AgTour Connections Newsletter

Happy New Year!

It's raining today, which must be a good sign. New growth and buds promise a strong start to 2010. In this issue: Cowboys and cowgirls in Potter Valley are creating a new rodeo site together. An herb farmer discovered that including lunch helps keep the tours booked. A Delta agritourism meeting is planned. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has just released a call for proposals that could fund new regional marketing and education work. And it's conference season, with lots of educational events.

Here at the Small Farm Program, we have a few empty desks. We lost Brenda, our awesome webmistress and communications expert, to budget cuts. Linda, the office manager of many years, will retire in April. We're working out the many new details, and hoping some grant proposals get funded so we'll be able to keep the agritourism work going with more workshops and projects beyond April of this year.

I hope to see many of you at some of the upcoming workshops and conferences. Please stay in touch and share your stories.

Sincerely,
Penny Leff, UC Small Farm Program Agritourism Coordinator

Small Farm Program Update
SFP may affiliate with UC Agricultural Sustainability Institute

SFP logo

Since the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) announced its intentions on Oct 2, 2009 to close the Small Farm Program, farmers, agricultural organizations, farmers market managers and others have contacted ANR appealing the closure.

"The restructuring of the Small Farm Program office has been seen by some as a retreat from the issues that face California's small-scale farmers. That assertion is not true," wrote Barbara Allen-Diaz, ANR associate vice president in response to many of the letters. "UC is committed to serving small and large farms."

The program is currently discussing the possibility of becoming an affiliate program within the Agricultural Sustainability Institute, part of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. "Part of the institute's vision is to promote prosperity and equity for people working in agriculture and the food system," said Tom Tomich, director of ASI. "Small farms are a vital and integral part of that vision. We look forward to looking at what opportunities there might be for the Small Farm Program and ASI."

No matter the outcome of the affiliation discussion, we will continue to work with UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors and others throughout California to promote profitable agritourism enterprises and communication and collaboration among all those involved, for as long as we are able to secure funding to do so.

Cowboy Community seeks 300,000 donations
Raising funds "one buck at a time"

horse with small child

Ranchers in Northern California's rural Potter Valley are preserving their working cowboy lifestyle with the creation of a new rodeo arena and community center for recreation and cowboy skill-building, and are raising funds by asking supporters to mail them a dollar (or more) to help out.

Potter Valley is a true cattle ranching community, dating back to the 1880s. Most of the community either owns or works on ranches. The roping, team penning and other ranching skills honed and showcased at the many events to be held at the arena are used by local and visiting cowboys and cowgirls in their daily activities on working ranches.

The annual rodeo had been hosted on local ranches since it started in the 1940s, but due to development pressure a new site was needed. Local farming and ranching families have worked under the auspices of the Potter Valley Community Parks & Recreation organization to purchase a 23-acre parcel of land, create a master plan and break ground on the new arena.

They are making a call for donations to be used for the purchase of covered seating for spectators at the numerous events to be held annually at its new rodeo grounds. So far the "one buck at a time" campaign has been successful, resulting in hundreds of envelopes containing donations of a dollar or more. They hope to have the seating installed in time for the 2010 Potter Valley Spring Festival & Rodeo, to be held over Memorial Weekend (May 29 - 31, 2010). The Festival Rodeo is a CCPRA (California Cowboys Pro Rodeo Association) sanctioned event, and is the valley's major fundraiser for local organizations including 4H, the volunteer fire department, and other groups.

Bring on the bus tour!
Selling your agricultural tour to tour groups

Hilmar Educational display

"You are taking care of someone else's customers. 110 percent of the tour must shine! If something goes wrong, I didn't just lose that senior group, I lost the confidence of the tour company for the next three years."

Denise Skidmore, director of education and public relations for Hilmar Cheese Company, spoke to the Merced County Ag/Art/Nature Tourism group last month about marketing to tour group organizers, and to the tour companies who offer the tours to groups. She markets Hilmar Cheese Visitors Center educational tours, packaged with an olive oil tasting and a stop at one or two other agritourism operations, to tour companies who offer the tours to groups of seniors and other potential visitors. Visitors to Hilmar Cheese learn about the cheese-making process by touring the processing operations, enjoying hands-on educational displays that Denise has created and tasting samples, shopping and eating lunch in the gift shop/deli. Right now, she hosts about eight to ten groups per year. Denise offered a few tips to others thinking of attracting bus tours of visitors to their operations:

Make sure everything is well planned, that all facilities are extra neat, clean and attractive and that all staff are ready and attentive to the visitors' needs.
If you are offering packaged tours with stops at several operations, set one price for the tour company and arrange among the operators how to split the fee among the different operations on the tour.
Host free tours for group leaders who book tours, such as leaders of senior groups, so they can see what is offered.
Have enough restrooms for a busload of people who all want to go at once. Ten toilets may be right for a bus carrying 40 people. Be sure some of the toilets are handicapped accessible and that all facilities meet accessibility codes.
The visit is often short, so there may be a time crunch. Make the itinerary of the tour pretty short. You may want to have a driving tour for seniors, on the bus they came on. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to tour the 40 acres of Hilmar's operations on a bus.
Be aware of steps and walking hazards, particularly when hosting seniors. Don't expect seniors to do much walking for the tour; think of riding options.
Take them on the tour before you feed them, so they don't fall asleep while you're talking to them.
Set up different itineraries for different seasons or different months of the year, featuring seasonal harvests and activities, and be clear about the available dates and prices for each different tour.