Conway family gives visitors view of farm life

LEBANON, Mo. -- What do you get when you cross a working dairy farm with a corn maze and a pumpkin patch? Well, in the Conway area you get Gunter Farms Pumpkin Patch and Maze.

The Lloyd and Jane Gunter farm is one of hundreds of farms across the nation that is converting some of their everyday life into experiences in agriculture for those nonfarmers through agritourism.

Long known for their prize-winning Brown Swiss dairy cattle, the Gunters have transformed a few acres of their farm into an eight-acre corn maze, where visitors can weave their way through corn rows to find their way to the pumpkin patch, and young visitors can pick out their own pumpkin.

The theme for this year's maze is a giant baseball (complete with seams) with two birds, including a Cardinal (which just happens to be Lloyd Gunter's favorite baseball team) standing on a baseball bat in the center. But before the adventures in the corn maze, the Gunters welcome visitors to their barn, where games await, such as calf bottle bowling, washer toss and a pool of corn. There also are two smaller hay mazes to get guests primed for the corn maze.

While an afternoon with the Gunter family sounds like just a fun day with the children, the Gunters hope people take a lesson or two away with them, in addition to their pumpkins.

Lloyd Gunter said that helping their daughter Elizabeth, who is a teacher in Marshfield, teach a lesson is what lead the family to open their farm to visitors about eight years ago. Last year the family welcomed about 2,500 children.

"We've had people in the Waynesville/Fort Leonard Wood area call us and want to bring kids out for summer school for kind of a trip to the farm day or to learn about dairy [farming]," Lloyd said. "We kind of got started with that and we thought we would plant a patch of pumpkins for our daughter's class one year, and the next thing we knew it grew from there."

The Gunters see their mazes, games and talks about farming as educational experiences for people who may have never set foot on a farm.

"We like to let people know where their milk comes from," Lloyd Gunter said. "We are getting so many generations of people who are removed from the farm. Look at the Fort Wood area. There are people who are coming there from all over the world, and they don't know. I have a silo here, and they think it is a water tank. So many people don't have a clue in dairy farming or where their food comes from or what kind of products come from milk, so we try to educate them."

Lloyd Gunter said one of his favorite questions is asking visitors if chocolate milk comes from brown cows. Then he shows what kind of milk comes from is Brown Swiss.

"It's kind of unbelievable," he said. "Some kids say that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, while others won't. I like to ask them how many of them have a squirt gun at home, then I tell them that I probably have the best squirt gun and will reach down and get some milk out of the cow."

While on the hay ride to the corn maze, Lloyd said he likes to throw a few questions out to his guests and explain some of the things they pass by, such as farming equipment, and what it is used for and how much things cost.

"People can't believe that a tractor costs over $50,000," he said. "It is real eye-opening to the people."

Helping kids learn about fruits and vegetables is also part of the corn maze. Lloyd Gunter said children are given a picture of two fruits and vegetables to find in the maze, and they then are quizzed when they emerge to see if they found them.

"I ask them what they find," he said. "Be it a carrot, an apple or pumpkin. It is also relating farm products to them while they walk through a field of corn. I ask them if they know what corn is used for and that it is used for feed for our cattle. We try to educate people, but we want them to have fun."

The longtime dairyman also said he emphasizes to the farms visitors that it is important to be good stewards of the land.

"We try to relate how good we are to the land and water because the things we produce here are things we are going to consume, and what the consumer consumes when it reaches town, so we want to make sure they get word that we are producing good quality food on the farm for them to consume."

For those who grew up on a farm, the lessons from the Gunters might not be anything new, but even in rural communities, such as Lebanon and Conway, there are many, many people who don't know much, if anything, about food production and agriculture.

"Just because you are rural doesn't mean you know everything," Lloyd Gunter said. "There are so many people who have never petted a cow or a calf, or anything. They are so far removed from the farm, and they might think they have those farm roots, but their children have never been on the farm. Just because they have done it doesn't mean their kids have."

Opening their farm to guests is a lot of work for the Gunter family. It also helps bring in extra operating capital.

"You have to kill the bugs and weeds the best I can out of the pumpkins, cut the corn into the maze, and this year we had to water the pumpkins a lot," Lloyd said. "It is a lot of involvement, and it does bring some extra income to the farm, which is part of the reason for doing it. Farmers are strapped so hard today with expenses, and every time you turn around there are things that are thrown out that maybe you didn't budget for at the beginning of the year. This just helps out as an extra income."

The entire Gunter family remains involved in the farm, even if they aren't there to milk every day.

Son John lives in St. Louis, but his family comes down to help plant the corn maze and with the pumpkins. Elizabeth helps out with the Web site maintenance. Her family also can be found quite often at the farm.

Youngest son David and his family continue the Gunter tradition of dairy farming. David works daily with Lloyd and Jane on the farm and with the maze and pumpkin patch.

The family milks about 80 cows, mostly Brown Swiss. They have been in the same location since 1973.

"Our livelihood still comes from milking," Lloyd said as Jane and David prepared for a group of children from a Strafford day care. "It's peace and quiet, and you can hear all that nature has to offer here. ... I really enjoy telling people about our farm, and we have enjoyed raising our family on a farm."