This website serves Farmers and Ranchers in the Kansas AgriTourism Industry.
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This website has been developed specifically for Kansas farmers and ranchers involved in AgriTourism, rural properties where the traveler has an opportunity to experience farm and country life far from the hustle of the city.
The site is a project of the Kansas Agritourism Advisory Council, working in cooperation with:
the Kansas Agriculture Marketing Division and the Travel and Tourism Division of the Department of Commerce
and with financial assistance from Frontier Farm Credit.
We invite you to explore this website to find a variety of articles and resources that will help you succeed in agritourism.
If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Commerce, Travel and Tourism Division, and ask for the Agritourism Liaison.
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Chicken N Pickin' Farm, Walnut, Kansas
AgriTourism Becoming Big Business in Kansas

March 2005

Karen Duling may be a small-business owner in rural Kansas, but she knows the latest buzzword is agri-tourism.

Duling, owner of Chicken-N-Pickin' near Walnut, Kan., said she and her family have been providing chicken dinners, music and skits for busloads of people from Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City since 2000.

Duling understands agri-tourism means bringing people from the city to the country, said Shelia Lampe, president of the Southeast Kansas Tourism Region.

"The people in the cities have been polled and researched, and they are wanting to come out to the more rural areas and slow down and experience those hands-on things," Lampe said.

Four years ago, Duling converted an old milk barn into a business by adding a kitchen, restrooms and an area for dinner and a show.

"We've had people from the Department of Commerce and Tourism out of Topeka to look at what we are doing and gave us some great ideas," Duling said.

Lampe said several businesses lend themselves to agri-tourism.

"Pumpkin patches, corn mazes, staying on farms and helping milk cows, gathering corn, taking trail rides, Christmas tree farms and game preserves are all under agri-tourism," she said.

There are sound economic reasons for tourism's attraction to business owners. "If there are farms going under and this is a way to help save them, than this is what we have to do," she said.

T&C Wildlife of Arcadia is a forerunner to the agri-tourism trend.

Established in 1999 as a members-only hunting club, T&C built a lodge in 2000 and has more than 6,000 acres of owned and leased land.

Owners C.A. "Bud" Walker and Terry Kunstel said most of the club's members are from Kansas City, but it also has members from Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio and Omaha, Neb.

"Kansas has become one of the top three states for trophy white-tail deer," Walker said.

Kunstel said that during hunting season, groups go out nearly every day.

Story courtesy of
Amarillo Globe-News
Morris News Service

For more information about Chicken-N-Pickin' , visit:
http://www.chickin-n-pickin.com

For more information about T&C Wildlife, visit
http://www.time2hunt.com/

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