Meet Kevin Klink
Kevin Klink looks back at the twenty plus years he has been farming, realizing he could have missed it all.
Klink raises registered Polled Herefords. Some are sold as show animals, others the family of four exhibit across the state. They sell feeders, finished cattle, and some custom freezer beef. They also raise their own feed along with cash crops. It’s the life they have always wanted to lead.
At 26, Klink suffered a massive heart attack, leaving him with less than half of a normal heart’s functional capacity. He wears down quickly and has little stamina.
He knew about Michigan AgrAbility for years but didn’t really feel like the guy who was disabled. “I don’t like to hear it, I don’t like to refer to myself that way,” he said. “I never was looking for a handout and didn’t really anticipate the level of support and help I received through AgrAbility.”
“This truly is a family project,” he said. “We show cattle with the entire family, and we enjoy it,” he explained during a recent trip with both cattle and family to exhibit at a show. Any shows the family attends include a long drive from their Upper Peninsula based farm in the Garden Peninsula.
After an assessment by AgrAbility’s Ned Stoller, Michigan Rehabilitation Services stepped in to help finance Stoller’s recommendations including a portable cattle corral, grain bin lid openers, a mini skid loader for cleaning individual pens and driving through pasture gates.
“There is as much an emotional side as a physical side to the equipment that came through this process,” Klink said. “It has eased up things for my family and I don’t have to worry about them or myself falling and getting hurt while we are handling cattle. The OK corral system is portable, heavy duty, and works great wherever we need to be. I don’t have to worry about a cow crashing over lightweight gates and someone getting hurt.”
“Ned explains everything so completely, and all the items were delivered right here,” he added. “AgrAbility most definitely helps farmers farm.”