Ag Tours Pay Off For Iowa Farmer

Ag Tours Pay Off For Iowa Farmer SPECIALTY/SERVICES John Maxwell gave his first farm tour to his daughter and her preschool classmates Soon that daughter Amy will be part of a robotic dairy tour on the family’s Donahue Iowa farm Located near the Quad Cities and Deere headquarters Maxwell’s scenic and diversified Cinnamon Ridge Farm is ideally suited for farm tours So is Maxwell who is very social and enjoys hosting people from the U S – and nearly 50 other countries so far In 2011 he hosted 70 tours for 2 500 people from international tour groups rural cooperatives and for corporations such as Deere Pioneer and Monsanto Maxwell cites hard work dumb luck and timing for getting him into the tour business After being named one of the four winners of the National Outstanding Young Farmer Award in 1997 Deere asked if he would provide tours – mostly for foreign guests It was a hectic time he says scheduling tours between running his 4 000-acre corn/soybean operation and milking his registered Jersey dairy herd currently the seventh largest producing Jersey herd in the U S When he upgrades any of his farm operations he keeps the tours in mind He added hogs for example for the manure to spread on his land He built buildings to lease to a hog farmer and the wean-to-finish barn is enclosed by glass on all four sides so visitors can see the operation yet maintain bio-security Beef cows Nubian goats and 400 chickens add to the farm’s ambiance Maxwell’s home with a great room seats 75 comfortably and a certified kitchen allows him to add catered meal options to tours Besides food Maxwell offers music as an option and hires local bluegrass folk country and sing-along groups “The music is universal and makes it very homey ” he says “I don’t ever want to lose that personal touch I want to be the spot everyone talks about ” That must be the case as he has never advertised All business has come from word-of-mouth For those who want to offer farm tours he suggests “Dream big but don’t start out too big ” Start with small groups and educate yourself to know everything about your farm Add new things to satisfy repeat visitors and tailor tours to your visitors Maxwell charges $10 per person for tours meals and music are extra with a $150 minimum He plans to add the robotic dairy managed by his daughter as a tour option and he hopes to offer public tours on Saturdays in the near future He also has an on-farm store selling chicken eggs beef pork and other foods and products Contact: FARM SHOW Followup John Maxwell Cinnamon Ridge Farms 10600 275th St Donahue Iowa 52746 ph 563 505-1652; www cinnamonridgefarms com

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