This Couple"Farms" Snow

This Couple"Farms" Snow SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 28-1-6 Bob and Ursula Lanners, Grey Eagle, Minnesota, aren't your normal snowbirds. When a lot of other northern farmers have sold their corn and beans and are relaxing in a warm place, the Lanners are just getting rolling on their biggest crop of the year. While their farm is 250 acres, Lanners says only 80 are tillable, so they've had to develop other sources of income. They use their tillable acres for corn and hay to feed their 30 brood cows. They have sufficient open hill pasture for the cows and calves from spring through snowfall, but most of their farm is in trees. They cut and sell firewood part of the year. And they hire out to do odd jobs for neighbors and people who own cabins around the area's 30 to 40 small resort lakes. They've even found they can sell the stones and small boulders they pick off their fields and pastures. But their big crop comes in late fall, after they've weaned and sold calves and moved the cows off those steep hill pastures. Then, thanks to three snow making machines, about a million gallons of water, and a little work from Lanners' two snow cats with 13-ft. blades, those pastures become a sledding paradise - a slippery slope that the Lanners charge from $9 to $12 per person per day to slide down on inner tubes. Called Eagle Mountain Resort, the Lanners bought the farm in 1972 because the commercial sledding hill was already there. Previous owners started the business in the late 1960's, but gave up after a couple of years. Bob and Ursula built it into a thriving enterprise that draws tubers from area communities and as far away as the Twin Cities. Lanners' Eagle Mountain also has about 10 kilometers of trails for cross-country skiers who pay $7 for access. They can rent equipment for another $7. Eagle Mountain's trails link to about 500 miles of area snowmobile trails, too. Lanners says "snow farming" is labor intensive, and probably takes more work and management than most other types of farming. "We have to check the machines every couple of hours or so when we're making snow," he says. "And the snow on the runs and trails must be maintained. And we need to keep the tows running and the tubes in good shape." In addition to the tubing hills and ski trails, they also operate a food concession, which serves sandwiches, pizza and other snacks and a variety of hot and cold non-alcoholic beverages. Normally, Ursula runs the food concession and Bob sells tickets and rents equipment. He says that while it does take a lot of work, it's concentrated into a few weeks. "It doesn't last so long that you get bored with it. And when we close it down in the spring, we go traveling before we start the regular crop and livestock work," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob and Ursula Lanners, Eagle Mountain Resort, Box 98, Grey Eagle, Minn. 56336 (ph 320 573-2222; website: www.eagle mountainge.com; email: laners@sytekom. com).

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