Farms offer more than Christmas trees

A holiday experience aim of some state growers

Carey Smith and his daughter, Emmy Smith, 4, of Little Rock pull a Christmas tree toward their car at Motley’s Christmas Tree Farm in Little Rock, with Carey Smith’s mother, Judy Parker of Malvern, following.
Carey Smith and his daughter, Emmy Smith, 4, of Little Rock pull a Christmas tree toward their car at Motley’s Christmas Tree Farm in Little Rock, with Carey Smith’s mother, Judy Parker of Malvern, following.

— Despite a drought and blazing hot summer, Arkansas Christmas tree farms are anticipating a busy season with many offering added services to attract customers.

“I’ll sell about 70 percent of my trees on the first two weekends of December,” said Randy Motley, owner of Motleys Christmas Tree Farm in Little Rock.

At Motley’s, it’s not just about saws and sap.

He describes his operation as “agritourism” rather than the traditional cut-your-own tree operation. Folks can take hayrides out to cut the trees or watch pig races or pet farm animals. Motley’s sells ornaments, snacks, and makes and sells about 180 pounds of fudge each weekend.

His trees did well this year despite the drought, the worst in decades, and the record high temperatures that hit the state over the summer months.

“It was a tough year,” Motley said, “but we irrigate.”

James Geisler, president of the Arkansas Christmas Tree Grower’s Association, said the drought will have an impact on Arkansas Christmas trees down the road. The association provides continuing education for its members and promotes their products.

Geisler said increased seedling mortality this summer will mean fewer locally grown Christmas trees about six years from now, the typical time it takes a tree to mature. In the interim, trees will be somewhat smaller since they lost a lot a summer of growth. Overall, he said, the impact from the drought will be manageable.

The Arkansas Tree Growers association lists 13 “choose ’n’ cut” Christmas tree farms in the state. Geisler said most use the agritourism model.

Agritourism allows farmers to diversify and generate additional income by drawing visitors. Marketing directly to customers increases profits by cutting out the middleman.

Stacey McCullough, an instructor in community and economic development for the University of Arkansas System Agriculture Division, said agritourism operations like the Christmas-tree farms succeed because they engage consumers at the farm site and meet the desire to return to simpler things.

“It makes a vital connection and builds the buyer-seller relationship,” she said.

Motley has been in the Christmas-tree business for 30 years but decided to create a broader customer experience six years ago when he opened his pumpkin-patch operation and realized the same plan could work for his trees.

He expects to sell 2,500 to 3,000 trees this year, about evenly split between trees grown and cut on-site and varieties that can’t be grown in Arkansas that are trucked in for sale. The farm offers nine varieties of trees starting at $6 per foot, according to its website.

As at many such farms, the trees are shaken, netted and loaded for customers. Motley’s also sells live trees in containers.

According to an annual consumer tracking poll by Harris Interactive on behalf of the National Christmas Tree Association, 30.8 million “real” Christmas trees were purchased in 2011, up from 27 million in 2010. Total value of real-tree sales was $1.07 billion in 2011.

For 2011, $9.5 million was spent on artificial trees, up from $8.2 million from a year earlier, according to the poll.

The National Christmas Tree Association has more than 700 active member farms in 29 states, and includes more than 4,000 affiliated businesses.

According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, which is released every five years, Arkansas ranked 39th in the nation by total acreage in Christmas trees, with 562.

States that primarily cut and ship trees have far bigger op- erations. Oregon led the nation with 66,816 acres and Michigan places second with 41,954.

Rick Dungey, public-relations manager for the National Christmas Tree Association, said the “choose and harvest” segment is the largest in the industry, with an association poll showing 31 percent of people purchased their trees at a choose-andcut farm in 2011.

“What they sell is the experience. They offer memories and the activities of a fun, family day at the farm,” he said.

According to the association’s poll, 16 percent of people who bought a tree made the purchase at a chain store such as Home Depot or Wal-Mart; 15 percent at a nursery or garden center; and 14 percent at a retail lot. Another 13 percent bought trees from a nonprofit group.

Home Depot, the nation’s largest seller of fresh-cut Christmas trees, markets trees online as well as at stores.

The company offers Frazier Fir trees ranging from $99 to $199, based on height. The trees are shipped to the customer’s door at no extra charge. Each tree is shipped within 24 hours of cutting to ensure freshness, said Mandy Hunsicker, a company spokesman.

Home Depot sold 2 million fresh-cut trees last year and expects to sell 2.5 million this year, she said.

The National Christmas Tree Association’s Dungey said the success Home Depot has had selling convenience, and the success of the chooseand-cut operations in selling an experience, shows that the industry is becoming savvy.

“Businesses have to figure out what type of customer they’re going after,” he said.

Geisler of the Arkansas Christmas Tree Grower’s Association also runs Geisler’s Holiday Forest Christmas Tree Farm in Jacksonville. Things are going well at his operation, he said, with sales trending a little bit ahead of the same time last year. He expects to sell all of the 250 mature trees he grew on his 10-acre farm.

The Geisler farm also offers hayrides and spiced-tea to its customers.

One of the strengths of the agribusiness model is repeat customers. Some of his customers have been buying trees from him since he opened his farm in the 1980s.

“You build a rapport with your customers,” Geisler said.

Business, Pages 65 on 12/09/2012

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