How did the Christmas tree shearing crew workout? First time hiring an outside crew.
At East Fork Christmas tree farm we have always done the shearing on our own or hired local people to help. We trained these young men which took a while. Unfortunately after a few years they moved on in their career and we would have to train up some new ones. Recently I came in contact with a crew that works on Christmas trees year around. I hired them this year and was happy with the results. They obviously were paid more per hour but they did not need training and they were faster than the rookies I would hire. I hope to have them do my fields again next year. @FlanaganHomestead
Hello Rob here from the Flanagan Homestead and esport Christmas Tree Farms uh today I want to do an update on The sharing crew that I hired not just The boys that I've hired or my sons and People in hiring and teaching them how To do it but an actual Christmas tree Farming sharing crew I told you I was Going to have them come in here and they Did a good job we'll talk about that in A minute and a few other things that are Going on in the farm right now right now I am finishing up a little bit myself With a hedge trimmer on a stick here so I can reach up nice and high The guys did most the trees that they Could standing most of the trees are Smaller right now but even on ladders They can only get up about 10 feet and I Have several 11 and 12 Footers you Probably can't see tell on the camera But way back there there's a whole Section that's probably about 12 feet Tall and so I they did the tree up to Where they could reach and I came Through and just cleaned it up I've only Actually today worked about an hour and A half and I finished up the field so It's not like they left too many but They did leave some for me so I've been Running the hedge trimmer Um as far as uh The shearing crew you know Um I I I I will definitely do it again
Sorry I was mumbling there stumbling There uh if they will come out again and Work for about the same rate we will Definitely hire them again uh I do have The advantage of knowing a lot of young Men because I'm a football basketball Track coach and I know guys that are Willing to put out effort and work hard Uh but then I have to train them how to Do it and about the time they get really Good they graduate and move on my sons Are all getting married and moving off And so I need a little bit more help and I have a lot of other projects going on So I can't uh do this all myself I hope The wind's not so bad that uh It's too windy you can pick up the audio On the camera Otherwise I'll have to do this again but Uh anyway uh so I brought them out here And I I'm showing this section of the Tree farm right now because it's pretty Indicative of how my farm is we've been We've had more customers than we've had Trees and so we've been replanting and Most of our trees are fairly small like This and then the ones that are seven Eight feet tall are the ones that all Right we're deemed the worst nobody Wanted and so we're getting those back Into shape but there's not as many uh so You can see a few seven eight Footers Right here and then back there we've got Some 10 11 12 Footers and then the whole
I'm standing in the grand Furs right now Uh right behind the camera is the Majority of my farm is uh Noble first And we have a lot more over there but um So they came through and worked the Trees and They worked about 6 000 spaces for me When I say spaces that's the way my farm Is laid out between my rows and columns They worked for me about 6 000 spaces That includes the very few spaces that Aren't replanted there's no tree there There's some trees that were just Planted interspersed in here and they Didn't need any sharing so obviously They moved those really quick then we Have a lot of these trees that are just About waist high belt high and again They took less but then as you get seven Eight feet tall and some of them because I didn't have the best crew last year Were a little out of shape and they had To get them back into shape but then There's throughout the farm quite a few That get up to 10 feet tall or so and so They had to work a variety of sizes but Most of them because we are customer Base built up faster than we were Replanting most of our trees are shorter Than four feet tall right now so so they Covered a variety of sizes over six Thousand spaces and charged me a Thousand dollars so that worked out to About 16 cents per tree or 16 cents per
Spot per tree Honestly when I'm training people to Come work with me uh I think I would Have ended up paying a little bit more Overall and not having as good a job Done so we will keep in contact with Pedro and his crew and uh hopefully They'll do the the trees again for me Next year we're going to want them to do A little bit earlier next year not that It was too late this year but my son is Getting married on the tree farm July 20th next year so we want the shearing To be done before the wedding so Everything is just looking awesome at That time so that's kind of our plan uh Like I mentioned and I hope to do a Video with Pedro he has an eight-man Crew that works Christmas trees year Round He has I think he has 60 000 of his own Trees and he works several other People's trees and he they're either Planting or spreading herbicide or stuff To kill aphids or shearing they Shear a Lot of the year so they're really good At it I mean the Farms that are getting Ready to harvest and the trees that are Harvestable on his kill heart he'll Shear Like between July and now and get those Done but the trees that he knows aren't Going to sell this year he'll leave that Because he's got so many trees to do
He'll leave them and then he'll come Back and after he does Harvest on his on His farm and ships them all because he Does wholesale then his crew will go Back to shearing and they'll Shear the Trees that they knew weren't going to Sell this year and get those sheared in January and February and then they'll go Back into planting again and just keep The cycle going so these guys know a lot About Christmas trees and they have Sheared more trees than I have and so They went through it pretty quickly and They did a pretty good job obviously Nobody's ever perfect but for the amount Of money I spent the time I saved I'm Really happy with how this worked out For me All right here's one of my frustrations On the farm right now we did have a Great kill on Weeds and it kept almost Everything out except there's two plants We got this Queen Anne's lace with all The white on it and we have thistle that Came up after everything was killed and With the Sterling wore off and so Although the ground looks mostly bare When you're looking straight down in it You look across and you can see a lot of White uh we got to find a way to get rid Of this Queen Anne's Lace next year and It has really stiff stems if you walk Through it even during harvest in December we thought we had a snow before
Uh Harvest last year And uh people and we thought it would Knock down all the stems and the stems Were still standing up there and people Had to walk through them we didn't like That Barry tried to clean things up over Here you can see this looked the same And you can see right in the rows where There are trees there's still uh Queen Anne's Lace there but Barry took a mower Went up and down these rows over here And it looks a lot better and he did That on a few sections of the trees but Uh he he was all beat up because the Ground with the mole Hills and whatnot Is pretty bumpy and uh he was dirtier Than all get out it hasn't rained in Forever so it's really dusty and he Looked he was a dust covered beat up Christmas tree Farmer at the end of that Day Barry also mowed the Queen Anne's Lace Out of this section of the field uh this Section of the field there's 1200 trees All the same age right here and the Sharing crew did do these so you could See a big this block of 1200 trees is Pretty small and they were just getting The tips on the bottom out of the way And they didn't have to do much work Here that's part of the reason the price Per tree was really down if you see the White off in the distance over there Uh there's 1200 more trees in that block
Over there that they did not Shear at All And uh because they're just they're even A year or two younger yet and didn't Need shearing we'll start that next year I also mentioned in previous videos we Had a young man come and cut handles Uh throughout the entire Farm there was A lot of trees that are growing up out Here that needed handles on them or Basil pruning as a lot of most people Call it and uh he spent 43 hours out Here we paid him 20 an hour so we owe Him 860 dollars he started to do this Section Uh as well but I had him wait on wait Until November I'm going to have him Come back in November and do this Section because there's quite a few good Branches on the base of these trees out Here that can be used uh To build to build wreaths and so uh I'll Pay him to cut the handles off do the Basil Peroni and then we'll collect up Those branches and make reads with them Okay now I'm standing back in the that Section of grand Furs that were Especially tall uh there's some really Nice grandfathers here that are at least 12 feet tall many 10 many 10 Footers Some 12 13 Footers uh they're all right Back here in this section not I mean not All of them are right here in this Section but the interesting thing is you
Know we sell from over there and this is The start of the grandfather section and The barn where we sell out of and where We greet people is right over there and This is the far end where four rows from The end over here and so what happens is People start to walk down the road find A tree that they won't go back they Start to walk down find a tree and go Back and this corner gets left and even Though some of these are nice trees uh Nice color shape size people don't get Back here and uh so we got to get these To go but there's some nice trees and I'm sure they'll sell this here and We've been only open a couple days for The last few years because we didn't Have enough trees but if some of these Big trees are still around round then We'll just stay open another day or two And people will come back and find them Instead of gathering everything Everything up there closer from the Start uh closer from the start of the Farm but anyway one of the things I want To talk about I know there's charts out There I should just look and find it but Uh evaluation of your trees where They're at so I know for insurance if There's a crop failure and you had Insurance or whatnot they say you know a One-year-old Noble is worth this Four-year-old Noble is worth Approximately this much and whatnot and
I was just curious so what the value of My trees are right now as is in the Ground if I could just figure out two Footers three Footers four Footers and You know that's not you don't can't just Take the retail price on what that is But uh there's a there's an equation Somewhere but if you guys know what that Is or I've seen there's there's some Charts out there so um I'd like to just Kind of figure out what the general Value of the trees that I have in the Ground are but you know generally Speaking you know it only takes a couple Of year old tree and they say that's Worth seven dollars you know even though It's still tiny Um you know you're not going to sell it Yet but just having it planted and in The ground your time and investment and A couple years growth is worth seven Dollars and you know there's some that Are worth 15 and all the way up to Marketable size Anyway uh that's what's going on in the Christmas tree farm here esport Christmas Tree farms thanks for joining Me on the Flanagan Homestead where Christmas trees are my business teaching Including Horticulture is my job and Outdoor projects are my passion hope to See you again soon be blessed everyone
