The Farmer today

​​​Their 4 grown-up sons, Jason, Leif, Spencer, and Baby Miles, also invite you to read The Farmer's Wife. Learn what transpires when boys grow up working on a dairy farm.

Cline B. Hamrick was a native of Grassy Pond, South Carolina. The son of a dairy farmer and a piano teacher, he grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. After graduation from Gardner-Webb Junior College, he earned a degree in dairy science from NC State University and began a career at the university as a dairy specialist.  Once he found a wife, he decided the time had come to go home to farm…What he did not foresee was that this agricultural decision would turn him into weekly column fodder. 

about the farmer 

1986 

Kathryn Hamrick

With their four sons, the Hamricks operated a family dairy farm for 16 years, 1970-1986, until the dairy farm crisis, caused by a national surplus of milk, forced them out of dairying and into “real” jobs.  Kathryn retired in 2013 after 25 years with a major financial services firm. Cline operates a horse and carriage service.

Update:  Following a courageous and stubborn battle with a rare brain disease, Cline died in 2022.