The Kentucky Horticulture Council (KHC) is another great resource available to Kentucky producers. KHC provides resources for information and education for growers, business owners, and the public to promote a thriving horticulture industry. In this guest post by Executive Director Cindy Finneseth, KHC discusses how to be prepared and creative this fall agritourism season.
It’s that time of year in Kentucky – pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and wagon rides are beginning to buzz with activity! You have most likely already adjusted many routine business practices to reduce risk and are placing less emphasis on tours and festivals this season and focusing more on safety and outdoor family experiences. Four things to keep in mind as you ramp up or transition to autumn agritourism activities:
Keeping safety first. Most operations have found effective ways to implement social distancing, personal protective equipment requirements, employee health screening, and other necessary steps to ensure personal safety in the field and retail areas. Now that you have basic safety precautions in place, do you have an emergency response plan? Use this tool to manage risk by organizing and deploying resources in emergency situations like accidents, injuries, and illnesses. Need help getting started? Here’s a template.
Reshaping business strategies. You may have already implemented new strategies like pre-ordering and contactless pick-up and plan to retain these practices in the future. Are you thinking about other ways to retain and attract customers? A few strategies to consider:
Provide a video, schedule a video chat, or become a “pen pal” with teachers from local schools who normally would visit on field trips.
Develop new experiences like demonstrations, a drive-through “safari”, trivia, or reserved areas like firepits for family gatherings.
Offer pre-booking or timed entries or special hours for crowd control or a coupon/voucher for historically less busy times to manage crowds
Communicating with customers and employees. We talk a lot about communicating to customers – don’t forget to make sure your team understands expectations this season. Frequent check-ins will help employees know what to do and how to handle challenges. Some operations have expressed concerns about how best to train seasonal workers on safety measures and how to reinforce those precautions with a workforce that will only be in the business for a short time. You might want to consider an employee “pledge” – one like this may be useful.
Building resilience and preparing for the future. Most likely, this year you have been more flexible than you ever anticipated. Continue to develop novel ways to stay competitive, connect with your customers, and strengthen your business. Consider the following:
As you develop signage, videos, and other resources to communicate information to employees and customers, consider post-COVID usage. Much of the messaging is well-aligned with crowd control and general farm safety practices as well as food safety precautions.
Mark time on your calendar to revisit your farm food safety plan, emergency response plan, insurance coverage, and review the terms and conditions of any loans or contracts you have.
Inventory your materials on hand and review your supply chain. You may want to order early for some inputs like seed, potting mix, containers, and other critical production and packaging materials – you may even get a discount for an early order.
It is important that you celebrate your successes and learn from the challenges every year. Be in the mindset of continuous improvement and take advantage of the many programs and initiatives available to agritourism operations across Kentucky. KHC has assembled a list of several resources for agritourism operations.
The Kentucky Horticulture Council (KHC) is a coalition of member organizations that provides a unified voice for the respective horticulture industry segments of Kentucky. KHC’s purpose is to support the state horticulture industry and be a resource for information and education for growers, business owners, and the public to promote a thriving industry. KHC organizes educational programs, coordinates research initiatives, promotes development of markets, and influences policy to benefit new and existing specialty crop growers and green industry business owners in Kentucky. You can reach KHC at 859-490-0889 or via email at info@kyhortcouncil.org.
KCARD is pleased to work with partners like KHC to provide support for Kentucky’s agritourism operations. Contact KCARD at 859-550-3972 or via email at kcard@kcard.info.