How THIS Crop Makes $60,000 PER ACRE and WHY We Switched - Big Gamble on a First Generation Farm

Farming always has SOME degree of risk involved. However, the more times you do something, the better you get at it and IDEALLY the less risks you take.

So WHY, after 10 years and FINALLY establishing a solid line of customers, are we SWITCHING to a DIFFERENT CROP?

Is it WORTH the gamble? Will it even grow? Be sure you are subscribed to the channel to find out later!

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Join "What The Farm Girl" on her many CRAZY adventures running their NEWLY BUILT, FIRST GENERATION family farm on 87 acres in Western Michigan. Born and raised a city-girl, she's finding out everyday what's she's made of as she struggles to figure out planting, harvesting and equipment repair. With plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor and lots of mischief, you never know what you'll watch next!

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[Freempg]

My dad had the crazy idea of planting Christmas trees, 28, 000 over a span of five years. He bought seedlings in bails, pealed them off and stuck them in the ground using a tractor-pulled furrowing plow spaced every six feet. My brother and I grew up pruning them by hand. I would go to sleep, close my eyes, and see nothing but trees burned on my retina. We got so good at pruning we could throw ours shears at the tallest trees and have them close at the right time to clip the tops we couldn't reach, and catch the shears on their way down.

[byronmitchell]

I own a tree farm and was born and raised on one. My advice is get a good tree planter, a good mower, and take soil samples. Tree farming is also much more intensive than hay so have plenty of boys. That’s what my dad did.

[johnnymac]

SO PROUD OF YOU ALL !! LOVE, MOM AND DAD

[bettypearson]

I knew a couple who had decided to use their few acres to start a Christmas tree farm as part of their retirement plan with him doing all the trimming and maintenance each year and it was time intensive.

Then he had a heart attack which ended up doing enough damage that he could no longer work and he was also unable to maintain the farm. Instead of selling they found a company that came in to do all trimming and maintenance and that first year that some were ready for harvest (they had staggered planting so some would be ready each year). At that time they were making $15k a year without having to do anything. The company even handled the replanting.

While trimming especially had been very time intensive for the husband who did everything by hand, the company that came in used cone shaped forms and power hedge trimmers to quickly shape each tree perfectly. While he had been eyeballing growth and trimming from spring to fall whenever he wasn't working his regular job this company came in with a crew of 4 once in the spring and spent 3-4 days trimming and about the same for harvesting later. It could be very time intensive or very streamlined depending on the methods chosen for maintenance.

[eddiejohnson]

what i like seeing is how everyone came together to help out but also the patience with training new helpers

[rodewerk]

Christmas Trees are even more work than hay, the constant trimming is necessary, and very labor intensive. With today's problems I am not so sure how valuable Christmas Trees will be. You might do better speculating on food crops. I think food crops are going to be far more valuable, especially in the near term.

[jeffnelson]

Can't wait to see more videos like this one. I really love your channel and I am looking to see how ya'll are doing on your new project hopping for the best for y'all.

[LtColDaddy]

You set up a Christmas atmosphere with lots of offerings, a great display of lights that local businesses can sponsor, and develop the space for multi use as a pumpkin patch and all those offerings of activities and hospitality, then follow up with a haunted farm maze, and you’ll make a great living.

[kcphillips]

I would be inclined to turn the pond into a feature rather than fill it in .Your land is mostly clay so would hold water year round that could be useful if the trees needed extra water in a drought . It would need to be deepened but would add value to your farm .

[dehavenfamilyfarm]

Nice to see some family coming to help! You may want to look around this Fall and see if anyone is offering wreath making classes. Wreaths are an easy way to add extra income during the Christmas season. You also may want to consider starting to sell fresh, already cut trees on you farm at some point. This will help you start to build a customer base so when your trees are ready you already have customers :)

[TheWabbit]

I hope this works out great for you guys, Pin, er fir trees are a good business once you get to cutting. I like the idea.

[edwintrapp]

we took the entire bundle and chopped the roots with a hand ax. depending on how yours are packaged, you can grab the largest clump that you can control, then chop all the roots at once..

[grogery]

As a young man I was a backpacker and got a ride from a man in Maryland who turned out to the local expert on the Abonibal Snowman and a Christmas tree farmer! As a guest I tried to be polite about the idea of farming Christmas tree but he was a scientist at heart and talked about annualized returns and witness statements.
An interesting evening seeing as 30 years later I still remember it.

[Ell]

My family has been raising Christmas trees for 23 years now I’m going to start the process of taking that part of the farm over. We always do bare root seedlings usually cheaper and grow just as fast. Living in Nebraska some years the new plantings do well other years not so much do to dry weather, regardless don’t give up!

[billyshumate]

Hey Suzanne wishing y'all the best of luck with your new adventure. Only time will tell. Take care and have a blessed day and I'll see you on your next video. Happy Mother's Day to you.

[earlyoung]

Good to see you guys doing what you need to do to survive economically. It took guts to make this turn.
Someone I knew had a son, a doctor. The doc decided to plant 80 ac of Christmas Trees. Kinda iffy in SW OK. The trees were beautiful. Well the Dr, of course, wasn't going to get dirty. Their biggest challenge was finding LABOR when the time came to harvest the trees.
This is gonna be interesting!🙄😎

Bareroot trees, many times, do better than the potted ones. I have reservations about pruning the roots, though. I might've rented a skidsteer with tracks and an auger on the front. It would've handled the And all the roots could've gone in the hole. Your trees may be set back some, but they'll recover
Best of luck, you two!

[tommyfrancis]

10 years, and a little plus, it's a good choice and you will not regret it, I have a lifetime of memories that are priceless. Stay steady with it and keep it clean, mowed. it's a therapy you can't pay for ;-)

[darylfortney]

lol... love how the dog takes a piss on each one and watches over the operation like a middle manager

[codydog]

planted 1000+ in the last 5 year use a auger on a battery drill. Its works way better then a spade.

[jasonbusch]

Looks like you had fun! I only plant in the spring because it gives the trees time to root all summer before they get froze.