If it’s adventure you’re after, the Kearney Area Ag Producers Alliance encourages tourists to explore life on the rural farms and ranches just outside of city limits. KAPPA, a farmer owned agriculture development cooperative, says Country Adventures are low-cost, close-to-home alternatives for travel and excitement.
With gas prices high and school letting out, families are looking for a close-to-home vacation to remember; and many families are finding those experiences just outside their very own city limits. Rural adventures such as farming and ranching activities are gaining in popularity and benefiting both the farm/ranch owner with added income and also the traveling family with an educational and fun-filled get-away.
Farmers and ranchers can now join the growing number of others who are making additional money from agritourism, and without the investment of much time and effort because of the help of KAAPA Country Adventures. The Country Adventures Website is an online marketplace where experiences such as hunting, fishing, horseback riding and farm tours are sold to the buying public.
Often called the “eBay of Agritourism,” Country-Adventures lends itself to those in the agriculture community who have resources that they would allow the public to enjoy and experience. As summer approaches now is the time travelers are searching the internet for these types of adventures.
“We don’t want any farmer or rancher to miss out on this opportunity as people are making their travel plans now,” said Marge Lauer, Project Director of Country-Adventures. “People are looking for, and willing to pay for outdoor and rural experiences. They want to ride your tractor, milk your cow, and look for birds and other wildlife as they hike on your land. All of those things you do everyday is what they would love to do for one day.”
Lauer says a lot of farmers and ranchers don’t realize or believe the consumer wants to take part in these types of activities. “The love for the outdoor adventure is growing and its just makes sense for our agricultural residents to take advantage of that,” said Lauer.
“Let’s say you would let a family of four ride horses on your property for two hours. You could charge them $15 a person for a total of $60 and all you needed to do was greet them, open up a gate or two and give them directions on where they could ride.” Lauer goes on to say if you packaged that with a sack lunch for each and had an extra farm home for them to stay in that evening you could easily charge up to $200 for very little time and effort.
To get involved is easy, according to Geoff Long of Holbrook, NE, a user of the Country-Adventures web site. “All you need to do is register on the site and follow a simple step-by-step process asking for a description and cost. I think it took me about 20 minutes to complete my first draft.”
Country-Adventures does charge a fee of $7.50 for listing your adventure or item. Once sold, a marketing fee of 15 to 20% is taken from the buyer’s payment with 85 to 80% going directly to the seller. The marketing fee is used to promote all the adventures/items for sale on the web site to the public by way of print and broadcast advertising, Search Engine Optimization and attending sport and travel trade shows.
Country-Adventures is a program developed by KAAPA, an ag development group of about 450 farmers and ranchers is headquartered in Kearney, NE. It provides information and direction on liability issues by providing an on-staff registered insurance agent as well as offering on-site visits to your farm or ranch to help identify and determine revenue opportunities.