Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
tomer parking, a checkout stand, and possibly transportation between the
parking area and fields. Keep it safe. Keep it convenient. Keep it pleasant.
If you plan to harvest the fruit yourself and sell it at a roadside stand
on your property, you can design the farm for maximum production effi-
ciency. You will have to provide cold storage, parking, the stand, and fen-
cing to keep children and pets away from dangerous areas. For U-pick and
roadside stand operations, you might want to leave room to put in a small,
fenced-in playground where children can safely play while their parents pick
or buy produce. One successful organic orchard in Michigan has a petting
zoo and provides tours for local schoolchildren. A cool, attractive picnic area
might help boost sales, especially impulse sales to tourists. You might want
to modify the barn and farmyard to make customer visits recreational ex-
periences, such as with a cider stand, hay wagon rides, or decorated pumpkin
displays in the fall. According to one study, a satisfied customer will tell from
one to three people about the buying experience. A dissatisfied customer will
tell seven people. Even if a customer does not buy anything, make sure the
experience is pleasant.
If you plan to sell your products off-farm and customers will seldom or
never see your farm, then design your orchard for maximum production ef-
ficiency and convenience to yourself. Make sure you have appropriate stor-
age, processing, and packaging facilities. Provide plenty of convenient park-
ing and turnaround space for delivery trucks and employees. In short, tailor
the farm design for your products and market.
Despite the many variations available for marketing orchard products,
there are only two basic systems. You can sell your product directly to the
final consumer (retail) or you can sell to a middleman who will then sell to
the final consumer (wholesale). When dealing with brokers and large retail
outlets, your goods can actually change hands several times before they get
to consumers.
