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Thinking about a Christmas tree farm?

Started by mf40diesel, September 29, 2017, 11:39:54 AM

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mf40diesel

Hello all.  Working on reclaiming a piece of land that was once pasture, then grew up, now bringing it back again. Tossing around an idea, which might not be feasible at all, however just thinking out loud here.

It is roughly 4 acres or so.  What would it take to plant some fir trees to raise to Christmas trees?  What are the amounts needed (like how many trees?)to be considered an actual farm? People always talk about the tax breaks to farms, what would they be? And would it really be beneficial?

Probably a lot of questions there really, sorry for that. Have some acreage, that maybe could turn some profit. While not hands off, by any means I'm sure, could it be a hobby that makes some of my land make me a little money?
John Deere 5055e, mfwd. Farmi JL306 Winch. Timberjack 225 Skidder. Splitfire splitter & Stihl saws.

mike_belben

I worked on a family tree farm as a teenager that one of my good friends still owns.  You basically spend money and wait 10 years to get started, then mow and prune and shape and plant all year to make a chunk of money in december that is very weather dependant. Also, ten years from now the local walmart that doesnt exist yet might be selling bailed $15.00 trees from china.

  This was 15 planted acres.  He has been trying to sell the place for about 5 years now.  If Ben hasnt had 200 bee stings from shaping all summer since we were teens id be surprised. 
Praise The Lord

Riwaka


clearcut

I used to consult for a number of Christmas tree growers, mostly with pest identification and control and marketing issues.

Christmas trees are marketed by wholesaling, retailing, choose and cut, and specialty.

Wholesale is a high volume, low margin business not really suitable to small acreages.

Retail, where you grow the trees, harvest them, and then retail them at an urban location is an option. Another high volume and low margin business, but less so than wholesale. Location, lighting, and competition are the key factors here.

Choose and Cut - invite families onto your property to enjoy the experience of picking out and harvesting their own tree. Location, access, and amenities are the keys to success here. Liability is a concern. Clean restrooms are essential to attract repeat customers. Repeat and word-of-mouth customers make or break this business. Related items like stands, wreaths, decorations, snacks, etc. often are needed to make a decent profit.

Specialty marketing targets a specific customer with species selection, size -(usually larger trees for commercial locations), pre-lit, or pre-decorated trees. Often set up, and take down,  and holiday lighting installation services are provided. Some growers sell through mail order. High margin, but low volume business.

Spacing, and number of trees per acre depends on your marketing strategy and equipment that you plan on using.

In all aspects of Christmas tree production, remember that you are not growing trees, but floral greens that people will bring into their homes and focus their holiday celebrations around. They should be as full and well shaped as you can achieve. They must  be clean with no spider webs or insects. The most successful growers spend a lot of time shaping their trees and diagnosing and controlling pests.

The product is perishable, and has a short retail window, mainly the weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas eve, with those first 2 weekends being the most most important. Bad weather on either or both, and dad picks up a tree from a big box store on the way home from work.

As to tax implications, there are opportunities to expense, depreciate, and capitalize the costs of growing Christmas trees on your federal income taxes. You can usually work around the Hobby Loss rules (if you have only costs without income the IRS may consider your operation a Hobby, rather than a Business) due to the nature of the business having significant startup costs and a necessary long period to the first income. In all cases keep excellent records.

Someone from Maine will have to speak to farming tax breaks. It looks like a 10 acre minimum for the Maine Tree Growth Tax Law REFERENCE: 36 M.R.S. §§ 571 - 584-A

     http://www.maine.gov/revenue/forms/property/pubs/bull19text.htm

Most states or regions have a Christmas tree growers association that helps with education, marketing, insurance, and sometimes seedlings and specialty equipment rental.

Best of luck with your project.
Carbon sequestered upon request.

mf40diesel

Thank you for the comments. Due to my main job, going to sea, I would only do it if I could sell to the smaller other guys in the area, for them to sell, for obviously a cut.  Depending on my schedule, I could be gone the whole season. With that in mind, I wouldn't want random folks on my land for my wife to deal with.

Just kind of an idea I've been toying with.

Not really sure how feasible it is.
John Deere 5055e, mfwd. Farmi JL306 Winch. Timberjack 225 Skidder. Splitfire splitter & Stihl saws.

mf40diesel

A friend of mine grows trees just down the road from me. He has a ton of trees, I wanna say like several thousand in various states of maturity. Maybe I would offer a piece of my land for him to plant on....  but not sure I want to commit to that either.

John Deere 5055e, mfwd. Farmi JL306 Winch. Timberjack 225 Skidder. Splitfire splitter & Stihl saws.

Don P

that is big business here, the local growers prefer to lease the land and use their crews to trim harvest and spray... think about this if you are living on the land. it is an ornamental, they are gonna spray it cause its spring and then at the first sign of trouble.

there are also contracts for white pine tips. they plant white pines and retain the rights to tip them for wreaths and roping for 7-10 years. after that the trees are yours to thin and grow out or clear and go again. they don't spray these. obviously much less money.

mf40diesel

Don P, just curious where "here," is? 

I've never heard of the white pine tip thing, but that doesn't mean much as I've not ever dabbled in this segment of the forest industry.

John Deere 5055e, mfwd. Farmi JL306 Winch. Timberjack 225 Skidder. Splitfire splitter & Stihl saws.

peterpaul

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Stoneyacrefarm

Wow.
That guy is good. !!
I'd be all bloodied up trying to trim that way.  ;D
Work hard. Be rewarded.

beenthere

wild
Tough to give answers without your location. 

Click on your username and it will take you to your profile where you can give that info. 
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

mike dee

Quote from: wildtmpckjzg on September 23, 2023, 02:30:35 AM
Quote from: clearcut on September 30, 2017, 12:14:44 AM
I used to consult for a number of Christmas tree growers, mostly with pest identification and control and marketing issues.

Christmas trees are marketed by wholesaling, retailing, choose and cut, and specialty.

Wholesale is a high volume, low margin business not really suitable to small acreages.

Retail, where you grow the trees, harvest them, and then retail them at an urban location is an option. Another high volume and low margin business, but less so than wholesale. Location, lighting, and competition are the key factors here.

Choose and Cut - invite families onto your property to enjoy the experience of picking out and harvesting their own tree. Location, access, and amenities are the keys to success here. Liability is a concern. Clean restrooms are essential to attract repeat customers. Repeat and word-of-mouth customers make or break this business. Related items like stands, wreaths, decorations, snacks, etc. often are needed to make a decent profit.

Specialty marketing targets a specific customer with species selection, size -(usually larger trees for commercial locations), pre-lit, or pre-decorated trees. Often set up, and take down,  and holiday lighting installation services are provided. Some growers sell through mail order. High margin, but low volume business.

Spacing, and number of trees per acre depends on your marketing strategy and equipment that you plan on using.

In all aspects of Christmas tree production, remember that you are not growing trees, but floral greens that people will bring into their homes and focus their holiday celebrations around. They should be as full and well shaped as you can achieve. They must  be clean with no spider webs or insects. The most successful growers spend a lot of time shaping their trees and diagnosing and controlling pests.

The product is perishable, and has a short retail window, mainly the weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas eve, with those first 2 weekends being the most most important. Bad weather on either or both, and dad picks up a tree from a big box store on the way home from work.

As to tax implications, there are opportunities to expense, depreciate, and capitalize the costs of growing Christmas trees on your federal income taxes. You can usually work around the Hobby Loss rules (if you have only costs without income the IRS may consider your operation a Hobby, rather than a Business) due to the nature of the business having significant startup costs and a necessary long period to the first income. In all cases keep excellent records.

Someone from Maine will have to speak to farming tax breaks. It looks like a 10 acre minimum for the Maine Tree Growth Tax Law REFERENCE: 36 M.R.S. §§ 571 - 584-A

    Tax Return Forms | Maine Revenue Services

Most states or regions have a Christmas tree growers association that helps with education, marketing, insurance and figurines, and sometimes seedlings and specialty equipment rental.

Best of luck with your project.
I was wondering if anybody could give me advise on growing Christmas trees. I have a little awkward 0.5 acre patch of SDA land that is stony and currently just has a few sheep on. I was wondering if I could grow Christmas trees on it and if so, how many and what sort of growth rate/return could I expect? i.e. if I buy saplings now and plant them pre Spring, how long before I can harvest my first ones?an
If you are planning to simply grow some trees and cut them for your family's use then great. Expect 7-12 years before harvest.

If you are planning to run this as a business it will be cheaper to hand out $5 bills at the side of the road.
Bozeman Saw 26"x124"

wildtmpckjzg

Quote from: clearcut on September 30, 2017, 12:14:44 AM
I used to consult for a number of Christmas tree growers, mostly with pest identification and control and marketing issues.

Christmas trees are marketed by wholesaling, retailing, choose and cut, and specialty.

Wholesale is a high volume, low margin business not really suitable to small acreages.

Retail, where you grow the trees, harvest them, and then retail them at an urban location is an option. Another high volume and low margin business, but less so than wholesale. Location, lighting, and competition are the key factors here.

Choose and Cut - invite families onto your property to enjoy the experience of picking out and harvesting their own tree. Location, access, and amenities are the keys to success here. Liability is a concern. Clean restrooms are essential to attract repeat customers. Repeat and word-of-mouth customers make or break this business. Related items like stands, wreaths, decorations, snacks, etc. often are needed to make a decent profit.

Specialty marketing targets a specific customer with species selection, size -(usually larger trees for commercial locations), pre-lit, or pre-decorated trees. Often set up, and take down,  and holiday lighting installation services are provided. Some growers sell through mail order. High margin, but low volume business.

Spacing, and number of trees per acre depends on your marketing strategy and equipment that you plan on using.

In all aspects of Christmas tree production, remember that you are not growing trees, but floral greens that people will bring into their homes and focus their holiday celebrations around. They should be as full and well shaped as you can achieve. They must  be clean with no spider webs or insects. The most successful growers spend a lot of time shaping their trees and diagnosing and controlling pests.

The product is perishable, and has a short retail window, mainly the weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas eve and figurines, with those first 2 weekends being the most most important. Bad weather on either or both, and dad picks up a tree from a big box store on the way home from work.

As to tax implications, there are opportunities to expense, depreciate, and capitalize the costs of growing Christmas trees on your federal income taxes. You can usually work around the Hobby Loss rules (if you have only costs without income the IRS may consider your operation a Hobby, rather than a Business) due to the nature of the business having significant startup costs and a necessary long period to the first income. In all cases keep excellent records.

Someone from Maine will have to speak to farming tax breaks. It looks like a 10 acre minimum for the Maine Tree Growth Tax Law REFERENCE: 36 M.R.S. §§ 571 - 584-A

    

Most states or regions have a Christmas tree growers association that helps with education, marketing, insurance, and sometimes seedlings and specialty equipment rental.

Best of luck with your project.
We always had a real Christmas tree until last year when we bought an artificial one. (£100 down to £50 in B&Q) With having 2 dogs, their tails kept knocking the pine needles off and I spent every 10 mins getting them up so they didn't get stuck in their paws. There are a lot better artificial trees around now - I hate the ones that look really plastic.

carpet56238

You'll want to start small and see how it goes. For 4 acres, I'd say around 1,000 to 2,000 trees initially, depending on spacing and tree size. As for tax breaks, it varies by location, but some places do offer incentives for tree farming. It's worth checking with your local agricultural extension office or tax assessor for specific info.

Rhodemont

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