Activity at the Carlton dairy farm near Rockmart, Georgia, picks up considerably in the fall, and it’s not just because of harvest. In late September, visitors start streaming onto the farm to wander through the farm’s five-acre corn maze and take home a pumpkin for Halloween. This will be the 11th season for the farm’s pumpkin patch and corn maze. “We have people who have been out here every year for the past 10 years,” said Brad Carlton, who runs the farm with his father Bobby.

“We know some of these families by name when they show up. It’s a family tradition for them to come out, and that makes us feel good. It makes us feel that we are doing a good job, that people enjoy coming out,” he said.

The Carlton family has been farming since 1919 and started milking cows in 1946. Today they milk about 70 Jersey cows. They own 120 acres and lease another 200 to 300 acres every year. Most of the farm is in hay and corn.

The revenue generated from the corn maze, pumpkin sales and farm tours helps to supplement their milk check.

Dairy operators who have taken the plunge into agritourism say it takes time to develop a profitable business. Issues such as parking, signage and crowd management must be taken into account and planned out well in advance.

“Start small. You aren’t going to get tens of thousands of visitors overnight,” Carlton advised.

The Carlton family started by offering a simple hayride and gradually added features as the turnouts increased. With school tours, they probably had 4,000 to 5,000 visitors last year, Carlton estimated.

The Carltons plant two to three acres of pumpkins each year and that’s usually enough to meet about 40 percent of their total needs. They purchase about a tractor-trailer load of pre-picked pumpkins from other growers to make up the difference.

Their own pumpkin patch usually includes drip irrigation and a plastic weed barrier. They built a special planter that punches a hole through the plastic and into the soil but requires workers seated on the back to drop the seed into place.

“It’s an interesting apparatus, but it works,” Carlton said.

There’s no charge to get onto the Carlton farm, but visitors pay separately for their pumpkins, the corn maze and farm tour. Last year, the Carltons charged 45 cents per pound for the pumpkins.

Other operators charge an admission fee that usually includes a pumpkin for each child and all related activities that may include hay rides or a corn maze.

At Oma’s Pumpkin Patch in Lakeside, California, the $8-per-child admission fee includes a pumpkin, a bottle of water and access to all activities including a hay bale maze and hay rides. The farm, owned and operated by the Van Ommering family, is just 25 miles east of San Diego, a sprawling urban area with about three million people.

The family milks about 280 Holsteins, selling through the California Dairies Inc. co-op mainly for cheese production.

Admission to Oma’s Pumpkin Patch includes a tour of the milk barn and a presentation on how pumpkins grow.

When it started 12 years ago, it attracted 300 to 400 people. “Last year we had about 30,000 people – 17,000 kids and 13,000 adults,” Dave Van Ommering said.

The farm includes just six acres of cropland, so the Van Ommerings must buy 95 percent of their feed.

They grow pumpkins on just a half-acre, which means they must buy the vast majority from other growers. “That’s our model,” Van Ommering said. “We just don’t have the acres to grow them all here.”

People can buy pumpkins at giant chain stores like Walmart, but “they aren’t going to have the experience that you’ll get at Oma’s Pumpkin Patch,” he said.

People will also find a much wider assortment of pumpkins at the dairy farm. Sizes range from tiny gourds to monster jack-o’-lanterns weighing more than 100 pounds. “We get all different varieties – weird shapes and colors,” Van Ommering said. “I think that’s something people enjoy. It’s our calling card.”

Anyone considering agritourism should be a people-person, Van Ommering advised. “Not all farmers are extroverts and to do this you really need to be an extrovert,” he said. “You need to be willing to deal with a lot of people.”

Agritourism takes time away from farming, and operators need to make sure the dairy isn’t neglected.

Robert Van Ommering assumes full responsibility for the dairy during the 12-week to 14-week agritourism season, freeing Dave Van Ommering and his wife, Brenda, to run the pumpkin patch and farm tours.

Things like parking suddenly become big concerns. The Van Ommerings never gave it a thought until they started the pumpkin patch. “Now parking is at the top of the list of what we have to deal with,” Dave Van Ommering said. “We have three guys on Saturdays just dealing with parking, which we never envisioned.”

Dairy operators who open a pumpkin patch or corn maze would be well advised to have a good liability insurance policy.

Try as they might to ensure the safety of visitors, producers know that accidents can happen, and it’s that possibility that keeps some of them up at night. “That is always in the back of my mind,” Dave Van Ommering said. “Every day I pray, ‘Lord keep them safe.’”

South of Seattle, the Maris family has developed a thriving agritourism business consisting of a pumpkin patch, corn maze and haunted woods. The 40-acre site near the town of Buckley is no longer a working dairy farm, but the barns, feedbunks and silos are still there.

The Maris family plants about 20 acres of pumpkins in early June, using an old John Deere corn planter with the planter boxes removed. Workers sit on the back and feed the pumpkin seeds into drop tubes.

The family sold their cows in 1998, in part because of development pressure.

One day someone suggested they start a corn maze to go along with the pumpkin patch they’d started about a decade before selling the cows. “The light went on. We had an epiphany,” Dave Maris said.

Last fall, the Maris farm drew more than 30,000 visitors. The family expects attendance to keep growing and is investing tens of thousands of dollars in enhancements this year.

“Even through this recession we have seen consistent growth,” Maris said. “We have never had a year that we have gone backwards.” PD

PHOTOS
TOP RIGHT: Another working dairy farm with pumpkin patches is Stoner’s Dairy Farm in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of Stoner’s Dairy Farm.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Also another working dairy farm with pumpkin patches is Kelsay Farms in Whiteland, Indiana. Both operations offer farm tours and feature a fall corn maze. Photo courtesy of Kelsay Farms.