[size=85:rxr5t4tt]info from Google search
Hello Snail seems like there is a lot more to growing Christmas trees than we think. I found this on google.
Advantages of Growing Christmas TreesMost agricultural and horticultural crops require larger investments and more intensive management than timber production.
1) Christmas tree production is a compromise between short-term, intensively managed crops and long-term timber production.
2) Christmas tree rotations are much shorter than timber rotations. It takes six to 12 years to grow a marketable Christmas tree.
3) Christmas trees can be grown economically on small acreages. Christmas trees can be and are sometimes grown on farms of 1 acre or less.
4) Christmas trees require less ground cover disturbance than that needed with many agricultural crops.
5) The economic returns of growing Christmas trees are favorable,
Christmas Trees as an InvestmentThe decision as to whether or not to grow Christmas trees can be partially decided by economic considerations. Much time and some money must be invested in order to produce a crop of trees.
Experienced growers estimate that once the trees are above 3 feet tall, each acre requires about 40 man-hours per year of care. Furthermore, many cultural treatments must be done at certain times of the year. Shearing is often confined to a five-week period during early summer;
mowing is required as needed throughout the growing season. Frequently, growers will plant too many trees and find they must hire outside help in order to keep up with all the cultural practices that need to be done in later years.
There are many costs of producing Christmas trees that must be borne during the early years of the plantation. It is not until some trees are large enough for harvest and sale that a positive cash flow begins to develop. Production costs can include the following:
equipment (mowers, sprayers, shearing equipment, etc.)
labor (planting, pest control, shearing, harvesting, etc.)
seedlings
chemicals (herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, etc.)
miscellaneous items (signs, flagging, road maintenance, gates, etc.)
For all of these items, cost estimates can range form $3,000 to $12,000 per acre. Total costs will often depend upon the size of the operation. For example, a small grower with less than 10 acres may invest only in a small riding tractor or walk-behind, self-propelled mower;
a backpack sprayer, and shearing equipment.
:Good luck:to you.
Oddy