The first year, we planted 12,000 trees and lost everything. In '75 we planted another 12,000. We said if we didn't get a stand of trees, we're moving back to town. Scott learned that growing pine trees in Kansas is high-maintenance. 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.