Christmas is always early for these farmers
By Barry Adams, The Wisconsin State Journal | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
He had freshly cut trees that needed to be shipped and customers arriving with their own trailers and U-Hauls to pick up dozens of tightly bound
So a jammed gate last week on the back of a truck that brimmed with Christmas trees, while not ideal, was just another challenge of the day for Happersett, who founded
A crowbar and a 2-foot-long screwdriver ultimately remedied the problem and let Happersett resume his work of harvesting and shipping more than 20,000 trees from his 500-acre
Like any farmer, the weather is at the forefront for Happersett, who estimates his drought damages at
"There's a lot of people that are going without a tree," said Happersett, 64. "They don't want to take the time to do it."
More than 900,000 Christmas trees are harvested annually from
According to the Portage-based
"There's still plenty of trees. There's no shortage of any kind," Nicholson said. "Even growers who had problems, they planted extra trees to make up for it so they can continue to have product 10 years down the road."
His dad started
"It seems like at least once a decade you get a pretty bad drought and Christmas trees take a decade to grow so you're getting one drought per rotation," Brussock, 27, said. "This year was a very good growing season and the trees look great. But there are still some trees that didn't recover and will have to be held for a year."
Brussock sells most of his trees wholesale to garden centers and seasonal tree lots in the eastern half of the country. He also has his own retail location in
"We get a lot of repeat customers, and we're getting more new customers every day," Brussock said. "It's a convenience factor. People are always looking to get things delivered."
Tree farms can offer wholesale trees, grow their own trees for their retail operation, offer a choose and cut farm or a combination of all three.
"To me it's a challenge. Besides that, I don't have to wake up at
Happersett grew up in
His farming operation includes his shop and headquarters north of
And this year, he is opening a choose-and-cut farm near
"They love
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