By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent WEST CHESTER, Ohio — What started as a fall sale of pumpkins and hayrides has grown to a year-round business.
Once begun to invite locals to their farm, now schoolchildren and sports groups flock here. Bob and Bethanne Niederman of Butler County have turned their 250-acre Ohio farm into a business venture.
“We’ve had tours for several years, but in the last four to five years, we’ve turned it into a business and began to charge for the activities here,” Bethanne said. “There is more and more interest, which takes more and more of our time, and we couldn’t do it for free anymore.”
The farm was purchased by her parents in 1948. At that time, there were few schools around and no population boom. But West Chester and other parts of this county have grown. West Chester alone includes two high, four junior high and 14 elementary schools.
Their land is still isolated from this development, but within easy driving distance.
“We had the things we needed to do this, like the barns, carports, picnic tables,” Bethanne said. “We found a way to add activities. We now have something for every season.”
A harvest moon, 22-acre corn maze and pumpkin patch is the collective draw in the fall. A Christmas display in the winter months attracts many visitors, as does the bed-and-breakfast offering.
The farm is host to paintball action during the summer months and in the spring, a multitude of preschool and older children converge at this farm, which offers barnyard animals like goats, lambs, pigs, chickens, rabbits and calves. The farm is also home to a Christian-based youth football league in the fall.
The Niedermans even employ Besse, an animated, milkable cow eight feet tall. Made of fiberglass, this Holstein has a workable udder that helps visitors better understand where milk comes from.
The couple invested more than $7,000 in the contraption.
“We’re still a working farm,” Bob said. “We still raise corn, soybeans and beef cattle. We’re trying to survive.”
For more information about this farm, tours and products, call the Niedermans at 513-779-6184.
This farm news was published in the May 2, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
