As Bob Schrader approached retirement, he wasn’t planning to take it easy.
For 37 years, Schrader worked as the assistant director of the center for agriculture at UMass Cooperative Extension, part of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Five years before he retired, he bought a Christmas tree farm.
“I had good experiences working on a farm when I was younger — much, much younger,” Schrader, 72, says.
Now, with the help of his son Jake, he owns and operates Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm, a 133-acre farm located in Hatfield, MA.
The farm hadn’t been operational for nearly a decade and was “fairly overgrown” when Bob Schrader bought it in 2010 for $215,000.
“It wasn’t perfect at the time, but after looking for a while, I realized this was a pretty good deal,” he recalls.
Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm is a 133-acre farm in Hatfield, MA.
Courtesy of Bob Schrader
Jake Schrader began working with his father on the farm after graduating from UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in plant soil science.
“I’d like to think I’ve been with my father every step of the way, through the good times and the bad,” he says.
Now 39 and a co-owner of the farm, Jake Schrader works a day job as a public utility foreman at Berkshire Gas. He primarily works at the farm mornings, nights, weekends and on vacation days, he says.
For the majority of the year, “it’s pretty much just me and my son working part-time after work,” Bob Schrader says.
“I think we both have our roles,” Jake Schrader says. He takes on the majority of maintenance and equipment repairs, he says, while his father handles bookkeeping, accounting and business management.
“I don’t think he could do it without me, and I don’t think I could do it without him,” Jake Schrader says.
How to grow a Christmas tree
The planting cycle for Christmas trees takes about 11 years, according to Bob Schrader.
Each spring, he purchases around 6,000 fir seedlings, which are usually about five years old — “about the biggest that you can get, and still be able to plant them,” he says — for approximately $2 per tree.
He, Jake and a few helpers plant the seedlings in about two days using a tree planting machine.
It takes between seven and nine years of nurturing the trees — fertilizing them, applying herbicides, mowing nearby weeds, shearing the sides and shaping the tops — to get them ready for Christmas.
After a section of mature trees are harvested, they begin clearing the area to replant, which can take another two to three years.
Few people understand how much ongoing work it takes to grow Christmas trees, Schrader says.
“On more than one occasion, when I’ve been selling trees, the person would say, ‘Boy, you really have a good deal. You plant the tree for like three or four bucks. You come back eight years later, and you sell it for $75. What could be bad about that?'”
“The truth is a long ways away from that,” he continues.
Bob and Jake Schrader.
Courtesy of Bob Schrader.
Preparing for the holidays
For Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm, Thanksgiving is the busiest time of year, Bob Schrader says.
The farm typically sells around 2,500 trees every year, and one-third of those sales take place over Thanksgiving weekend.
Visitors pay between $75 and $90 to choose and cut their own trees, with saws and wheelbarrows provided. The price for pre-cut trees varies based on height: 6-8 foot trees cost $75, and 8-9 foot trees cost $90.
Every tree needs to be “processed” before it can be sold, “meaning we shake them, we bale them, we trim the bottom, and we make sure it looks the way the person wants to have it look,” Schrader says.
About a dozen people, including friends, family and part-time employees, help the Schraders on the farm during peak weekends in November and December.
In addition to selling trees, Schrader says their goal is to create a “family experience” filled with Christmas wonder: the farm offers an outdoor firepit, horse-drawn wagon rides for $2 and free hot chocolate.
“It looks like you’re walking into like a Hallmark setting when you come to the farm,” Jake Schrader says.
The firepit at Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm.
Courtesy of Bob Schrader.
Around the third weekend of November, Bob and Jake Schrader transform one of the farm’s outbuildings into a cozy gift shop that offers wreaths, tree stands, wood crafts, ornaments from local artisans and branded farm merchandise.
Approximately 5,000 people pass through the gift shop each year, according to Jake Schrader.
Those extra features don’t come cheap – it costs around $400 a day to hire the wagon and horses, for example – but “it’s part of what attracts people to the farm,” Bob Schrader says.
The farm’s Christmas festivities are part of a broader trend of agrotourism, according to Schrader.
In New England, “wholesale prices are not going to keep you in business on most things,” so he and other farmers have gotten creative in cultivating destination experiences, he says.
By mid-December, Christmas tree sales have slowed to a trickle, Bob Schrader says: “You do a huge amount of work for a season that lasts three to four weeks.”
Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm’s net income varies based on labor and equipment costs, Schrader says, but they typically end the year with between $50,000 and $100,000 in profit.
The farm is structured as an LLC, according to Bob Schrader, and neither he nor Jake take a salary from the farm’s revenue.
As another revenue stream, the Schraders also grow hay on 20 acres of the land. They sell about 5,000 bales of hay yearly, as well as around 25 gallons of maple syrup and some firewood.
The farm’s gift shop.
Courtesy of Bob Schrader.
The future of the farm
Looking ahead, their main challenge will be “understanding and responding to the impacts of climate change,” Bob Schrader says.
“The impact of small changes in the climate, in terms of temperature and moisture, are huge, absolutely huge,” he continues.
Extreme weather events like drought and heavy rain put stress on the trees, which makes them more susceptible to disease.
This year, after a particularly rainy spring, the Schraders are grappling with an outbreak of a plant-damaging waterborne fungus called phytophthora.
“If it gets to the roots of the trees, the tree is going to be dead within about three months,” Schrader says, and the farm has already lost a few hundred young trees this year.
He is working with the University of Massachusetts and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to learn how to combat the fungus, and to prepare for future climate challenges.
For many reasons, farming is an uncertain endeavor, Jake Schrader says. He jokes that “guys who farm are the biggest gamblers in the world.”
Fifteen years in, he still feels new to the profession, but his dream is to one day retire from his day job and work full-time on the farm, he says.
Bob Schrader has a similar dream: that the farm will continue “to operate and prosper,” and that his son will one day take over.
“I’m 72 years old, so I feel fine, but you know, you don’t kid yourself that you’re going to live forever,” he says. “How many good years do you have to keep going the way you’re going?”
Jake Schrader says his father is both “a best friend and a great partner” on the farm.
“I couldn’t do it without my father,” he says. “I’m thankful that he is still in good health, and able to live out his retirement years to do what he’s wanted to do his whole life.”
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