Agritourism farmer perspectives
In 2024, a team from Extension and the Minnesota Farmers Union interviewed four farm owners who offer agritourism activities. The team invited agritourism business owners to tell their story about starting and managing agritourism businesses.
When it comes to safety, they had a lot to share. It’s clear that agritourism business owners care deeply about protecting visitors while they create authentic and fun on-farm experiences. A core business value shared across all of the operators is to balance safety with opportunities to experience agriculture and nature first-hand. Getting dirty and managing safety is a “rural skill” that gets kids into nature and learning about farm animals and crop production.
Balancing safety and farm experiences
Each of the businesses has taken steps to plan for the safety of their employees and visitors during farm visits. Additionally, they have liability insurance to protect their business investments and livelihood. Owners consider insurance a standard business practice, even if it is one of their priciest business expenses. Several were able to reduce the cost of insurance by going to business collaboratives such as a Christmas Tree Association.
Another protection comes from Minnesota Statute 604A.40, passed in 2024. This legislation provides that an agritourism professional is not liable for injury, damage, or death resulting from the inherent risks of agritourism activities, with exceptions in case of (1) “negligence or unwillful or wanton disregard for the safety of the participant … (2) actual knowledge of a dangerous condition that is not addressed; 3) intentional injury; or 4) failure to comply with the notice requirement.
Agritourism liability signage available through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Farmers Union alerts the public that they are taking responsibility for their safety, and reminds the public that they are visiting a working farm rather than a public park.
Managing safety challenges
But insurance and a Minnesota statute are not enough when it comes to safety; precautions at the farm level are still critical. The businesses interviewed described their most worrisome safety concerns.
The vignettes below describe how agritourism business owners manage their safety challenges.
Debbie Yennie, owner of First Fruit Blueberry Farm, worries most about stings, falls, and sun. Yennie invites community groups with special safety concerns — the elderly, disabled communities and youth — because they have the most to gain from positive outdoor experiences. But with these and all customer groups, Yennie structures farm experiences to prevent isolation and ensure safety while encouraging social activities.
To protect from the sun, Yennie only hosts groups in the morning hours. “It’s just too hot out there (in the afternoon), and that puts me at high risk. I don’t want anyone to get heat stroke.”
Yennie is also hyper-aware of who is on her farm, where they are, and how long they’ve been there. “I am very aware of who’s out there and where they’re at. I know how long people last when they’re picking. I check on people, and I walk the field.” Yennie also makes sure that no one is picking alone. “There’s always another person within 15 feet. I do that purposely.”
Bee stings are another big challenge. “I mean, we’re outdoors — and guess what? We have bees because plants produce flowers in the spring.” While the yellow jackets and bees on her farm are not aggressive by nature, they sting when threatened. Ground wasps located in areas where guests cluster are a particular concern for Yennie. “I try to eliminate them as quickly as possible whenever we come across a ground wasp nest,” she says.
Yennie also needs to warn customers while giving directions to the fields where customers pick berries. This is particularly important because, being on a farm location, a 911 call would delay treatment by 15-20 minutes. She wishes she could get some kind of prescription for Epipens. “Some people have no idea that they are allergic, because they’ve never been stung before.”
When it comes to falls, Yennie focuses on awareness and directing visitors to find a buddy before they go into the fields. Yennie is very intentional about sending visitors out with a partner, and encourages visitors to visit her farm with another person for safety’s sake. “I make it very clear to people that this is rough terrain and to be very careful.”
Pike’s Corn Maze owner Jay Pike works hard to prevent illness and falls from wagons during hay rides. He is also concerned with animal safety and protecting vehicles. Children and their families are a primary target market for these activities, and so managing safety for children while satisfying parents’ concerns is paramount.
Jay sees hand-washing as critical to preventing illnesses that might be caught on the farm. “We wouldn’t do (agritourism) without insurance; and we honestly wouldn’t do it without hand washing,” he says. Their handwashing stations serve multiple safety purposes on the farm where kids and adults frequently pet and handle animals.
Hand washing protects animals as much as it protects humans. “We have two portable bathrooms plus a washing station with paper towels and garbage cans where they can throw everything away immediately.” The availability of handwashing makes families who aren’t used to dealing with animals more comfortable, holding with the farm’s goal to create real farm experiences that customers feel safe doing.
“My wife knew what mothers were thinking,” Jay says. “(They) make sure that kids’ hands are clean before they start eating after they just visited animals.” Having adequate facilities protects the farm from liabilities while making parents comfortable with the experience.
The handwashing stations were installed at Pike’s Farm during Covid. Jay also wanted guests to feel comfortable with physical proximity to others during the pandemic. “Before we started the wagon on hay rides, I would ask, “Are you covid comfortable?” And everyone would usually say yes, but if somebody wasn’t, I gave them their own ride as soon as we got back from the 20-minute ride.”
Customer behavior can become a safety threat and create risky circumstances. One of Pike Farm’s most popular activities became such a risk that the Pikes stopped offering it, valuing safety over popularity. “One of the coolest things we did for a couple of years was to have an evening corn maze walk through the maze with ‘scares,’ Jay says. “A group in town did all of the ‘scaring’ for us. We charged people to come for the event, but every dollar that came in was given to that group for the night. We didn’t keep anything, except if we sold pumpkins, water, pop, chips, or candy bars. We raised almost $6,000 two years in a row.”
But the behavior of older children raised enough of a safety concern that the farm felt vulnerable. “(The older children) did some things that they really should not have been doing … And there were a couple of events where serious situations came close to happening.” One strategy was to bring local police officers to the farm, but there were none available. So the Pikes made a difficult decision. “We were sorry, but we made a decision not to continue evening events."
Hayrides require constant supervision to address the risk of falling from the wagon. Jay sees this safety concern as a labor issue and takes personal responsibility for driving the tractor during hayrides. He drives like a conscientious school bus driver would. “I go slow. We don’t try to get anywhere in a hurry. And I watch very carefully. If there’s kid mischief going on, I’ll stop and ask them to sit back down.”
Jay feels his time is well spent securing the safety of the hayride. “I’m more of a safe driver than some people might be.”
Allowing interaction between visitors and animals can be a highlight of a farm experience, but there is always the risk of animals biting. Jay manages this with upfront communication with visitors. “We had to put up signs and always talk to customers about how to approach animals. They are warned when they buy a ticket. We haven’t had many issues, and goats and sheep are friendly.”
Parking lot design has been critical to vehicle safety. Depending on where a farm driveway is, parking lots can be pretty hazardous. At Pikes Farm, the entrance is on a side road, so it is safer for vehicles to turn into the driveway. This makes their location a good fit for the number of visitors they receive.
Les Schwarts, owner of Rockwood Maple Farm in Wadena, educates groups and individuals in the art and science of making maple syrup. Safety is part and parcel of the education Les provides, because making maple syrup involves navigating dense forested areas, handling dangerous equipment, and monitoring hot stoves. He couples physical guardrails with careful education in order to keep learners safe.
“Since we’re out in the woods and it’s spring, it can be muddy. There’s always a risk of slipping and falling ... There’s always the risk of a stick coming up and hitting them if they fall, or slipping on snow and ice and spraining an ankle or groin or something.” Les talks to groups about the risk beforehand, and there’s always adult supervision. Les also warns guests to not run from tree to tree and to stay conscious of the terrain.
Electric drills are needed to dig holes into trees so that taps (or spouts) can be inserted into a hole. That means that part of Les’s educational presentation is focused on drill and drill bit safety.
Wood-fired cookers cook the syrup after extraction. “Wood stoves get extremely hot,” says Lee. “I keep some sort of rail around the cooker, especially when younger kids are around it. I also open the door and show them how hot it is. They usually take a step back because the heat in there is so intense. I explain that you have to have it really hot to boil the sap and make syrup, and they get it.”
The Kavan Christmas Tree Farm provides Christmas trees and holiday experiences five to six weekends a year. As Steve and Lauren Kavan have developed their Christmas tree farm over the past decade, they looked to other farms for guidance. That guidance includes ways to keep visitors safe.
The Kavans see safety as a human resources issue. Their labor comes from a number of workers who sometimes sign up for only a weekend or two during the Christmas season. For safety’s sake, the Kavans have decided to be careful about who handles the more dangerous elements of the work. “I think (next year) I'll have one dedicated person who cuts and bales trees; [and] who operates the chainsaws,” said Steve. He intends not to hire back people who don’t seem to hold safety paramount. “Just because it’s a risk I don’t want,” he says.
Christmas trees are often strapped to the top of cars, creating a dangerous situation on the roads if trees aren’t strapped securely enough. “So we opted to use giant zip ties this year,” says Steve. “They were more of an expense, but also made me feel more comfortable. I’m not super comfortable with my own tying skills, nor my employees’. So this was a nice, easy option to be just a little bit safer.”
As part of the approval process for opening a Christmas tree farm on a county road, the county required that signs on the road posted hours of operation. The signage triggers drivers to slow down when the farm creates more traffic. The electronic changeable message posts hours from each direction. The signs are bright and obvious on dark winter nights.
The company that rented the sign helped the Kavans leverage the sign for greater success. “They said, ‘Even though you’re not going to open for another week, why not turn them on right away? That way people know you’ll be open.’ We’re catching people while they’re traveling that road even during non-business hours,” Steve says.
The signs cost over $2,000. But rather than the signs being a detriment to profitability, they’ve ended up being the farm’s strongest marketing asset. “(The signs) ended up generating 40 - 50% of our traffic,” said the Kavans. “We heard a lot from people who said, ‘I didn’t even know you guys were here until I saw the sign.’”
University of Minnesota Extension’s Tourism Center helped create resources based on interviews with four agritourism businesses as part of a statewide work team. Learn more about agritourism farmer perspectives and available resources.
Reviewed in 2025