DOWN ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE FARM

The idea of growing Christmas trees may sound attractive, but area growers say the business requires hard work, year-round attention and a lot of patience.

Trees require pruning and weeding, varmints cause constant problems. If a grower is lucky, one of three trees planted will survive to reach the 6-7 foot height most people want in a Christmas tree.

But for Teresa Meier, Al Franke and David Schwab, the hard work brings big rewards in the days before Christmas. They have the opportunity to see families enjoy the experience of picking out just the right tree for their home.

"I like the excitement of the people," said Meier. "Everybody has found the perfect tree or best one. And adults are just as excited as the kids. That's probably the best part of it."

Schwab said the long hours of work taking care of trees during the year are nothing compared to the time required selling trees and distributing them to tree lots around the area.

But despite the long hours, "It is kind of uplifting to see all the excitement from families about choosing a tree. For many people, picking a tree is part of their holiday tradition," he says.

Watching people come to his farm makes everything worthwhile, Franke said. "Seeing the people come in, especially the little kids, that's the best part of it. You see people taking pictures while looking for their tree."

The Meier, Schwab and Franke farms are near Jackson. Several other Christmas tree farms are scattered around the region.

Schwab and Franke both give people a chance to choose the tree they want cut. Customers walk to where the trees are growing.

But the Meiers have combined their interest in raising Belgian horses with their Christmas-tree business. The Meiers usually have three teams of horses pulling wagons of weekend customers to where trees are located.

"We kind of tied the two together," said Meier, whose farm is called Horseshoe Pines. "This is one of the highlights of coming out here and getting to ride on the wagon with horses to get your tree. There is a little extra experience with it."

By next year, Schwab said he will likely have to provide some transportation to get customers where most of his trees are growing.

All three also sell wreaths, roping, and Christmas items in shops. Meier sells craft items on consignment.

Schwab and Franke also give people an opportunity to take a live tree home that they can use as a Christmas tree and then plant in their yard.

Franke said one family still has all 13 of its live trees purchased from his farm.

He got into the Christmas tree business because it complemented his landscaping business. The Christmas trees are planted with landscaping trees. If not cut at Christmas, they can be dug up and sold later for landscaping.

Franke said his landscaping business slows down in late November and December, when Christmas trees are sold.

He has been selling trees for 14 years.

Schwab has been growing trees since 1979 and selling them for eight years. He has a farming operation with his brother, but saw the trees as a good sideline that could involve his entire family.

"I look at the Christmas tree business as any other business. There is a lot of management and a lot of work involved year-round with the trees," said Schwab.

Schwab not only sells at his farm, but also sells some trees wholesale and operates retail lots in Jackson, Cape Girardeau and Anna.

The Meiers planted trees 11 years ago and are selling for the fifth year. Teresa Meier works for the University of Missouri Extension office and her husband Steve works at the post office in Jackson.

"We have a small farm here and were looking for a use of our land to go with pastures used for horses," she explained.

Their three boys, ages 12, 11, and 5, also work with the trees. Meier said anyone who thinks raising trees is a scheme to get rich is wrong.

"You constantly have to be watching for things -- it's kind of like raising kids," he said.

When people come to the farm on weekends, the Meiers get their children, relatives, friends and neighbors involved with the effort to help families find the right tree and have a memorable experience.

"It's a community event out here," said Meier.

Schwab said there are about 150 members of the Missouri Christmas Tree Growers Association, which was organized to share ideas about how to develop a better quality tree.

Each year about 36 million real Christmas trees are sold. Part of the competition comes from fake trees, which have improved in quality in recent years.

"We try to make a real tree as convenient as possible," Schwab said. "We shake out loose needles, offer a stand to make the tree easier to put up straight, and have it easy to water."

Schwab and Franke say the overabundance of trees on the market means growers must produce top-quality trees to do well.

"There is a lot of difference in quality," said Franke. "But the people who are customer-oriented are doing very well."

When Schwab considered alternative crops for his farm, he saw Christmas trees as a product that could be sold directly to the consumer.

"There is a big glut on the wholesale market and nationwide. Our emphasis is to provide a tree locally that is fresh and try to retail our trees out instead of looking at the wholesale market," said Schwab. "We try to keep our quality up and offer a fresh tree."