Business Spotlight: A Growing Business

AJ County Line Farms LLC, a you-pick pumpkin patch branded as County Line Farm, started as “tractor therapy” for owners JJ Cybulski and Allen Shevey.

“We can get in a skid or a loader and clean up the ground,” says Cybulski. “It’s always a nice way to get your mind away from things.”

Cybulski and Shevey, who are longtime friends, neighbors and now business partners, already had a passion for the outdoors. Shevey grew up on a farm, and Cybulski owns Carson’s Nurseries, located across the street from the pumpkin patch.

When trying to decide what to do with the land, other than just enjoying its natural beauty and the outdoors, a pumpkin patch came to mind. The duo wanted to have a place to get away from work, but the cost of farm upkeep had to be justified.

“We were sitting at one of our houses,” Shevey says, “and somehow pumpkins came up. It started with a vision to get away from work, and now it’s become more of a seasonal job.”

Growing the patch
Both Cybulski and Shevey’s homes neighbor the property the farm is housed on. The farm is located on the Christian and Greene County line, between Nixa and Springfield. The nearly 400-acre plot of land the pumpkin patch is located on is owned by the Hulston family, according to Shevey, and has been since the 1800s. He adds the land hasn’t been developed as it’s in a flood plain. He says the Hulstons live in Kansas City but are known in this area for the Hulston Cancer Center at CoxHealth. Cybulski and Shevey leased 120 acres of it for the patch.

“My goal the first year was to break even,” Shevey says, “I thought no one was going to pay to pick pumpkins, but I was wrong.”

The first year the family planted about 12 acres of pumpkins; this year they planted 20 acres of different varieties, such as pie pumpkins, white pumpkins; and warty pumpkins.

In 2022, the farm sold over 61,000 pounds of their own pumpkins. In 2023, they sold about 60,000 pounds, plus decorative pumpkins that are shipped in and sold for wholesale prices. Lisa, Shevey’s wife, says as of Oct. 17, the farm had sold almost 42,000 pounds this year. With two more major weekends before close, the owners expect to be on par with the past two seasons.

In the family-run business, Cybulski and Shevey’s wives, Sarah and Lisa, run the retail side of the business. The patch is run and maintained by the couples as well as their adult children and the children of other friends during the fall harvest season. The farm is typically open from mid-September through the end of October. Farm customers go out into the field, pick their own pumpkins, come back to the checkout tent at the front of the entrance, and pay 69 cents per pound.

Although the owners declined to disclose revenue, Shevey says it has tripled since the first year, as they’ve added wholesale pumpkin varieties to their inventory as well as a paintball gun for farmgoers to shoot at targets, a hedge apple gun, photo backdrops, a corn maze and guest food truck vendors. He says he expects this year to have about 15% growth.

The farm also hosts a yearly competition for the largest pumpkin picked. The largest this season weighed in at 230 pounds. Cybulski says the same woman has won bragging rights the last couple of years, and it’s been a popular aspect of the farm.

End of season
At the beginning of November, after the you-pick season ends, the owners partner with local farmers and a food bank, Ozarks Food Harvest.

Alexa Poindexter, director of the Full Circle Gardens program at the food bank, says while working with local farms like County Line, the bank focuses on connecting fresh food with area hunger-relief agencies, and a part of that is gathering leftover produce after harvest.

“We have a connection with about 50 local growers, whether these are commercial farms, faith-based gardens, people with fruit trees in their yard or backyard growers,” she says.

Poindexter says Ozarks Food Harvest have gleaned, or collected, from County Line Farm since they opened.

With the help of volunteers, the first year the food bank collected 4,366 pounds of pumpkins and in 2023, 3,643 pounds. Poindexter says once the food bank collects produce from the farms, they distribute it to partner food pantries. The food bank provides the pumpkins to the pantries fresh and includes recipes, so people know how to best use it as a winter squash in cooking.

County Line also allows local farmers to come in, after Ozarks Food Harvest is done, and take what they want to feed livestock.

Future possibilities
In the center of the patch, the owners added a mowed-down midway, where visitors can go out to look at the patch. Shevey says the farm will have more to do on that midway at some point, but what they are going to add is still to be determined.

The farm has partnered with local business owners for events such as Mazed and Confused, held in the evening for adults over 21 years old, with the Springfield Brewing Co., and a daytime Makers Market with over 20 local vendors. Moving forward, Sheyvey and Cybulski have discussed adding a concrete pad for music performers or comedians to use on fall nights. That said, they want their mission as a farm-themed destination for families in the fall to remain the same.

“We are a pumpkin patch,” Shevey says, “and at our core, that’s what we will probably always be. That’s what people enjoy the most, and it’s nice to see people get out that want to enjoy the farm aspect of it.”