Anyone have experience raising and selling Christmas Trees to the public?

[ultrarunner]

Part of the old Homestead my brother bought this year is in You Cut Christmas Trees...

The trees have been somewhat neglected since the previous owner passed compounded by the California Drought.

Brother decided to give it a try, partly so the special use permit would continue.

Hope it works out since he needed special insurance, county business license, tax id, workers comp, etc...

Between the live trees and 1000+ cut trees he is going all in...

Just curious if it makes any sense in this economic climate and with Home Depot advertising cut trees for $20?

 

[smstonypoint]

Ag. economics departments at several land-grants publish enterprise budgets for Christmas trees. Budgets for Oregon can be found at Budgets :: Oregon Agricultural Enterprise Budgets, Oregon State University. The budgets are for 2009 and would need to be modified to reflect current prices and the particulars of your brother's situation.

Steve

 

[MossRoad]

Check with the county extension agent. They are surprisingly helpful with suggestions and knowledge. They know about these things.

 

[ultrarunner]

Thanks guys....

 

[MossRoad]

Around here, Christmas tree farms are considered agricultural. That's why the extension agents are so helpful. They can tell you your soil types, what species of trees will do well in those soils, water needs, pest and disease issues in your area, where to purchase stock, where to hire labor (them things need trimming and its a hands-on labor intensive job), etc... And, the beauty of the extension agent is.... drum roll please...... his/her services are free!

Back in 1989 we bought some farm land and had it reforested with alternating rows of pines and mixed hardwoods. We got into a reimbursement program due to our highly erodible soils and they reimbursed us for 75% of the cost of the trees and planting. All we had to do was spray or mow between the rows for 5 years, then we could mow the trees down, for all they cared. Now, 25 years later, we have a nice forest with 40' pines and nice, straight, 50' plus hardwoods poking out above them. Kids can sell them for veneer timber or just keep a nice forest. Total cost to us for 2150 trees planted and side sprayed worked out to five cents per tree.

Christmas trees, however, were not allowed in the soil conservation program. They are a crop of sorts. There are, however, in some locations, government soil stabilization programs that allow Christmas trees. It never hurts to look. Just don't lock into any programs until you know all the details. The extension agents know about those programs, too. Wildilfe plots on the edges of a Christmas tree farm put into reserve can sometimes lower property taxes enough to offset the cost of operations considerably.

Good luck to your brother! :thumbsup:

 

[fishheadbob]

You can't compete directly with HD or Walmart when they're selling trees and wreaths as a loss leader. A few years back I knew a guy who sold a few thousand trees to HD for $19, a great wholesale price. Home Depot trucked them out, distributed them, then sold them for $21.95 .
It's possible to make money in Christmas trees but your relative has to push that his trees are fresher, locally grown, help the small businessman, etc. Trying to beat the big box prices is suicide.

 

[Baby Grand]

Do a little research on organic Christmas trees - I kid you not. A premium crop that the big boxes won't touch might be what your brother needs to differentiate himself (and charge a little more). May take a few years to certify organic.

 

[Fossil Farm]

Thousands of landowners started raising Christmas trees in the late '60's and '70's. Prices are not as lucrative as once thought they would be. Also depends on what trees you are trying to sell. Firs are more in demand around here than scotch pines or white pines. You have to know what your clients want. Of course it takes 10 years to grow a tree, so trends come and go. There is a lot of work in pruning, shaping Christmas trees. Hope your brother is up for it.

You must be careful with cut-your-own. Client cuts one tree, finds a better one, leaves tree one behind. Since the trees are overgrown, he may want to check with landscapers to see what they are looking for and are willing to pay. That may be a better outlet than cut-your-own for a few years. Of course that would be balled and burlapped, so there would be costs in filling in the holes with topsoil. Good luck.

 

[DrRod]

I started growing Christmas trees about 15 years ago and to be honest I don't recommend it [except to grow a few for your own use].

1st - you need to make sure you have a market. Most resellers [including small guys like fruit stands] have long running relationships with big growers. It takes a lot of legwork starting in June to find someone to buy a truckload of trees.

2nd - choose and cut is a whole other business. You need parking, point of sale equipment, usually a Santa and even some reindeer, hot cider, et al. And lots of liability insurance.

3rd - bag and ball requires a special attachment for your tractor, figure $5,000, and again legwork to find a market.

4th - my biggest surprise in the whole thing was that I had to be chemist and a mechanic. You need to understand fertilizer, fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides -- and none of this stuff comes cheap when you are covering acres.

5th - you will need machinery like mowers, brush hogs, shearers, sprayers, and saws -- and none of this stuff comes cheap. Plus you have to maintain it all unless you live very close to a shop.

6th - you can make money if you do all the labor yourself but after all the other expenses, labor will be the killer. And its hard to find people who know what they are doing in mowing, spraying, and [most of all] shearing.

I sold a few small truck loads around Washington, DC and made some money. And then I sold them on a contingent basis at a large chainsaw dealer's in PA and made some money but in the hundreds, not thousands. Certainly not enough to pay for all the machinery and inputs. So I now treat it as an unreasonable hobby and cut some for friends and family. And it makes for a very nice looking field.

Hope this helps.

 

[dmccarty]

The NC Extension office has documents on XMAS tree growing and selling. I thought about it but after looking at our location and its ability to grow in demand trees, the time requirement, as well as money inputs, I decided I had better things to do. :laughing:

I would think the only way to make money is to go big and have hundreds of acres in production or go small and local where people come out and pick a tree. We would have done the latter, and with some advertising, it might have made money. One of my coworkers goes and picks a tree every year and she is going today to do so. The family picks the tree but the tree farmer cuts the tree. No way would I allow people to cut their own tree due to damage and liability.

XMAS tree farming is big business in the NC mountains. I was on a trip last spring in the mountains and went through an area that was full of XMAS tree farms. I don't think those farms were there in the 90's when I was last up there. Raising XMAS trees is alot of work since you have to trim the trees on a regular basis.

Start with the extension office and then see if there is a state XMAS tree organization to get more help. Seems like there is/was such a group in NC when I looked at this 15ish years ago.

Later,
Dan