Opportunities in Diversification

In my profile, you may have read that I currently work for an international design firm.  What this may not tell you is that I am a landscape architect.  My firm performs land planning and design work on a myriad of projects all over the world.  From time to time, this also includes farms and ranches (usually for wealthy land owners).  In fact, in my 3 years in the professional realm, I have worked on 2 cattle ranches, one in California and one in Uruguay.

The thought of designing the rural landscape absolutely intrigues me.  I hope to somehow find a niche market in the future to provide design services for production farmers and ranchers that would like to improve upon their grounds and make them more marketable for the general public to visit.  I envision a small design business as the perfect supplement to the angus cow-calf operation that I hope to join in the next couple of years with my in-laws. Because of this, I am actually very excited about the current local food trend and the Know Your Farmer program.  Hopefully this will catch on and I can begin my venture.

One interesting problem that we often have as landscape architects is finding mature trees for the most important nodes in our designs.  We call these specimen trees and these trees usually have a trunk diameter of of greater than 12 inches.  Many times we want certain aspects of our designs to have instant impact.  Planting large mature trees is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this.  Interestingly enough, landscape contractors are always in search of the larger trees and are willing to pay a premium for them.

So, if you are a rural land owner, the possibility of extra income from selling trees to landscape contractors may be a great idea.  New technology enables tree moving companies to move some significantly sized trees.  The installed cost of these monsters can sometimes reach $60,000 as one did on a urban park that we designed in Dallas.  Unfortunately, the actual sale cost of your trees will be much lower, but could easily top $5,000 for a nice straight trunked specimen tree. If you've got a nice wooded lot or some trees that are in the way, consider selling them for a significant profit to your operation.  There are definitely some costs and work involved with getting a tree ready for transplating off of your property, but it may be worth the effort of contacting a local landscape contractor.

Follow the link to see some examples of trees being relocated.
http://www.treemover.com/photo_gallery.cfm

Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food - Keep Your Storefront Clean?

Last evening I participated (albeit shortly) in the weekly #agchat session on Twitter. For any of you who do not use twitter and have not yet delved into this fascinating world of social media, give it a try. It's a wonderful way to connect with people. This is also one way that agriculture is trying to bridge the expanding gap between the urban and rural separation that I call America's Great Divide.

The topic for last evening's #agchat was the new USDA program called "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food". The talking points challenged many of the agricultural producers to stretch outside of their comfort zone and discuss ways to connect with consumers at the farm level, just as the KYF KYF program will try and do.

Many of the comments and rhetoric that I watched tied directly to an idea that I have been throwing around for quite some time now. As a professional designer, I understand much of the urban populations desire to see places that are clean, well kept and beautiful. In the midwest, many of the farms I see correlate directly with this ideal. However, out West where I am from, I think that many of the farms and ranches have lost this appeal. Agriculturalist out there farm large amounts of ground, we're talking huge. With many of their family not returning to the farm, it leaves them with work from sun up to sun down and little time to keep the grounds. I think if these spaces could be revitalized and given just a hint of professional design input, they could shine.

Part of connecting with consumers in the new local food market includes your business facility. Yep, your farm or ranch is now your place of business, your store front. If we want to connect to the urban society, there needs to be a touch of class and refinement. I'm not talking fake - dude ranch style, I'm talking nice respectable working facility style. A place to be proud of and a place to humbly show off when the city folk decide to see what agriculture is all about.

I read a great article last night in Working Ranch Magazine about a guest ranch in Utah that is doing a great job of being a real working cattle outfit while allowing guests to see a glimpse into what they do. While not everyone is geared to run a hospitality business, I think that the local food movement should send a message to our ag producers that we need to think about aesthetics a little. Urban people are used to their well kept neighborhoods and probably expect a little of the same when visiting rural America.

Does anyone think this is a valid point? Could there be a market for designers to help (not exploit, i know how limited ranch finances can be) ranchers and farmers position their grounds for the public?

http://tweetchat.com/room/agchat
http://workingranchtv.com/