Farmers find money sometimes does grow on trees

POWELL RIVER, B.C. – Being a successful farmer doesn’t mean owning a giant combine and more land than the neighbors.

For one Vancouver Island arborist, there’s more profit in growing Christmas trees on 30 acres of land.

Dan and Mary Hanson, owners of Arbordale Nurseries near Courtney, had gross farm gate receipts of $690,000 last fiscal year with a very real expectation of clearing the magic million within a couple years.

Speaking at the British Columbia Farm Women’s Network conference, Hanson described what it is like to diversify on the farm without producing a scrap of food.

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Joined in the family business by their daughter Kim last year, they grow Christmas trees, conifer seedlings for the forest industry, bedding plants and hanging baskets.

They have 4,600 sq. metres of greenhouse space and intensively crop about four acres for forestry seedlings. The rest is dedicated to Christmas trees.

“It is interesting that our most successful products are not foodstuffs,” said Hanson. “Our largest cash return is conifers.”

They grow two million trees a year for forestry projects, selling most of them to MacMillan Bloedel. B.C. plants 250 million trees a year and depends on nurseries like Hanson’s for seedlings.

Their staff varies from four to 20 depending on the season. Wages range from a minimum of $8, topping off at $18 per hour. It is a year round operation and they have a market of about 250,000 people locally as well as international sales.

Only the best

The Hansons are audited by government to ensure seedlings don’t get mixed up and that they know the source of every tree, said Hanson. Second rate trees end up on the compost heap.

They have been on this site for 20 years and until four years ago were wholesale suppliers only. The decision to open their nursery doors to the public saw profits leap.

“We have concluded the more profitable side of the entire planting venture are related to those products where people are willing to spend disposable income,” he said.

“Christmas trees are the most delightful part of our business.”

Christmas trees are also the best cash crop. Besides cutting trees themselves, they offer a U-harvest program where people often pick out and reserve a tree in September, then return and cut it down in December.

They offer a variety of species grown from seeds from as far away as Turkey but growers have decided the real future for Christmas trees lies in bioengineering.

A group of 30 farmers in the area got involved in a hybrid program because they know people have a vision of Christmas trees being a specific color and shape.

Eight farmers have six varieties on trial right now that appear to offer consistently good trees.

“We have filtered what Mother Nature handed down,” Hanson said.

Most of the seed stock came from Powell River, Lund, Texada Island and Vancouver Island.

The Hansons are also trying to improve the vigor of their trees. They plant 1,400 trees per acre and find about 60 percent survive. They want to improve that to 90 percent to earn more money from the same plot.

Hints for success

Since creating variety has led to success, Hanson offered a number of points that apply to every kind of farm wishing to diversify.

Offer a quality product that is fairly priced. The farmer has to make a reasonable return to stay in business.
Remember not all crops survive every year.
Value added must imply good value. Taking extra time adds value to a farm product. At Hanson’s nursery, selling a bedding plant for 15 cents each doesn’t make money but preparing hanging baskets with a variety of color and plants that bloom sequentially, gives them $2 per bedding plant.
The family must co-operate.