Kansas AgriTourism News
May 2007
Greetings!
Have you been wondering just who the folks are on the Kansas AgriTourism Advisory Council--and what it is they do?
Many of us are producers and agritourism operators, while some of our members come from the universities, Kansas extension, and the departments of commerce. (There is a current list of members on the website.)
The Kansas AgriTourism Advisory Council in 2004, and, among other things, we've worked to establish this monthly newsletter, and our website, www.kansasagritourism.org. Both are intended primarily to assist agritourism operators within and beyond the state of Kansas.
 Our mandate is pretty straightforward-we seek to promote the growth of agritourism within the state of Kansas.
If you would like to help us, or consider joining the council, we hope you'll read the article below, and send us your information.
It takes a team, and we look forward to hearing from you!
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In This Month's Issue:
Featured Destination:
Just a Working Cattle Ranch
The Flint Hills Ranch Experience
Kansas Agritourism Advisory Council is Looking For Members
The Flint Hills Are Taking Kansas by Storm
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This Month's Featured Destination:
Just a Working Cattle Ranch
The Flint Hills Ranch Experience
“We’re just a working cattle ranch,” Rose Bacon says. “It’s nothing fancy. We wear our work clothes, and we show them what we do.”
That’s the undefined marketing formula for the Flint Hills Ranch Experience, run by Kent and Rose Bacon at the R.K. Cattle Company on the Four Mile Road outside Council Grove, Kansas. Groups from throughout the U.S., and visiting groups from Sweden and Germany have eagerly paid to come see this glimpse of real ranching.
Each individual pays $10, with a minimum of $150 per group (smaller groups of less than 15 will be accommodated as long as they pay the $150 minimum). Rose indicates that the groups usually come in by bus and she meets them in Council Grove. On the way out to the ranch, she boards the bus and has this time to explain a little about the history of the ranch, and the beautiful Flint Hills.
“In the cattle industry, we are stockers, or backgrounders,” Rose tells her guests. Most react the same way this writer did-they have no clue what that means. Rose expects that, and has an explanation ready.
“What we provide is basically an ‘elementary school for calves.’ When the young calves are ready to leave their momma, we bring them here and prepare them for getting along well at the feed lots. Here, they’ll get used to the horses working among them. We’ll introduce them to the chutes, the feed bunks, the vaccinations, give them ear tags, teach them to get used to automatic water systems, and all that.”
Rose explains that this transitional phase significantly reduces the sickness and death rate among cattle moving from birth to the feedlots. The calves can make the transition without the backgrounders, but this middle step results in healthier cattle.
At the ranch, Kent and Rose will walk their guests through the process she has just explained on the bus.
“Horses are our main equipment,” she tells them. She’ll explain a working saddle, and talk about what the horses are expected to do. Better yet, she lets a visitor pick a calf in the herd. “Then we get on the horse, cut out the calf, move it up the alley and into the tub.” Some may have seen this in a western, but now the crowd is amazed to see rider and horse actually separate the calf and move it where they want it.
“There’s always someone who wants to ride the horses,” Rose says, “So I explain that cowboy’s horse is kind of like a husband. Once a woman has one trained and broken in right, you don’t lend them out. Chances are they’ll come back ruined, or spoiled.”
Stories like this, Rose says, help her guests feel at home.
Click here to read more about the Flint Hills Ranch Experience, and why tourists love it.
Kansas AgriTourism Advisory Council Looking for New Members
If you are presently involved as a producer, hunting/fishing operation, bed & breakfast operator, part of a winery venue, nature/wildlife or other agritourism/tourism entity within the State of Kansas, the Kansas AgriTourism Advisory Council invites you to submit your application to join this council.
The council's mandate is to advance the growth agritourism within the state primarily through partnership among agricultural groups, tourism associations, community groups and businesses. The council meets four times a year, typically in Topeka or Manhattan, in addition to regular communication by telephone, mail and email.
To learn more about agritourism, and the council:
From Department of Commerce
Division of Travel & Tourism
The Flint Hills Are Taking Kansas by Storm
Six weeks after National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson unveiled a traveling exhibit of his 22-page Flint Hills photo spread, people across Kansas continue to come out in droves to see the display.
Thousands have visited the exhibit in communities large and small. The photo exhibit opens next week for a two-week run in Manhattan, a week at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and then continues on its more than 54 week journey that is ever growing.
The exhibit features more than 30 large-scale prints from the Flint Hills spread, including an eight-foot-wide multi-panel photograph of a lone Flint Hills tree standing against a backdrop of stars and the Milky Way. Titled The Flint Hills: A Kansas Treasure, the exhibit represents Richardson’s attempt to reveal the hidden secrets of the Flint Hills – including their history and their remarkable ecosystem – and confirm the region’s reputation among the world’s most breathtaking natural monuments.
“It’s time that we stop looking beyond the borders of our state for inspiration and learn to see what has been here all along,” Richardson said. “The Flint Hills should never play second fiddle to our nation’s more recognized landmark landscapes.”
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