Oak Hill Tree Farm

Building Habitats and Memories at Oak Hill Tree Farm

Cutting down the perfect Christmas tree for your living room. Watching a kindergartener gleefully pick out a pumpkin. While making memories, growing these crops also improves the environment. Matt and Rachel Stine of Oak Hill Tree Farm in Crawfordsville want consumers to know that farmers care deeply about their land. “We wish people knew how healthy the environment is we work in,” Rachel says. “Production ag is not destroying nature but rather balancing economics and soil, water, and forest health – which often work together. On a tree farm, this looks like replacing nutrients the trees use annually and also replacing the trees themselves that are cut each year, leading to erosion control and animal habitat.

The couple met on the Purdue campus, Matt graduating with a degree in agronomy and Rachel with one in ag communications. They returned to Montgomery County with the desire to raise their future kids on a farm, installing the values they grew up with. “We had the desire to have our hands dirty and be in production ag, but you can’t just jump into grain farming with the need for expensive equipment and a fair bit of land,” Matt says. “Then we were cutting down our family Christmas tree, a tradition Rachel cherishes from her childhood, and thought, why not trees?”

Thanks to Hallmark and Taylor Swift, a Christmas tree farm sounds romantic, but one doesn’t just jump into tree farming either, with the couple doing their research, looking for property and working through the loan process.

“We found a property that was desirable for trees, but it was vacant land and we truly started from scratch,” Rachel recalls. Upfront costs had to be considered with payback on a tree farm being seven to 10 years, minimum. “To help with cash flow, we planted pumpkins and opened the farm up for field trips,” Matt says. Rachel called a local elementary school principal inviting classes to visit, and today more than 2,000 students visit the farm annually with retired teachers leading lessons that focus on STEM concepts. Every child gets a small pumpkin to take home, a keepsake from a place the Stines hope is an association of positive memories of agriculture. The general public can also decide on their perfect pumpkin from the patch or one that is already picked.

While a Christmas tree is lovely to look at, there is a great deal of work to get it to be harvest-ready. Matt jokes, “We live here on the property, so sometimes we look out the window and see the work, not the trees.”Kidding aside, the Stines have learned a great deal since they started the farm in 2018. “We learned our lesson from initially planting too many trees,” Matt says. The trees must be planted, fertilized, mowed, pruned into a conical shape, inspected and harvested along with work most months of the year. “There are only two months that don’t have active tasks to be done in the field, and this is a second job for most tree farmers,” Matt points out.

Matt grew up on a farm growing corn and soybeans, and the couple’s operation also has recently grown to include row crops. After more than a decade of working closely with and learning from top farmers and landowners in his role as an agronomist, Matt and Rachel have been able to diversify their tree farm into 1,400 acres of corn and soybeans on MRS Farm in Montgomery County where they now farm fulltime.

Farming truly is a family affair, with Matt’s dad, Steve, working alongside them year round and his mom Kristi always filling in the gaps. Add in the fact the Stines have four children ranging from 14 to 8 in age, and the family is always in motion. Children Grace, Milly, Campbell and Everett help with a variety of tasks as does nephew Kaden Parks who is always willing to lend a hand.“A fun thing about the farm is that the way kids can be involved can change every day,” Rachel points out. “Our kids have had the experience of learning to carefully operate machinery as well as help with manual labor and interact with visitors to the farm, all life skills that will benefit them in their future, on or off the farm.”

They approach their farm with a sustainable viewpoint, focused on making every acre better every year for future generations. “We understand that we are one in a line of people who will touch the land we steward and we view it as a gift to help make it better,” Matt says.

They are involved with their local Soil and Water Conservation District and Rachel serves on the board of Indiana’s Christmas Tree Growers Association. The Stines enjoy talking with Indiana State Fair goers about live trees as they volunteer at the Fair for the Association, both with long-time Fair connections. Rachel worked at the State Fair in the 4-H Exhibit Hall as well as in the Beef Cattle food tent, and a fun fact is that Matt’s dad, Steve, is a retired plumber for the grounds and still gets asked back during the Fair as a contractor because of his expertise. Matt remembers the time he got to see the Zamboni machine that cleans the ice in the Coliseum up close as his dad’s guest.

The Stines are grateful for the opportunities they have been given, their path to making a career in production agriculture, and they continue to focus on stewardship. “We want to take care of what we have been given, living out our vision of providing a place for families to connect and to experience memories,” Rachel says.