
lament that their sons don’t want to
continue fanning, LLoyd and
Eunice Keller have a different
story. Their three sons possess the
same love for the soil as their
father and are continuing the farm
ing tradition.
Their oldest son Bob took over
the family farm and Lloyd and
Eunice help out. Bob and Lois with
their children Karen, 11; Cynthia,
9; Sheri, 6; and Stephania 22
months, farm 23S acres; raise 400
steers and 68,000 layer hens.
Probably nobody believes in the
advantages of the family farm
mote than the Kellers do. Bob
says, “All I ever wanted to do was
farm.” He believes his parents
made farming enticing by encour
aging him and his siblings to have
agricultural projects. Then, too, he
recalls that chores like picking
peas were fun when interspersed
with playing family pranks and
singing ditties like “I’ve been
working in the pea patch all the
live long day.”
As the family expanded through
marriage and grandchildren,
Eunice faithfully planted ten
pounds of peas each year. Then
their children returned with their
spouses and offspring to harvest
the peas. “I’m sure passerbys
thought we had a bunch of migrant
workers picking our peas,” Eunice
says of the pea patch
pandemonium.
Ocassions like these bring
laughter and happy memories to
the Kellers who stress that family
farming encourages better com
munication and togetherness.
Small farmers, they believe, have a
quality of independence that other
businesses lack.
Yet, Bob sees that independence
which farmers cherished for
decades fast eroding. “Many far
mers are dependent on working for
feedmills or businesses that hold
their contracts.” Of greater con
cern to Bob is the government susi
dies and policies that he feels are
making the farmer dependent on
the government. Pressures of
finance and the pursuit of afflu
ence he believes has caused many
fanners to take advantage of gov
ernment funded programs. He
said, “Independent farmers today
must be committed to principals
and take another look at borrowing
practices.”
Twenty-two month-old Stephanie Is the Kellers’ miracle
baby. Lois who was diagnosed with having Hodgkin’s Dis
ease needed to undergo extensive chemotherapy. Conse
quently, doctors did not think it possible for Lois to have a
healthy baby. The Kellers expect another baby In July.
LLoyd would like to see more
young fellows tackle farming. At
the same time he realizes the debt
load required is overwhelming.
“Our sons don’t want to carry the
debt load that we did only a gener
ation ago,” he said. Then the eco
nomy was on the upswing for the
farmer. Banks encouraged lend
ing. But this decade with its fluc
tuating interest rates have taken
their toil on the industrious farmer.
The risk of borrowing blankets the
idealistic dreams of being close to
the land and tending livestock. So
potential farmers turn away, not
willing to take the risk.
Lloyd wishes things were
different—that today’s youth
could look forward to taking over
the family farm. He questions,
“Are we improving our farms so
much by increasing their values
that they can’t afford to buy
them?”
He sees another detriment to the
small independent farmer. He said,
“Big operations hurt the family
farm. We can’t compete with the
price breaks that egg and feed
companies give big operations.”
At one time, Lloyd considered
expanding his farm so that it could
employ his three sons and their
families. He took the first step and
built a second chicken house. He
planned to diversify by adding a
pig operation. “But I didn’t feel
comfortable continuing the expan
sion,” he said. “By becoming big
we lose 100 much of what we
wanted in the first place. We lose
that quality of independence of
having more time and less pres
sure, because the bigger you get.
\ ♦
Lloyd Keller
The Keller clan values the family togetherness that farming allows them. What other
occupation would allow them to take an afternoon break when the children return
home from school? From left, Lois, Karen, Sheri, Bob, Cynthia, and grandparents
Eunice and Lloyd.
the more pressure and that reflects
upon family life. Then too, the
more heads there are in a corpora
tion, the more opinions there are to
cause dissention.”
LLoyd didn’t want that. Yet, he
felt responsible to help his sons
realize their dream to continue
farming. The Kellers discovered
that buying separate operations
and helping each other with
machinery and chores works best.
Despite the high value of his
land, Lloyd said, “I’ve never been
tempted to sell building lots to
maintain the family farm. The
blessings, benefits and advantages
of the small family farm outweigh
the dollars of selling.”
Both father and son reinterate,
We’d rather not get bigger;
instead, we want to do better with
what we have and spend more time
together as a family.”
Lloyd reflects on his chosen
vocation with pleasure. “Farmers
have more sensitivity to creation
and more opportunity to thank God
and worship. Sometimes when we
pay service people to repair
machinery, we’re tempted to think
we have the wrong job. The
inequality of the middleman gets
higher and higher margins than
production.”
The most frustrating conflict is
the debt load, climbing interests
rates and trying to make ends meet.
Dealing with those issues are more
stress provoking than unpredict
able weather. Lloyd said, “If we
have a dry year, we turn around,
plant again and anticipate a better
year because God promises that
seedtime and harvest will continue
until the end of the world.”
Bob agreed and added, “We
question how much longer the
market will remain depressed.”
But Bob, who the family labels as
an optimist, believes that farmers
eventually will see rising prices.
He said, “It’s always been that way
before.”
The Kellers also believe specu
lation has caused greater swings in
market commodities. “Supply and
demands are not always ruling
markets, but demands that merely
appear on paper,” Bob said.
Both Eunice and Lois find
machine breakage frustrating.
Eunice believes that automation
causes more stress for farming
than the years when chores were
manually completed.
“The farm Is a good place for children to learn to accept
responsibility,” Bob Keller said. His wife Lois and daught
ers (left) Karen, and Cynthia take care of egg packing each
afternoon.
Lois inserted, “If you want to go
away, you can’t leave because
something is broken.”
Fanning isn’t the only demand
ing occupation the Kellers have.
Lloyd is a deacon in the Mennonite
Church and Bob is a minister.
“Scedules are pressing and it is a
luxury to stay home,” Eunice
admitted. “We hate to say no to
requests.”
Because schedules are more
pressing today than earlier
decades, Bob feels that it is more
important to take vacations than
Lois Keller
years ago. They are grateful that
they have the opportunity since his
father and mother can run the farm
smoothly.
Things aren’t perfect on the
farming scene, but Bob said,
“Although things are less than ide
al, we live in the perspective of the
next life. We know not all injus
tices will be taken care of in this
life.”
In the meantime, the Kellers
plan to continue working on the
family farm where nothing brings
togetherness like the family farm.
Bob Keller