Louisiana Agritourism: Want to Start a Farm Stay?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Want to Start a Farm Stay?

Minnesota has a new Farm Stay Manual available online. If you are interested in hosting guests overnight on your farm or ranch, this is a must read. Although the guide was written for Minnesota, it contains a sample business plan that could be adapted for Louisiana.

If you decide to start a farm stay, plan to attend our up-coming workshop on "Outdoor Enterprise Business Plan Development," scheduled for Wednesday, June 6 in Vidalia. Click here for details.

Once you have your farm stay in operation, be sure to join the Farm Stay U.S. network.

1 comment:

Scottie Jones said...: Thanks, Dora Ann, for mentioning our website. We would love to have new members from Louisiana. Our traffic has topped one million page views since we launched and we continue to grow as the recognized place to find wonderful farm and ranch stays throughout the US.; April 5, 2012 at 4:58 PM

Post a Comment

Agritourism Law Limits Liability

In 2008, the Louisiana Legislature expanded the limitation of liability found in La R.S. 9:2795 et seq to include certain agritourism activities. The legislation authored by Representative Andy Anders and Senators Francis Thompson and Mike Walsworth provides that the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Foresty (LDAF) will develop a set of rules and regulations and that the LSU AgCenter will define a “plan of operation” for an agritourism venture and review those plans.

More about this law can be found on the LSU AgCenter Web site: www.lsuagcenter.com/agritourism

2012 Agriculture Census Shows Increase in Farming

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2014 –There are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the United States, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Once every five years, farmers, ranchers and growers have the unique opportunity to let the world know how U.S. agriculture is changing, what is staying the same, what’s working and what we can do differently,” said Dr. Cynthia Clark, the retiring head of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, which administered the survey.

Eighty-seven percent of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals.
Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were predominantly male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female; and third operators were younger still.
In Louisiana agritourism grew from 170 farms in 2007 to 361 farms in 2012.
In Louisiana onfarm agritourism sales jumped from $2,486 to $8,996 in 2012.
In Louisiana the definition of agritourism is broader than the definition in the census; meaning that numbers are greater.