Has anyone tried selling the plots in advance? Pay e.g. $49 today for a tree in ten years?
Startup idea: 10 year christmas tree subscription contract.
(Bonus points if you make it an ISA.)
The Economics of Christmas Trees
141–150 of 165 posts
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
The name literally includes "christ"
Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak no…
Amen!
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#143So it takes 8-10 years to grow a tree to maturity, and the profit margin for the farmer is $8-10 per tree. A farmer grows a tree for me to make a dollar per year. This is staggering to think about to me. Unreal.
At 6x6 spacing that is 1200 trees per acre. A 40 acre farm would give you nearly $50k a year in income. You can do this on fields that would not be suitable for most other crops, the startup costs are not out of reach for many. Trees used for lumber generally take 25+ years to harvest, the returns are generally lower.
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#144I have a 2 yr old and I want him to have a brilliant childhood. But we're not having a pine tree taking up space (we live a in 2bdr apartment), dying and making a mess for no good reason. But then, there are so many Xmas things that don't make sense in Australia.
> don't make sense in Australia.
That comment make me smile. After moving out of Australia to Germany, those crazy things (hot turkey dinners in 45 degC days) started to make sense for me. Enjoy your the Aussie Christmas!
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#145A Christmas tree here in Bermuda will cost North if $200 and come with an 8 hour queue so sadly this year we've passed. I would have paid $300 though to avoid the queue.
Why not go for an artificial one, then?! They look just the same, and will last many years, without annual waste and cost, and are less of a fire hazard.
This is a good question. I could say, "an artificial tree won't make the house smell as nice", but I think this would be dishonest.
Ultimately it's because I like the tradition, if we had children I would have queued up for 8+ hours to get one as decorating the tree is one of my fondest memories from childhood.
An artificial tree just wouldn't spark joy in the same way.
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I recall, Hawaii has a similar situation, where residents wait for “the Christmas tree boat” to arrive with all the Christmas trees for the whole island.
Are they worse for wear, given the week-long (?) journey to get there?
I think they've been ok generally. I think it's only a couple days from new jersey by boat. The main issue this year has been strikes on the docks.
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is theft/security an issue for you? Mature Christmas trees must be one of the highest-value crops you can steal from a farm, and one of the easiest to fence.
>Mature Christmas trees must be one of the highest-value crops you can steal from a farm If you have the equipment/motivation to steal christmas trees, you probably could be stealing animals too. Those are proabbly worth even more than christmas trees, probably several hundred dollars each.
Harder to dispose of, though. You'll need to be in league with a crooked farmer, slaughterhouse or livestock mart if you want to sell the animal alive. You can sell Christmas trees on the side of the road, no questions asked.
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#148Timely. We just, as in a few hours ago, wrapped up our season as owners of a u-cut tree farm. It's relatively small, just under 30 acres. But our family was just doing a post-mortem on what went well, what we need to change and making fairly detailed plans for next year and even several years out. I can tell you more then you want to know about the growing, spring/summer and fall care. The shaping. The labor to trim,…
Successful season I assume? Seems like it's over early!
We cut our season off early due to the number of mature trees available. We're rebuilding and playing catchup. It was more important, particularly this year, that we were open rather than how many days. We get families that have been coming here for 30 years. If we miss a year being open, we risk losing them from coming back in the next few years. Our second metric was number of trees sold per day. We did meet or exceed both measurements.
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#149Timely. We just, as in a few hours ago, wrapped up our season as owners of a u-cut tree farm. It's relatively small, just under 30 acres. But our family was just doing a post-mortem on what went well, what we need to change and making fairly detailed plans for next year and even several years out. I can tell you more then you want to know about the growing, spring/summer and fall care. The shaping. The labor to trim,…
Is theft/security an issue for you? Mature Christmas trees must be one of the highest-value crops you can steal from a farm, and one of the easiest to fence.
It's not an issue on our farm. We have eyes on most of the property most of the time. We also don't stock any precuts, so a thief has to come on the property and do some amount of work to steal a single tree.
Re: The Economics of Christmas Trees
#150Timely. We just, as in a few hours ago, wrapped up our season as owners of a u-cut tree farm. It's relatively small, just under 30 acres. But our family was just doing a post-mortem on what went well, what we need to change and making fairly detailed plans for next year and even several years out. I can tell you more then you want to know about the growing, spring/summer and fall care. The shaping. The labor to trim,…
Are attractions at tree farms (that is to say, everything aside from trees) typically first-party (you) or external contractors? I'd be fascinated in the experience value-add economics. Said as someone who today bought a U-Cut 8' cypress ($56) at a local tree farm, a train ride (2x $2), baling ($2), three drinks + brownie + boiled peanuts (~$12). Thankfully, letting two quarantine-bored teenagers ride in the back of…
Our place currently has limited attractions with several planned for next year. There is a gift shop that drives significant revenue, but was closed this year due to COVID. We offer free hot chocolate (small disposable cup). For the gift shop we have a multifaceted approach which includes buying things wholesale, making items in our shop, and partnering with other makers. Drilling and bailing is included in the price of the tree.
We are currently running the numbers to prepare for things like food/drink truck, sleigh rides, reindeer petting zoo, and some events.