Pick Your Own (U-Pick)
Pick Your Own (U-Pick)
U-pick operations include a wide variety of models, but all with the central idea that you invite the public to your farm for them to pick their own product. U-pick is an experiential form of agriculture, where customers engage with the product (i.e. berries, apples, flowers) beyond just buying it from a stand or farmers market. This means that customers are not only paying for the product, but for the experience as well.
Key Requirements
| Marketing Time Required | Medium-High |
| Required Product Volume | Low |
| Potential Sales Volume | Low-Medium |
| Price Per Item | Medium-High |
| Difficulty of getting into this market | Low-Medium |
| Importance of Product Quality & Shelf-Life | Medium |
How do I get started in Pick Your Own?
It can be relatively easy to get started in a u-pick or u-cut operation, depending on how much you want to incorporate. Some farms have huge u-pick orchards and nothing else, while others have a traditionally operating farm with smaller u-pick sections. One of the biggest consideration prior to starting a u-pick operation is making sure that you and your farm are insured to have people coming on to your property.
Challenges
- Requires good location or superior advertising: people need to actually come to the farm to pick their own product, so you need to either be located close to a large population or be willing to spend some money on good advertising
- Liability: Customers like to venture to unsupervised areas, so you need to reduce any possible customer exposure to hazards on your farm
- Staffing/ supervising concerns: must be on-site to supervise customers; may also affect crop yields due to uneven harvesting patterns by customers
Opportunities
- Reduced harvest and handling labor: can eliminate the need to pack, grade, or prepare crops for sales
- Lower equipment costs: may not need equipment like cold storage when your customers are taking the product home with them
- Potential for larger transactions to sell lower-quality product: Customer experience is part of the product itself, so people will likely settle for a lower-quality product than they would at a farmers market