This website serves Farmers and Ranchers in the Kansas AgriTourism Industry.
Welcome to Kansas AgriTourism!
This website has been developed specifically for Kansas farmers and ranchers involved in AgriTourism, rural properties where the traveler has an opportunity to experience farm and country life far from the hustle of the city.
the Kansas Agriculture Marketing Division and the Travel and Tourism Division of the Department of Commerce
and with financial assistance from Frontier Farm Credit.
We invite you to explore this website to find a variety of articles and resources that will help you succeed in agritourism.
If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Commerce, Travel and Tourism Division, and ask for the Agritourism Liaison.
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October's Featured Destination:
 Best Practices Strategy Pays Off!
KC Pumpkin Patch
“We started off by taking note of what works, and what doesn’t. We even took photographs of the things we really liked, so by the time we started KC Pumpkin Patch four years ago, we had a pretty good idea what we were going to include,” said Kirk and Julie Berggren, in Gardner, Kansas.
Kirk served our country in the United States Air Force, so they were located in various parts of the country. Both have some farm background, and as they took their own children to pumpkin patches, they paid attention to the best practices. They looked first at what the kids enjoyed, and then at activities that were low cost, low maintenance, or good profit centers. Julie says they have an entire photo album of ideas.
Once Kirk retired from active duty (he still flies for Federal Express), they leased 60 acres in Gardner, Kansas, very close to the Greater Kansas City suburbs. The pumpkin patch spans 10 acres, with a one-acre corn maze, pumpkin cannon range, and parking taking additional space. Then they set out to put the best practices to work on their own farm.
 One Price Admission
“I think our “one price covers everything” is an important part of our success,” Kirk said. “We started out charging 50 cents for the train and so forth, and I think parents resent having to pay a little here and a little there. They like knowing up front what it will cost them. The only thing we charge extra for now is the pumpkin and gourd cannons and the slingshot, where they buy their pumpkins to shoot.”
According to Kirk, the pumpkin cannon has also been a great marketing tool. He said that during the school tours, he periodically shoots off the cannon, which fires 8-inch pumpkins, and the kids go home and tell their parents. “We’ve had a lot of dads saying they came out just to see the cannon their kids were talking about,” Kirk said.
Online School Tour Reservations
 Julie handles all of the school tours, and they strongly encourage all teachers to use their online registration to schedule their tours. Callers usually are greeted by a recorded message directing them to the website, www.kcpumpkinpatch.com, which specifically urges teachers to make their reservation online.
 “The online form seems to make better use of the teacher’s time, and mine,” Julie said. “They can make their reservations, order our Little Farmer Lunches or Ranch Hand Specials, and get it all done during a class break, or even late at night.”
The “Little Farmer Lunches” include a hot dog, chips, and a drink. The Ranch Hand Special is 2-dozen cookies, a gallon of apple cider, and cups. Both are options available on the online form. Teachers and parents are free, and Kirk said he felt this also was a factor in encouraging parents to come back on the weekend.
Volunteer Workers
KC Pumpkin Patch uses 12-15 workers during the week, and 25 or more on weekends. All are volunteers from qualified non-profit organizations (501c3), and their organizations receive a donation in return. Julie distributes checklists to the workers for all the setup each day, and the tractor drivers also have their assignments.
 Kiddee Tractor Pulls
This looks just like a regular tractor pull contest, using specially designed, weight transfer sleds (Cal Poly tractor pull sleds) just like the big sled  pulls. The only difference is the size of the sled, weights and tractors, and the fact that these tractors use nothing but pedal power!
Kids compete in various age brackets. If, by chance, you’ve never seen a tractor pull, the weights move up the sled as the tractor goes forward, increasing the pull needed-until the tractor can no longer move forward. A championship pull, with trophies, is held at the end of the year, with an impressive list of sponsors paying for the championship event.
Lots of Activities
The general admission offers children a large variety of activities: barrel train, duck races, 1-acre corn maze, hayrides to the pumpkin patch, straw bale maze, haunted barn, petting zoo, corn crib, zip line, trike track, pumpkin painting, a horizontal rock climbing wall, and lots of hill slides. They added inflatable bouncers a year or so ago, when a microburst storm completely flattened the corn maze.
 The slides are made of 40’ by 4’ sheets of polyethylene plastic anchored to the slope, with straw bale sides. The plastic is one of the low cost, low maintenance ideas that the Berggren’s spotted during their travels.
They also added the Zip Line after seeing them at another farm. The line is basically hung level, about 2 feet off the ground, and each child takes a turn going down and back, so there’s very little required of a worker supervising the activity.
Refreshments
 The farm sells a large variety of concessions, including funnel cakes, kettle korn, hot dogs, soft drinks, etc. Their oldest daughter, Taylor, 16, seems to enjoy handling the funnel cakes and kettle corn, while 13 year-old Jacob likes mowing, and helping where needed at the cannons, tractor pulls, etc. “Six year-old Elijah,” says Kirk, “is the tour director.”
“We did find that we prefer working with canned soda, instead of the dispensers, for our farm,” Kirk said. “If you have the right set up, I’m sure the dispensers work fine. But they require people who know how to change out the bottles, and all that. With volunteers, the cans work better for us.”
Marketing
“The school tours are a major component of our marketing,” explained Kirk. “Julie sends out brochures to the schools, and then they register online. In turn, the kids tell their parents, and they keep coming back. We have a lot of families that say they’re here 3 out of the 5 weekends we are open.”
 “Julie has also used a lot of the ideas in the book,” he said, referring to Jane Eckert’s “Fresh Grown Publicity” book, which Julie purchased at one of the Kansas Agritourism Conferences sponsored by the Department of Commerce Travel and Tourism Division, and the Department of Agriculture Marketing Division. "For example," he said, "she provides the radio stations with passes that they can give away to listeners-which gives us free airtime."
 "We both came from a farm background, we knew what we wanted to do, and even had the photos to follow," Julie said. "We knew we would have a quality product, but we still had to get people come to us. The book was an easy read, and I just started applying her principles. I sent a lot of press releases, and now, like today, the papers are calling me for information."
The Berggren’s are now extremely busy, enjoying their fourth season as KC Pumpkin Patch operators, and seeing literally thousands of happy boys and girls and parents every week. The pumpkin patch is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, mostly for school tours, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Parties are available by reservation. School tours do comply with state education curriculum.
For more information, visit www.kcpumpkinpatch.com
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