ALVARADO, Texas — For more than 20 years Andrea McCuan and her family have shared the animals on their farm with children in North Texas.
“This place is really my life,” McCuan said.
In just a few weeks, her family business, Country Critters Farm in Alvarado, just south of Mansfield, will kick off its annual pumpkin patch.
“This is our world. It’s our living,” McCuan said.
This year, however, hosting the annual event is a lot more difficult.
“We feel all the impacts of inflation and the drought,” McCuan said.
Her biggest challenge? Rising hay prices.
McCuan’s farm uses it as feed for her petting zoo animals year-round. The lack of rain in North Texas has made hay hard to come by and costly.
“We’ve had to switch and go to different feed mills to try to find hay,” McCuan said.
McCuan told WFAA she pays about $190 for one bale of coastal hay. It’s a sharp increase from when she started her business two decades ago and paid $25 per bale.
For years, her farm has had a wooden maze rather than the traditional corn stalk maze. Her tractor ride doesn’t use hay. This year, she’ll be able to cut costs thanks to that.
McCuan is tasked with trying to patch up large cracks in the earth with soil before families begin visiting her pumpkin patch when it opens Sept. 30.
Every aspect of running her farm has become more difficult, but she persists. This year, even growing pumpkins is a challenge.
“There’s no way of getting down to the good soil,” McCuan said. “This is clay soil, so it’s like concrete when it’s dry like this.”
The ground is so dry, McCuan said she couldn’t use her tiller to break through and plow the ground for pumpkin-planting.
“We had to bring in topsoil to plant them, and that’s the first time we’ve ever had to do that,” McCuan said.
These same obstacles forced the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch to close for the season. Owner Jan Balekian told WFAA the rising cost of hay and labor challenges are the culprit.
For now, McCuan said she hopes for rain, so in the future, children and families won’t miss out on time spent with the goats, llama, and ponies on her farm.
“This is good old-fashioned family fun,” McCuan said. “I’ve always wanted to teach kids about the animals and the importance of farming. We need places like this.”
The pumpkin patch at Country Critters Farm opens Sept. 30. The farm is open year-round for field trips, parties and family visits.