Agritourism is one of the fastest growing segments of agriculture in Missouri, giving farmers a new, additional revenue stream for their operations – as well as educating the public about life on the farm.
Springfield, Mo., was the base city in late July for the third annual Agritourism Conference, which drew more than 60 agritourism professionals from across the state, as well as visitors from Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Missouri Department of Agriculture and the Missouri Farm Bureau sponsored the event, which featured seminars and a bus tour to seven farms in Southwest Missouri.
Missouri Farm Bureau Marketing and Commodities Director Kelly Smith told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor during a stop at the Webster County farm of Lloyd and Jane Gunter, which is a working dairy farm outside of Conway, Mo., that invites the public to tour the farm, pick out a pumpkin and walk through a corn maze each October, that agritourism has grown tremendously over the last couple of decades, and more and more farmers are looking at ways to use that trend to their advantage.
“Agritourism is nostalgic for some people because it takes them back to when they were kids. Young families are looking for activities that they can do with their kids,” Smith said. “Really, (producers) are only limited by their imaginations. People are wanting to connect back to the land, and with that, they are wanting to know where their food comes from.
“Agriculture has changed over the years and we have adopted a lot of new technology that makes our lives simpler. People think about a farm and they think they are going to go back to the 1960s or 70s. In the Midwest, about two out of three people have never been on a working farm.”
In addition to educating visitors, agritourism can become a part-time or full-time income for farmers without a large investment, be it a pumpkin patch, a catfish farm or the creation of a special event.
“Agritourim is a great way for farmers who are limited in resources, such as land, who want to move a son, daughter or nephew, or whoever, into the operation and add a source of revenue without spending money to buy additional land,” Smith explained.
Many of the state’s agritourism locations have been able to carve out their own niche market and have found success.
“A lot of it starts out with an idea or a dream,” Smith said. “Then you move forward because it is a personal interest. I think everyone involved in agritourism is very passionate about what they are doing. They want to share that with others. These are people who are involved in agriculture in some way. “It might be on on-farm bed and breakfast, a corn maze and a pumpkin patch, a you-pick blueberry farm or something like that.”
