Spring freeze and summer drought prompt fall tourism drop

Extreme weather has forced agritourism ventures in the heart of the country to scramble to hold onto their share of an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Pat Schaefers, who runs Schaefers Corn Maze near Lollie, Ark., hopes visitors to the farm's two mazes won't mind that the corn is just 6 to 8 feet this fall — up to 4 feet shorter than the wall of corn families and school groups normally pay to get lost and turned-around in.

Yet Schaefers was one of the lucky ones. Even though the corn in her 30 acres of mazes is shorter than normal, she was able to open them for a seventh year thanks to a summerlong irrigation effort at the 1,000-acre farm she owns with her husband, Bob.

Sam Brown, who owns A-Maizeing-Farms in Mayfield, Ky., said the summer drought and 100-degree days ruined his farm's 20-acre corn maze, leaving stalks knee- to waist-high — far too short for use as a maze. Instead, he's offering a petting zoo, pedal cart races and hay rides.

“The object of our maze is to find hidden checkpoints, and our checkpoints literally would have been taller than the corn in some of the fields,” he said. “It would have pretty much been pointless.”

For many farms and orchards, autumn is the peak agritourism season as families seek out a taste of rural life with outings to explore corn mazes, take hay rides and pick their own apples or pumpkins. Tourism generated about $566 million for more than 23,000 U.S. farms in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent agriculture census — a survey conducted every five years.

But just like farming itself, agritourism can be stung by the weather.

Apple orchards across the Midwest and New England suffered huge losses when blossoms lured into early bloom by a warm March were killed in April freezes.

Indiana apple growers have had one of their worst crops in eight decades. Many orchards canceled their U-pick apple seasons and shipped in apples from out of state or traded varieties with other orchards to meet customers' demand.