#95 Christmas Tree Farm FIRST YEAR Costs & Revenue
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- Опубликовано: 26 дек 2019
- I wanted to share some details about how we've gone about starting our Christmas tree farm, and some of the specific costs involved in purchasing the property to start the farm, investing in equipment and improving the property. I also wanted to talk about what we've earned from several different revenue streams during our first year. Watch more of my videos: shorturl.at/szFHP
~~About Us~~
We're a 43 acre Christmas tree farm in central Virginia. We bought the property in November 2018 and have been documenting our whole journey starting this business from the ground up. We don't have any ag experience prior to starting this business, so we're constantly learning as we go!
Get your own Woods Tree Farm gear on our website: buy.woodstreefarm.com/collect...
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We are thankful for you viewers and subscribers and love your comments and feedback!
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~~FARM FAQ~~
*What made us want to start a Christmas tree farm? see: • #14 The #1 Question We...
~~Equipment on our Farm~~
Tractors: Kubota L3901, Farmtrac 60
Mower: Cub Cadet Ultima ZT2
Box Blade: Land Pride BB2560
Rotary cutter: King Kutter 60" (model unknown)
3pt Tiller: Caroni L800 36"
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Any other questions or comments - just let us know! Thanks for watching.
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Contact: woodstreefarva@gmail.com
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Website: www.woodstreefarm.com
Facebook: / woodstreefarmva
Instagram: / woodstreefarm 
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Hey Phil I'm so glad your doing these videos. I started a small Christmas tree farm last year and I'm learning the ropes.....which is why it's cool to come on here and see how you guys are doing. Keep up the good work.
I really wish experienced small tree farmers would post videos. Their is so much to learn to save time, money and headaches that are encountered in the beginning. It’s not all fun and games. But it can be rewarding. Any reason for the increase and interest in Christmas tree farming now???
@@donthompson4912 hey Don. I would love to chat with you.
Good info. Only growing from here. More trees will help next year for sure 👍
Sounds like you had a successful first year. You are absolutely doing the right thing selling pre-cut trees now. You will hit the ground running when your own trees are ready to harvest. The Christmas Tree business is a marathon, not a sprint. It looks like your family really enjoys it as well. That is vital to your success. We had a tough year here. Every weekend was bad weather along with a shorter selling season. They can't all be record breakers.
Thanks David. Sorry to hear about your season. We had some rain too. Offering delivery helped move some trees. We'll push more of that next year. Happy New year!
thanks for the REAL NUMBERS...best of luck for 2020...
Thank you!
You made the right decision in opening before your trees are ready. Building a customer base is very important. As you continue to sell fresh cut trees, compare those sales with the number you plant each year, and make sure you plant enough to keep up with the demand you are creating with fresh cut sales. Hope that made sense to you, because it did in my head lol
Makes sense to me. I hope offering CYA trees will increase sales considerably vs precuts only. We had numerous people contact us looking for CYA and ended up going elsewhere because we're not ready yet.
Can’t wait to see how 2020 goes for y’all!! Good luck!!
Thank you!
A really nice and interesting recap video of your first year. Wishing you a very happy and successful new year to come. ❤🎄
Thank you so much!
Excellent information, appreciate you showing us this, I have a smaller farm growing, we're slowly planting it, we have about 2k trees planted and hope to get it up to 5k, thanks for sharing your experience
Glad it was helpful! We're learning a lot as we go. Our plan is to get up to maybe 10k trees. We're sitting around 3k now.
Your never going to run out of things to spend money on. I do think you are starting out right in doing the events even though it isn't bringing in a lot of money. I know your goal is to have people come back every year. It takes a lot of time and effort to get to where you are going to break even. Overall I think you are doing a great job of going in the right direction. It's not a get rich quick kind of business and as you have already learned not all the profit is in the form of cash. Keep up the great work guys.
Thanks Stan!
Thinking of starting a Christmas tree farm too, thanks for the super informative vid.
You're welcome!
I like videos like this, I find it interesting how things break down.
Thanks!
Great video Phil I once owned my own business and understand everything you have done. Great success in the future Phil.
Thanks Russell! Happy New year!
💥 Very interesting Phil! Don’t forget about the millions your making from RUclips! 👍 hope you and your family had a great Christmas and Happy new year!
Keep on tractoring!
Haha. Thanks John! I just got monetized recently. I'll be able to tally my dozens of dimes very soon
@@WoodsTreeFarm so RUclips actually pays you now? I always wondered why there are so many informative how-to videos on there and why anybody would take the time to do them. Just from doing our Facebook stuff I know the amount of time you must get into doing most of these. Even though I totally enjoy seeing them, I often think "how is that kid going to get any work done if he keeps spending so much time with the camera?" :) Have a wonderful New Years!
@@kshtf it takes a lot of extra effort, that's for sure. I probably film about half of what we do for that reason. To start earning from videos you have to get 1000 subs and 4000 hours of watch time which took me over a year to get.
Super informative video. Unfortunately I think we’ve decided we can’t do a tree farm because the market here isn’t as strong. I think the most we could probably charge for a tree in our rural area is $40-50 and margins get pretty tight at that price point. If we lived closer to a big metropolitan area like you do there would be more room for margin
Sorry to hear that. Better to find that out now than after you put in all the work growing trees.
Very good Information, My wife and I are planning a chestnut farm, going to start clearing the first 6 acres this spring and hoping to get the first planting in this fall. Lots of good info. great choice on opening the farm for spring and summer events, if nothing else it will get your name out to their friends and neighbors. Good luck on the upcoming years.
Interesting! Chestnut is great for wildlife, too. I've looked into planting some along a couple field edges. I guess they start producing fruit as soon as 3 years which is pretty great!
@@WoodsTreeFarm It will take a good 5 years before they start producing a decent amount of chestnuts.
Very good for wildlife and personal snacking too. :)
Great video, hope I can have my own farm someday!
Merry Christmas. Thank you for sharing. I am wanting to start my own Christmas tree farm.
Go for it!
Thank you for sharing your information. I would like to start a tree farm in the next year and have subscribed to you channel.
Best of luck!
THANK YOU for this video. I run an exterior cleaning business in Pennsylvania - pressure washing, gutters, driveways, houses, etc....We just started this year and we are looking for an off season business to get into. I had contemplated holiday light decorating, but those contracts for commercial properties are often already set now. This led me to Christmas Trees. I do not have any property for a farm, but your explanation of how you bought trees and the cost/revenue was super helpful. I'm wondering, how did your 2nd year go? Did you do any advertising your first year beyond the 2 events you held?
Hi - this was 5 years ago and we've increased our business every year since. The wholesale market for trees has gone insane and its significantly more difficult to find good quality trees at a reasonable price. I do digital marketing outside of our farm so we have a high ranking website, and I also advertise on Facebook and Google search every season. I've done a video or two every season covering what we're doing differently and what we've learned. It would be good for you to check some of those out too.
@@WoodsTreeFarm Thank you. I will check those out. I appreciate you sharing your journey.
New sub here. Very good info in you vid here, thanks! Looking forward to more as I'm considering a tree farm. I need to find your vid talking about acreage and planting now.
Cheerz!
This vid was a few years back. We've certainly shared a lot of planting and other lessons learned since then. Best of luck on your journey.
Hi Phil. Thanks for more great insight. I'm in the beginning stages of starting my own tree farm, and you're videos on subsoiling and planting plugs has been a huge help. You answered a lot of questions and gave ideas that other tree farmers I've talked to weren't able to answer.
I am headin the same route as you, selling pre-cut treees these first couple years to get my name out. I wasn't going to bother with wreaths this year, but I have had some interest from people as I mention I'll have pre-cut trees. Did you buy trimmings for the wreaths, or did the pre-cut trees you bought need trimming at the base and you used those to make wreaths?
Also, how large is the farm you bought? I want to venture into a few events a year, but am having trouble finding the right piece of land (growing Christmas trees in Kentucky is a real challenge with a lot of soil prep/management and irrigation) that has enough acreage to meet the try supply I want and still have room for trails, firepit, areas to congregate, etc.
Really appreciate you putting the time into these videos, only discovered you a day ago and the videos so far have been a great addition to the months of research.
Thanks for the comment. Glad you're finding the information helpful. We're doing another tree grower live panel video on May 30. That'll be another good source of info.
Our farm is 43 acres and about 12 acres is open and we could end up planting up to 9 acres without clearing some woods.
For the wreath making, we just used trimmings from the live trees and that worked out great. We also foraged our property for pine, cedar, and Holly and made a few wreaths with that. There's good margins on wreaths, so I recommend pushing wreath sales as much as you can.
Great video Phil, Thanks for filling in the details for us. I am looking forward to your marketing strategy for the first year also.
Thanks for watching. I'll have the marketing video up by the end of the week
Hey! the new video on marketing tactics is up. #97. Thanks for watching
Wish you the best for 2020.
Thanks! Happy New year!
Thanks!
we've been so busy I missed your super thanks contribution come through. Thank you so much. Have a very Merry Christmas. I posted a few new vids recently with details on this season you might find interesting, as well. Take care!
Is there a big difference in using the farm as an agrotourist spot versus just growing trees for sale? Is the tour part just for fun and publicity, or is a significant addition?
Good luck 🍀 in 2020, I wish you well.
Thanks so much!
I’m no Expert either! 80,000 wow. Property, equipment, the first year That’s a small investment compared to what I spent back in 85. I spent 70,000 in the first 5 yrs. And as far as I was concerned where did it all go. You are doing Everything Right business wise for sure. You need all those bells and whistles to keep your farm the farm people want to buy from you. You are going in the right direction business wise for sure. Tree selection your starting to realize. In 85. The tree to grow was Douglas fir. That is still true today in our state, but because of the big box stores. Fraser fir are the tree of customer choice. They don’t do great here. So we bring them in. 2 yrs in I don’t here of diseases for a topic as of now. It will be a major problem in years to come. Trust me. You can go Organic or more and more and more with expensive pesticides and herbicides. $$$$$ At least look into gardening videos and Permaculture.
Where would person buy aleppo pines & Monterey pines cuttings or seedlings at?
sorry, I don't know. I don't have any experience buying either.
So you have a Christmas tree farm talking how much it costs for everything to get set up but no trees?? Sound like a liar to me...
good information thank you for the reply. if you could can you break down your costs without the other things besides the Christmas tree aspect of the farm?
That would be really hard for me to do. We just don't have it broken down that way. Sorry.
I've always wanted to start a tree farm. have you considered having Santa on the weekends? visit and photo opportunities. could help draw customers.
We have considered it and looked into it. As you know, santa is quite busy that time of year and the we found the hourly rates to be quite high. We didn't have too much trouble attracting customers by adding other less costly items to the experience.
Phil, how is business this year. I am thinking of doing a tree lot next year because I know some developers that will sublet the corner of the parking lot.
We were busy and sales exceeded expectations. Check out my more recent videos for more info👍
@@WoodsTreeFarm So how much would it cost me to get a truck full of Frasier Firs to Dallas TX next year. I am guessing 20,000.00????? the guy I help charges about 300 with a fresh cut and a wouldn't stand with a bowl. I think he pays about 70 bucks for the tree. I will find out where he gets them this weekend. I know he does about 30k a day on busy days.
At least that much. I wouldn't know. Haven't bought that many.
How do you keep deer away from eating your seedlings?
I don't. I never had an issue until this past year they loved eating white pine
HOW’D YOU DO??
$3,446 isnt bad and Rome wasn't built in a day. How many trees did you have? How long did it take from planting the trees?
We had 153 trees that we brought in from another grower. Our trees will still be a few years before ready to cut.
Where did you buy the baler fro? the $330 one?
from*
Kelco. Here's their website www.kelcomaine.com/
I farm pine trees. That said, do you have a business or do you do it as an investment ? just curious.
this video was from 4 years ago! Yes, we have a business. We formed an LLC for the operation before we started, and have sold christmas trees every year since we started. We've also gotten into cut-you-own flowers and selling firewood.
Do you have liability insurance for having the general public on property?
Yes we do. We also have coverage for an agritourism business that covers the activities and equipment. There's an additional rider for people picking their own plants/produce, hayrides, etc. We insure with Farm Bureau of VA
Hi, I just stumbled upon your channel. Do you have any plans for farm animals? Perhaps you can find a local farmer to bring a few out for your festivals - perhaps even free as it could be a business opportunity for them - riding lessons, etc.? Baby goats and pigs. Horse or two? Chicken? It'd be something fun for the kids. Might need to have some liability waivers if you have a petting zoo.
We don't have any animals. Since we don't live on the property, that would be next to impossible to manage. Having someone else bring some in could be a possibility. Thanks for sharing the idea.
Did you sell out of the 153 trees?
Pretty close. I forget how many we had left over. Maybe 8??
Anyone else hear that super high pitched sound coming through?
I'M waiting for the marketing info!!
Just posted it! Vid #97 - check it out. Thanks for watching
Have you considered doing a pumpkin patch
We have, but failed miserably with our first attempt. Probably just going to stick with sunflowers and cut flowers this year. ruclips.net/video/3sh9al7mO6o/видео.html
$80k sounds like a lot of investment for what I understand is a part time hobby, as most christmas tree farms are.
I could see why one would think that. This isn't a hobby for us. Our goal is to replace one of our incomes, and get the business to buy this beautiful property for us. Thanks for watching and for the comment!
awesome video but please fix yer microphone feedback there's an awful squeal in the background
I tried to watch but the high pitched buzz made it impossible to finish. I made it to 2:40 tho
strange. I don't hear it. Some kind of dog whistle kind of a thing going on here. Sorry! If you have any questions on this topic, just let me know. Have a good day!
It could maybe just be on my phone. Thanks for your help. I will check out some other videos, thanks for making them and sharing your knowledge. Enjoy your day hopefully it’s corona free, unless it’s the beer lol
@@TheRyleeFreeman nope, I hear it too.
Yall need a petting zoo!
Haha. Yeah not happening. I don't have the time or interest to keep animals.
@@WoodsTreeFarm :)
Am i the only one that hears the high pitch, sharp noise?
I think the mic picked up computer fan noise that made the whine. I can only hear it when I listen with headphones
I hear it too andi Im on a tablet
$30 a tree wholesale?
Yes, on average. We had small ones as little as $20 and big ones as much as $60.
Is it just me or can you guys hear a loud buzzing sound throughout the video?
Others have commented the same. Sorry. I think the shotgun mic I use was picking up the computer fan sound.
I am sorry but your costs seem way to low. I was in the business many years ago and our costs back then were higher than what you are talking about.
A port-a-potty hardly cost sh*t 15 a month... cancel netflix
Bring your $15/mo portapotty business this way please. I'll pay you double that.