The weather doesn't let you. Northern pines thrive in cold, and desert pines thrive in heat. Kansas can be either in any given year, making it hard for trees to survive the several years needed before they're tall enough to cut. The result is a lot of work and experimentation. A tree farmer's year includes clearing the field in January, planting new trees in March, shearing in June and July and more trimming in the fall.
Irrigation comes whenever it's too dry.
This year was especially irrigation-intensive, said Grelinger, who owns the Windy Knoll farm in Derby with his wife, Susan. Sixteen didn't die the first year. Out of those, we sold four. Scott sold his first trees in 1980. By the mid-'80s he was selling up to 2,500 trees a year, a level he has maintained.