Who knew allowing people to trample through his cornfields every fall would be the difference between Brett Herbst keeping or losing his farm?
Certainly not Herbst. He has been as surprised as anyone by the success of the Corn Maze and Sunflower Maze on his family farm.
“As a small farmer, you have to have as much control as you can … fit in a niche,” Herbst said. “The corn mazes … they’ve helped us tremendously. I wouldn’t have been able to keep the farm without them.”
As a child, Hebst witnessed his father losing their family farm in Idaho. Bad financial decisions, decreased profits, and changes in the weather all contributed to the family’s loss. The prices farmers receive for their produce can cause a loss in profits, making it difficult to keep ownership of a farm.
The Herbst family has not been alone. Earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture reported that 141,733 family farms closed between 2017 and 2022. The amount of farm acreage has also decreased to slightly more than 880 million acres, the equivalent of the farming acreage in 1850.