What is Agritourism? The Benefits and Burdens
Reading Time: 6 minutes
By Sherri Talbot What is agritourism, what are its benefits and downfalls, and why are so many farms incorporating it into their financial planning? Since the 1980s, making money running a small farm has been a challenge. The cost of feed, technology, and other farm needs has far outstripped the price paid for the raw materials that farms produce. Inflation in other areas of life hasn’t been mirrored in the farming industry, and fewer people buy direct from their farmers, lowering farm incomes even more.
When the feed to maintain a goat costs more than they can get for the milk, few can justify the time and expenses without outside income.
All of this makes it extremely difficult to afford to run a farm or even just to raise livestock for a family farm. When the feed to maintain a goat costs more than they can get for the milk, few can justify the time and expenses without outside income.
Thanks to this environment, the “side hustle” is common on small farms — renting goats for brush clearing, developing value-added products, finding ways to make money out of hobbies, and letting nothing go to waste. One option often considered is using the farm itself as a tourism spot, offering events, housing, classes, and other activities as a way to make money and bring more attention to the products the farm offers. While there are agritourism benefits though, there are also things to consider carefully. Some of these may vary depending on the type of tourism activities offered.
Agritourism Helps When the Farm Becomes Secondary
Agritourism has become an increasingly common way to try and make ends meet, but The Inn at East Hill in Troy, New Hampshire, was one of the pioneers of the idea. Currently owned by the Adams family, East Hill is run by the family’s second and third generations. They host about 7,000 people overnight every year, not including those who just stop in for dinner! The farm has moved from raising dairy cattle and giving ski lessons under its previous owner to offering a wide variety of family weekend events, dances, horseback riding, dinners, and more. They even keep a masseuse on call so visitors don’t have to leave the farm to find a little luxury.
The ability to teach classes, keep the animals, and have a steady supply of visitors is something every member of the family seems to enjoy. They all identified their favorite part of the inn as being return visitors and especially those who come to feel at home there.
Still, parts of this success might seem bittersweet to some. The dairy farm that originally sat on East Hill is gone. Cattle were replaced with rare, heritage breed livestock in the 80s, providing visitors with a glimpse of unique animals they would likely never see anywhere else. However, these too declined until all that remains are a few San Clemente Island goats, distantly descended from the original herd that once took refuge here.
Not that there aren’t animals still, but largely, their role has changed from production to entertainment. Now there are the horses for riding, a few goats of differing breeds, sheep, poultry, and pigs — all there to take food from the hands of children when offered and pose for photos. Perri Adams-Ammann and her husband Matt, the third generation of Adams to run the livestock barn, are looking to move back towards having some production value in their animals. However, for now — with the exception of a few meat sales — tourism has become the primary role of the farm.
Boundaries and Expectations for Agritourism
Ten Apple Farm is a goat farm in Gray, Maine, that boasts eighteen acres and beautiful scenery. They are known for their goat hikes, fabulous goat milk products, and their single, loveable sheep named Phillip. The owners, Karl and Margaret, offer goat hikes, write books, bake, and more. Their Alpine goats, and Phillip, accompany walkers on the mile-and-a-half trail through the property when the weather allows. For the last eight years, they have also rented out the little three-bedroom cape they dubbed “The Woods House” and estimate they have hosted around a thousand visitors.
Karl and Margaret no longer work outside their home. Together with their children, their homestead activities take up most of their time. As with many homesteads, this works because they have various income streams, and agritourism is a big part of what makes Ten Apple Farm thrive. Not only is the income important but visitors have instant access to t-shirts, books, mugs, and other merchandise to commemorate their visit.
Still, nothing is perfect, and everyone has a bad day at work now and then!
While Karl and Margaret say the vast majority of their visitors are wonderful, occasionally, someone arrives for a stay in The Wood House with unrealistic expectations. Still, Karl and Margaret have worked hard for their excellent Air B&B reviews and say that, on the whole, most people arrive understanding what the property will look like and what their stay will entail.
This leads to the other issue Ten Apple Farm sometimes experiences! Occasionally, people are so taken with the homestead and the animals their enthusiasm can be a little overwhelming! Most visitors respect the space and time needed to run a homestead, but firm boundaries can be necessary with some really engaged visitors.
Still, Karl and Margaret say that the incredible and interesting people they get to meet are absolutely worth it. “We’ve had Grammy award-winning musicians, Olympic athletes, scientists, artists, writers, members of our armed forces, and guests from all over the country and all over the world come and visit us on the farm.”
Agritourism helps keep their homestead financially viable and lets them have experiences and meet people they might never have otherwise.
Cleanliness and Goat-liness
In September of 2020, The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published a study titled “Agritourism on U.S. Goat Operations.”* While the authors acknowledged the increase in agritourism programs and their importance for financial security, they expressed concern about the lack of biosecurity in many programs.
Many programs they surveyed allowed access to animals without requiring hand washing or other sanitation practices, and more than seventeen percent didn’t even offer an option for hand cleaning. More than fifty percent did not disinfect visitor areas between visits. Almost fifty percent failed to warn visitors about health risks associated with touching their face or mouth after handling or feeding animals. More than thirty percent handled animals and then served food or drink to visitors.
Steps to Make Agritourism Safer
All of this can endanger both farm visitors and livestock. Biosecurity plans are often uncomplicated and easy to put together with little cost. Even easy steps like having a transition area between animal areas and non-animal areas and providing hand sanitizer and signage for visitors can be helpful. A little prevention can be a step for keeping an agrotourism program viable, insurance rates down, and visitors happy.
*The full research can be found at www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahms/goats/downloads/agritourism-infobrief.pdf
We highly recommend it as reading for any goat farm considering agritourism.
Originally published in the September/October 2023 issue of Goat Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
