NAFDMA’s pre-conference bus tour is a three-day bus tour full of educational tour stops with a little bit of tourism thrown in for good measure. You must be a member of NAFDMA to register for our bus tours.

All buses will depart from the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio on Monday morning. You’ll spend Monday and Tuesday nights in San Antonio. The tour will end in Austin at the Hyatt Regency Austin on Wednesday evening. This year - you will book your own bus tour hotel reservations. Be sure to click here to check out travel, lodging and food for the Pre-Conference Bus Tour.

The 2006 edition of NAFDMA’s school on wheels features a choice of 7 tours! Each tour is themed in both the stops that it makes, and the discussions that will be held on the bus on route. NAFDMA’s veteran tour goers are proud to say the stops are outstanding, but they’re quick to point out it’s the camaraderie with about 50 of your peers on the bus that really brings home the value of going on a NAFDMA tour.

We can appreciate that you might have some difficulty selecting from all the great tour options. What’s best is that each tour is capped at two buses. Regardless of the tour you choose, you won’t be part of a Texas stampede at every stop. You can relax and take it all in as part of a manageable group of 50 to 110 people. You can split up tour choices among members of your farm or organization. You will still get the energy of the whole crowd as you merge for most meal stops. Everyone stays in the same hotel each night.

There are lots of crossover stops on the tours. Like so many farm direct marketing and agritourism destinations, each one is quite diversified. Each tour option will highlight the enterprises of the stop that are most relevant to the tour title.  Most of the tour options will go to “must see” locations such as Rio Cibolo, Luckenbach, Wildseed Farms and Pedrotti’s North Wind Ranch. Of course everyone will enjoy a late afternoon and evening visit to the Alamo, the River Walk and other downtown San Antonio attractions of your own choosing.

Tour A is all about Animals and Adventure. This tour will look at the many ways animal farmers and ranchers are earning a living. Nature tourism is alive and well in Texas! You’ll go on animal safaris, bird ranches and some premier retail and entertainment stops to name just a few. You’ll be impressed with the volume of high-quality game fencing structures while driving through the beautiful Hill Country. We can guarantee several native deer and exotic livestock sightings. You and your fellow passengers will talk about fee hunting and fishing, bird watching, animal observation attractions, cattle ranching and even a few examples of overnight package accommodations as well as adventures in rope climbing, zip lines, geo-cacheing, climbing walls and more.

Tour B highlights Bed & Breakfasts and Boutique Merchandising. North American travelers are more and more interested in overnight accommodations in rural areas. From dude ranches to herb farms and bird ranches to working farms, we’ll show you several different looks at B&Bs where upscale, small scale and fish scale still don’t account for all the variety you’ll see on this tour! Better yet, nearly every stop also has a boutique retail area for you to learn selling tips and cross-merchandising pointers. By “boutique,” we mean smaller square footage. You don’t have to compete with the biggest markets in your area to earn a decent living. Whether you’re interested in the B&B side, the retail detail, or the combined retail experience, you and your fellow travelers will be inspired to greet guests back home and sell your favorite products in a whole new way.

Tour C is all about Catering and Corporate Parties. Once you have the facilities and know-how, the opportunities are endless for doing weddings, birthday parties, graduations and more. NAFDMA members have a growing interest in offering corporate parties. Whether to promote your own farm raised products or to capitalize on your unique rural setting, this is a satisfying, if not challenging, way to keep additional family members earning a living on the farm. As bus passengers, you will focus dialogue on the challenges of satisfying large groups and filling vacant times with small groups. At the stops, you’ll have a few opportunities to roll up your sleeves and learn by helping out behind the scenes as you drive into each major meal stop ahead of all other tours to get a firsthand experience of how our hosts handle the NAFDMA tour group of 500 hungry farmers at their party location.

Tour F is our Farmers’ Markets tour. Whether you’re an organizer, a market manager a community leader or a farmer who sells at farmers’ markets, this tour is designed for you and your enthusiasm to discuss farmers’ markets throughout the tour. Each stop stimulates a relevant discussion in the relations between farmers’ markets and the community food system. Each lunch is dedicated to featuring fresh local farm products. The farm stops feature farmers who sell at farmers’ markets, and they’ll share how the markets have become a pivotal part of their on-farm planning and strategies. Additional stops will give you a good background in Texas culture and provide backdrops for terrific conversation as you recharge your batteries to go back home and continue improving your own community through your dedication to the local farmers’ market.

Tour P represents Peaches, Plants and Pick Your Own. It highlights the orchard operations, horticultural nurseries, and even an up and coming Christmas tree farm. Fredericksburg is known for its peaches from June to early September. We will feature some operations that have found ways to keep their farm-stand doors open year round by expanding their product lines, keying in on tourism retail, and providing what the locals want, too. If you’re into retail nurseries, this is the choice for you, too. Texas has the ability to keep things green all year round, and nurseries are the picture of horticultural diversity. Discussion on the buses will highlight selling the fruits, vegetables and plants grown on your own farm.

Tour R is all about Retail with a few Ranches thrown in, too. This is for the hard-core retailers. The stops are primarily larger retail operations where selling what you produce may be the goal, and reselling gifts, snack bars, niche products and hard goods is every bit as important.  We won’t be showing off many produce stands in Texas in January, so we’re featuring the best retailers, as recommended by Texans, to show off how merchandising, cultural highlighting, traditional emphasis and experience and entertainment shopping drives success in the retail world, regardless of the product line. On route discussions will use each stop to stimulate retail strategies with which farm markets can do better by learning from other retail venues.

Tour S is our Sustainable and Small Farms tour.  It is offered for that growing number of farms that wish to stay small, sell directly from the farm, as well as encourage local customers to come to their farm to gain a better understanding through agritourism and ecotourism ventures. This tour runs the gamut in successful advancements. It features discussions on grass fed beef, organic produce, sustainable peach production, CSAs, and educational experiences that connect the general public back to the wildlife and their natural surroundings. The stops cover all those areas, too, and range in size from a very limited season farm stand to a multi-million dollar natural compost company. You’ll visit with folks on the bus that want to keep it small and manageable, but don’t expect discussions on how to manage your work force of 20 employees.

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