Farm Class Profit: The Same Bread Class Pays You $86 an Hour at $95 and Just $16 at $45 (Full Cost and Profit Breakdown)
In a farmer grant project that began in 2018, Veronica Baetje of Baetje Farms, a goat cheese farmstead in southeastern Missouri, priced a weekend cheesemaking class with an overnight stay at $600. One person wanted it.
She cut it to a one-day class at $250 and got five students across two classes. Her report to USDA SARE sums up the feedback: "Most felt that the class should be under $100."
So what is real farm class profit? In our worked example, a 3-hour bread class with 10 seats at $95 leaves about $599 after every cost, roughly $86 for each hour of your time. Price the same class at $45 and you keep about $114, or $16 an hour.
Same farm. Same flour. Same teacher. The price and the seat count did all the work.
And people do pay. Five Oaks Farm in Hazel Green, Alabama, charges $100 for a 3-hour sourdough workshop. Every Saturday listed from 14 November 2026 to 27 March 2027 shows sold out.
Short answer: A well-priced farm class with a full room can keep about 48% to 63% of the ticket money as profit. In our three worked examples, profit ran from $142.70 for a $25 kids' class to $599.45 for a $95 bread class (and £564.10 for a £75 UK wreath workshop), or about $41 to $86 an hour in the US examples and £94 an hour in the UK one. Half-empty rooms and "farm stall" prices are what kill it. US research found agritourism profit averaged about 48% of revenue, but the typical farm kept nearer 24%. A few very profitable farms pull the average up, so your pricing and costs decide which side of that gap you land on. |
This article gives you the full breakdown: three worked examples with every cost, the break-even seat count, the fee leak, 15 real prices and a five-question test. If you want the wider picture first, read how much agritourism farms really make.
What Counts as "Profit" on a Farm Class
Many farmers count only two things: the ticket money and the flour. That is how a class "makes $800" and still leaves you tired and broke.
Real profit is ticket money minus every cost the class creates. Here is the list we use in every example below:
Supplies and take-home items (flour, jars, wreath rings, the recipe card)
Food and drink (coffee, snacks, mulled drinks)
Helper wages (even if the helper is family, count the hours)
Card and booking fees (charged on every sale)
Marketing and booking tools (ads, a booking app, printing)
Insurance share (a slice of your yearly cover for paying guests)
Room, cleaning and wear (heating, power, washing up, broken bowls)
Then we divide what is left by your hours: teaching, prep, clean-up and admin. That number, profit per hour, is the one that tells you if a class is worth your time.
Farm Class Profit, Worked Example A: A $95 Sourdough Class
Worked example, your numbers will differ.
A US farm runs a 3-hour sourdough class for 10 guests at $95 a seat. Each guest takes home a jar of starter, a dough scraper and a recipe card. One helper works 5 hours.
Cost line | How we worked it out | Cost |
Supplies and take-home kit | $12 × 10 guests | $120.00 |
Coffee and snacks | For the group | $40.00 |
Helper | 5 hours at $18 | $90.00 |
Card fees | 2.9% + 30c on each booking | $30.55 |
Marketing and booking tool | Share for this class | $25.00 |
Insurance | Share for this class | $20.00 |
Room, cleaning and wear | Power, washing up, breakage | $25.00 |
Total costs | $350.55 | |
Ticket sales | $95 × 10 | $950.00 |
Profit | 63% of sales | $599.45 |
Your time is 7 hours: 3 teaching, 3 prep and clean-up, and 1 on bookings and emails. That is $85.64 for each hour you work.
The helper wage is close to real pay. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median agricultural worker at $17.25 an hour in May 2025.
The $95 price is not a guess either. Real US farm sourdough classes we found run from $75 (Border Farm, Montana) to $132 (Elawa Farm, Illinois). For the class itself, see how to start a sourdough bread making class on your farm.
The Same Class With 6 Seats, and at a $45 Stall Price
Now watch what happens when only six people book, or when the farmer prices like a farm stall.
Line | Full: $95 × 10 | 6 seats: $95 × 6 | Stall price: $45 × 10 |
Ticket sales | $950.00 | $570.00 | $450.00 |
Supplies and kit | $120.00 | $72.00 | $120.00 |
Coffee and snacks | $40.00 | $30.00 | $40.00 |
Card fees | $30.55 | $18.33 | $16.05 |
Helper, marketing, insurance, room | $160.00 | $160.00 | $160.00 |
Total costs | $350.55 | $280.33 | $336.05 |
Profit | $599.45 (63%) | $289.67 (51%) | $113.95 (25%) |
Per hour of your time (7 hours) | $85.64 | $41.38 | $16.28 |
Look at the last column. The farmer filled every seat, worked the same 7 hours, washed the same bowls, and earned less per hour than the helper.
That is the farm stall trap. A stall prices the product. A class must price the teacher, the setting and the morning the guest will talk about for a year.
Reality Check: Selling 6 of 10 seats does not keep 60% of your profit. It keeps less than half. Sales fell by 40% but profit fell by 52%, because the helper, insurance and room cost the same whether 6 or 10 people come. |
Worked Example B: A £75 Christmas Wreath Workshop (UK)
Worked example, your numbers will differ.
A UK farm runs a 2.5-hour wreath workshop in December for 12 guests at £75 each. The foliage is cut from the farm hedges, so the bought supplies are the ring, moss, wire and ribbon.
Cost line | How we worked it out | Cost |
Wreath ring, moss, wire, ribbon | £14 × 12 guests | £168.00 |
Mulled drinks and mince pies | For the group | £36.00 |
Helper | 4 hours at £12.71 National Living Wage, rounded up | £51.00 |
Card fees | 1.5% + 20p on each booking | £15.90 |
Marketing and booking | Share for this class | £20.00 |
Insurance | Share for this class | £20.00 |
Heating, room and cleaning | Barn heater, tidy-up | £25.00 |
Total costs | £335.90 | |
Ticket sales | £75 × 12 | £900.00 |
Profit | 63% of sales | £564.10 |
Your time is 6 hours, so you earn £94.02 an hour.
Is £75 high? Not for the UK market. The Real Flower Company in Hampshire charges £105 for a 2-hour Christmas wreath workshop, 12 people a day. In Canada, The Truffle Farm in British Columbia charged C$95 for a 2-hour winter wreath class.
Wreaths are a seasonal goldmine because the main material grows on your land. For the full holiday plan, read how to start a paid Christmas experience on your farm.
Worked Example C: A $25 Kids' Farm Class
Worked example, your numbers will differ.
A US or Canadian farm runs a 90-minute class for 12 children at $25 each: planting seeds, meeting the hens, a snack.
Cost line | How we worked it out | Cost |
Supplies | $3 × 12 children | $36.00 |
Snacks | For the group | $15.00 |
Helper | 3 hours at $18 | $54.00 |
Card fees | 2.9% + 30c on each booking | $12.30 |
Marketing | Share for this class | $10.00 |
Insurance | Share for this class | $20.00 |
Cleaning | Hand-wash station, tidy-up | $10.00 |
Total costs | $157.30 | |
Ticket sales | $25 × 12 | $300.00 |
Profit | 48% of sales | $142.70 |
Your time is 3.5 hours, so $40.77 an hour. Sell it as a 6-week series and one booking becomes $856.20 of profit from the same 12 families.
Real farms do exactly this. Charleton Fruit Farm in Scotland charges £12 a child a session, or £50 for a five-week block. Stony Kill Foundation in New York listed a 10-week homeschool series at $250 for the first child.
Kids' classes earn less per head, but they can repeat week after week, and every parent at your gate is a possible customer for whatever else you sell. See farm activities for kids that parents happily pay for.
Field-Tested Play: Sell kids' classes as a series, paid up front. A weekly class sold one session at a time means 6 rounds of marketing and 6 chances to cancel. A series means one sale, one payment and a full room for six weeks. |
What a Season of Classes Can Add Up To
Worked example, your numbers will differ.
Say you run the full $95 bread class twice a month for six months. That is 12 classes × $599.45 = $7,193.40 of profit. Add one 6-week kids' series in the summer holidays and you add $856.20, for $8,049.60 in total.
That is not a fortune. But it comes from a barn you already own, skills you already have and about 7 hours a class. Fill only six seats each time and the same 12 bread classes make $3,476.04. Price them at $45 and they make $1,367.40.
Same work. Three very different seasons. That is the real farm workshop profit test: not one good day, but a whole season.
Profit Per Hour of Your Time: The Number That Matters
Profit per class sounds good. Profit per hour tells the truth.
Here is a simple way to judge it. If a class pays you less per hour than you would pay a helper, you have bought yourself a low-paid job. If it pays two to four times that, you have built a real income stream.
Our examples, side by side:
Bread class, full, $95: $85.64 an hour
Wreath workshop, full, £75: £94.02 an hour
Bread class, 6 seats, $95: $41.38 an hour
Kids' class, $25: $40.77 an hour
Bread class, full, $45: $16.28 an hour
An old rule from Mother Earth News in 2017 was to charge "$20 per hour + materials." Our full $95 class pays the farmer more than four times $20 an hour, after every cost. The $45 stall-priced class pays less than $20 an hour.
This matters most if you are older or short of hands. Teaching uses your knowledge, not your back. If that is you, read why visitors will pay to learn from a 60-year-old farmer.
Farm Class Break-Even: How Many Seats Pay the Bills
Break-even is the seat count where ticket money covers every cost. Below it, you pay to teach.
Split Example A into two kinds of cost:
Costs for the day, whatever happens: helper $90, marketing $25, insurance $20, room $25 and about $15 for the coffee set-up. Total: $175.
Costs for each seat: the $12 kit, about $2.50 of snacks and the card fee.
At $95 a seat, each guest leaves about $77 after their own costs. So 3 seats cover the day. At $45, each guest leaves about $29, so you need 7 seats just to break even.
Now add a modest wage for yourself: $25 an hour for 7 hours is $175. At $95 you reach that at 5 seats. At $45 you would need 13 seats, in a room that holds 10. It cannot be done.
The Penn State Pie Class: When Set-Up Costs Come First
Penn State Extension uses a teaching example (not a real farm) that every farmer should see.
A blueberry pie class sells 10 seats at $25, so $250 a class. Each class costs $178 to run (staff and ingredients). Before the first class, the farm spends $2,500 on insurance, building work and reusable supplies.
Each class leaves only $72 toward that $2,500. Penn State's verdict: "you would need to offer 35 classes before seeing a profit."
Our arithmetic on their numbers: at $35 a seat, each class leaves $172, and break-even falls to about 15 classes. Ten dollars more per seat cut the wait by more than half.
If you have set-up costs to recover, see how much it costs to start an agritourism business.
How Much Do Farm Classes Make? What the Research Really Says
Here is the honest part, because the headline number can fool you.
The UVM Study: 48% Average, 24% Typical
In August 2026, University of Vermont Extension published a national study of US agritourism operators. It had 1,065 valid responses and covered 2024 finances.
The average (mean) agritourism profit ratio, meaning net profit divided by gross revenue, was about 48%. For the farm as a whole it was 28%. So agritourism earned a much bigger slice of each dollar than the rest of the farm.
But the typical farm, the one in the middle (the median), kept about 24% from agritourism and 17% on the whole farm. A few very profitable operators pull the average up. The authors also say plainly: "All these ratios are rough estimates."
So read 48% as "what good operators reach", not as a promise. Closing the gap between 24% and 48% is what this article is about: price, full rooms and costs you can see.
Classes are common too. Of the farms in the study that offered education, 44% ran adult classes or workshops.
Most Farms Still Earn Small Totals
Penn State Extension, citing Hollas and others (2021), reports that 66% of farms had agritourism profit under $10,000.
The 2024 National Agritourism Producer Survey (2,139 operators) found 32.1% ran at a loss or broke even, while 11.0% cleared more than $100,000.
How many classes does it take to clear $10,000? Using our worked examples:
Scenario | Profit per class | Classes to clear $10,000 |
Bread class, $95, full | $599.45 | 17 |
Bread class, $95, 6 seats | $289.67 | 35 |
Kids' class, $25, full | $142.70 | 71 |
Bread class, $45, full | $113.95 | 88 |
Seventeen good classes is two a month for most of a year. Eighty-eight is a second full-time job. That is why price comes before everything else.
The Hidden Costs That Eat Farm Class Profit
These are the costs farmers forget until the bank statement arrives.
Your prep and clean-up hours. In Example A, prep and clean-up equal the teaching time. Count them.
No-shows. An events software study of over 1,070 events found a median no-show rate of about 28% for free events and about 17% for paid ones. Take payment when people book.
Insurance for paying guests. A fact sheet from Ohio State University and the National Agricultural Law Center warns many farm policies give no cover for agritourism unless a specific rider is added. Iowa farmer Beth Hoffman wrote that her farm insurance quote reached $7,170, more than twice the year before, after adding classes and farm stays.
Outside teachers. Penn State warns: "You should not assume that your farm business liability insurance will automatically extend coverage" to outside instructors.
Staff. At Newlyns Farm in Hampshire, staffing was the cookery school's most expensive cost, and the school made 7% of the farm business revenue.
Food rules. A US ServSafe food handler course costs $15. A UK Level 2 food hygiene certificate typically costs £10 to £25. Permits vary by county.
Weather. A rained-out class still costs you the prep. Set a rain-date policy first. See the bad-weather policy every visitor farm needs.
Tables, chairs and toilets. Penn State lists table and chair rental among class expenses.
Your energy. Floret Flower Farm in Washington taught 500+ students across 24 workshops. Then Floret wrote that "hosting workshops on the farm just wasn't sustainable anymore." Price so you can run fewer classes, not more.
Reality Check: If you only remember one hidden cost, make it insurance. Call your insurer before you sell the first seat and ask whether paying class guests are covered. Then put your share of that cost into every ticket. Our guide on agritourism insurance and what coverage you need shows what to ask. |
The Fee Leak: Card, Booking and Platform Fees on One $95 Seat
Every way of taking money takes a slice. Here is what each one keeps from one $95 seat (checked 10 November 2026).
Platform | What it charges | Fee on $95 | You keep |
Wix Payments (US) | 2.9% + 30c | $3.06 | $91.94 |
Stripe (US online) | 2.9% + 30c | $3.06 | $91.94 |
Square (US online, Free plan) | 3.3% + 30c | $3.44 | $91.56 |
PayPal Checkout (US) | 3.49% + 49c | $3.81 | $91.19 |
Eventbrite (you absorb fees) | 3.7% + $1.79, plus 2.9% processing | $8.06 | $86.94 |
Checkfront | $99 a month, plus 3% booking fee and card fees | $5.91 | $89.09 before the monthly fee |
Airbnb Experiences | About 20% host fee | $19.00 | $76.00 |
Viator or GetYourGuide | Typically 20% to 30% | $19.00 to $28.50 | $66.50 to $76.00 |
Outside the US the card fees are lower. Stripe charges 1.5% + 20p on standard UK cards and 1.65% + A$0.30 on domestic Australian cards (checked 10 November 2026).
In Australia, the ACCC says surcharges on Visa, Mastercard, Amex and eftpos card payments are banned from 1 October 2026, so ask your accountant how to build the fee into your price. In the UK, ask whether your booking fee must sit in the headline price under the drip-pricing rules in force since 6 April 2025.
Marketplaces are not bad. They are expensive advertising. Use them to get found, then win repeat guests on your own site. Our guide to listing your farm class on Airbnb Experiences, Viator and Tripadvisor shows how.
Field-Tested Play: If a marketplace takes 20%, price your marketplace listing so you still keep your normal price. To keep $95 on Airbnb, list at about $119 ($95 ÷ 0.8). Keep the $95 price for guests who book direct. |
Protect the Profit: Deposits, Cancellations and No-Shows
Every empty seat on the day is pure lost profit, because the kit, snacks and helper are already paid for.
Worked example: if 2 of the 10 guests in Example A had not paid up front and did not come, you would lose about $184 of profit ($95 less the card fee, twice). Profit falls from $599.45 to about $415.56 for the same work.
Real farms protect themselves in simple ways:
Full payment at booking. Dominic Lamontagne's homestead in Québec takes full payment when people book, and gives a 75% refund with two weeks' notice.
Transfer, not refund. Three Acre Farm in Michigan states: "Tickets are not refundable, but they are transferable." If severe weather hits, it reschedules.
Late-cancel fees for private classes. Fat Sheep Farm in Vermont charges US$150 or US$200 for cancelling a private session within 24 hours.
A clear window. Most Airbnb Experiences give a full refund until 24 hours before the start.
Before you write a "no refunds" policy, ask a local adviser or consumer office whether consumer law limits it where you are (it can in Australia and the UK, for example).
What Real Farms Charge: 15 Classes in 4 Countries
Prices change. These were checked on 10 November 2026; some listings are from earlier seasons, so the date is shown.
Farm and place | Class | Price | Length | Included, and date seen |
Five Oaks Farm, Alabama, US | Sourdough workshop | US$100 | 3 hrs | Starter, recipes; Saturdays Nov 2026 to Mar 2027 sold out |
Elawa Farm, Illinois, US | Sourdough 101 | US$132 | 3.5 hrs | 3 loaves and leaven to take home (Oct 2026) |
Border Farm, Montana, US | Sourdough class | US$75 | 3 hrs | Tasting, booklet; starter sold extra (Dec 2025) |
Cornell Farm, Oregon, US | Woodland wreath | US$135 | 90 min | Materials, bruschetta, a glass of wine; sold out (Feb 2026) |
Achadinha Cheese, California, US | Cheese making | US$120 | 2.5 hrs | Ranch tour, tasting, lunch ($110 without lunch) |
Riverford Field Kitchen, Devon, UK | Sourdough masterclass | £150 | About 7 hrs | Lunch, starter, bread to take home (2026 to 2027) |
The Ethical Dairy, Scotland, UK | Cheese-making course | £105 a workstation | About 6.5 hrs | About 1 kg of cheese, farm tour, lunch; £157.50 for two sharing |
The Real Flower Company, Hampshire, UK | Christmas wreath | £105 | 2 hrs | Refreshments, wreath; 12 a day |
Woodchurch Cottage Flowers, Kent, UK | Hand-tied bouquet | £70 | 3 hrs | Pick from the field, tea and cake (May 2026) |
Quince Honey Farm, Devon, UK | Beeswax candles | £40 | About 2 hrs | 3 candles, beeswax wrap, cake (2026) |
Bar M Ranch, Nova Scotia, Canada | Wreath experience for two | C$140 + tax for two (C$70 each) | About 3 hrs | Woodland walk, one C$40 café voucher (Oct to Dec 2026) |
The Truffle Farm, British Columbia, Canada | Winter wreath | C$95 | 2 hrs | Materials, truffle snacks, drinks (Nov 2025) |
Dominic Lamontagne's homestead, Québec, Canada | Full-day homestead class | C$100 + tax | Full day | Max 8 people; sells out in weeks (2023 report) |
Heritage Fruit Trees, Victoria, Australia | Summer pruning | A$75 | 3 hrs | Orchard tour, tool care, morning tea (Jan 2027) |
Harvest Experience, Victoria, Australia | Garden to table cooking | A$165 | Full day | Harvest, 3-course cook, max 6 (Mar 2026) |
The pattern is clear. Hands-on food classes with a take-home sit near US$100 for 2 to 3 hours. UK classes with lunch run from about £105 to £150. The cheapest classes are often run by non-profits or used to sell something else.
For a wider look at setting any farm price, see the agritourism pricing guide.
Reality Check: A high price only works if your local buyers will pay it. Baetje Farms found its $15 farm tours, with cheese sold afterwards, did better economically than its pricier cheese classes. Its report's advice was to study your own customers first. Check three local class prices before you copy a big-city price. |
Run the Numbers for Your Own Class in 10 Minutes
Grab a pencil and the back of a feed receipt. Here is the exact method we used above to work out the cost of running a farm class.
Write your price and your seats. Use the most seats you can teach well, not the most you can squeeze in.
List costs for each seat. The kit, the take-home item, snacks per head and the card fee.
List costs for the day. Helper hours, marketing, room and cleaning, and your insurance share. To find that share, divide the yearly cost of cover for paying guests by the classes you will run. Worked example: $480 a year across 24 classes is $20 a class.
Work out profit. Price × seats, minus every cost.
Divide by all your hours. Teaching, prep, clean-up and admin.
Find break-even. Costs for the day ÷ (price minus costs for each seat). Round up.
If the hourly figure is lower than a helper's wage, change the price, the seat count or the costs before you sell a single ticket. The free Agritourism Revenue Calculator can help you test the yearly picture.
Is This Class Worth Your Time? A 5-Question Test
Answer yes or no. Be honest.
No. 1: With a full room, do you clear more per hour than you would pay a helper? If not, your price is too low.
No. 2: Do you cover every cost with half the seats sold? If not, one quiet weekend wipes out a good one.
No. 3: Is your price in line with similar classes nearby? Check three local listings. If yours is the cheapest by far, guests may think it is the worst.
No. 4: Can you run it often enough without hurting your farm work or your health? Dominic Lamontagne's homestead in Québec runs 8 to 10 full-day classes a year, mostly in August, capped at 8 people. He advises leaving two days open between workshops.
No. 5: Does it sell something else? Nancy Falster of Falster Farm in Texas told FARM SHOW Magazine in 2014: "We don't do it so much for income as for education." Her classes still helped sell beef, pork, poultry, garden produce and honey to an email list of nearly 2,000 people.
Score: 4 or 5 yes, run it and fill it. 2 or 3 yes, fix the price or class size first. 0 or 1 yes, rethink the class.
Packages and Add-Ons That Lift Profit Per Class
The cheapest extra profit comes from guests who are already in your barn.
A private class with a minimum fee. Fat Sheep Farm in Vermont lists a private sourdough workshop at US$150 for one person, US$200 for two and US$100 for each extra guest. Achadinha Cheese in California sets a US$1,200 minimum for private groups.
A "bring a friend" price. The Ethical Dairy charges £157.50 for two people sharing one workstation. Each pays less, but the farm earns 50% more from that station.
A food add-on. Michele Capron of Lavender Essentials of Vermont suggested a tea buffet could add $10 to $20 a head.
A take-home upgrade. Border Farm in Montana sells the live starter separately from its class. Worked example: if 4 of 10 bread guests buy a $15 extra kit that costs you $5, you add $40 of profit for five minutes of selling.
A series or block. Charleton Fruit Farm sells five kids' sessions for £50 instead of £12 each.
A partner bundle. Bar M Ranch in Nova Scotia includes a C$40 voucher for a local café in its wreath experience.
A stay. Nancarrow Farm in Cornwall offers an optional supper and B&B upgrade with its soap workshop.
Capron's own rule for pricing supplies is worth copying: "any supply costs that we have should be doubled or tripled."
Field-Tested Play: Put your highest-priced option first on your booking page: private class, then class plus kit, then the standard seat. The standard seat then looks like the sensible choice, and some guests will happily take the upgrade. |
For food-class formats, permits and more real prices, see our guide to farm cooking classes.
What Bloopy Durians Taught Me About Turning a Cost Into Income
On my farm, Bloopy Durians in Bentong, Malaysia, the tour is part class. Guests plant a durian tree, eat durians at the farmhouse and open a durian themselves. They learn to tell a good durian, and the difference between fruit from old trees and young trees.
Our farm road is not tarred. Instead of paying for a road, I turned the ride into a paid four-wheel-drive adventure. The "problem" became part of the roughly 90-minute experience guests pay for.
That is the lesson for any farm class. Look at your awkward costs and ask: can this be part of what guests pay for?
The second lesson is repeat income. Durian seasons are short, about four to five months a year. But guests who enjoyed the visit join our WhatsApp list of loyal customers who buy durians every season. One good experience keeps paying long after the day itself.
We welcome visitors from all over the world, and many companies send their staff and management. What I have seen again and again is simple: people pay more for the personal experience than for the fruit alone. If you are new to that idea, read what a skillcation is.
Legal, Insurance and Tax: Questions to Ask Before You Set Your Price
This is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice. Rules differ by state, province and country. Take these questions to the right professional or office, and put any cost they reveal into your price.
Insurance (ask your insurer or broker):
Does my farm policy cover paying guests at a class, or do I need an agritourism rider or event policy?
Are outside instructors covered, or must they carry their own insurance?
What does cover cost per year, so I can add a share to each ticket?
Liability (ask an agricultural lawyer):
Does my state's agritourism law cover classes, and what exact sign wording does it require? The National Agricultural Law Center says over half of US states have agritourism statutes.
Will a waiver hold up in my state, especially for children? See do liability waivers protect your farm.
Food (ask your health department or local council):
Do I need a permit to serve lunch or tastings in a class? North Carolina, for example, exempts bona fide cooking schools that only serve participants during instruction.
In the UK, do I need to register as a food business? GOV.UK says registration is free and should happen at least 28 days before trading. See selling food on your farm.
Tax (ask your accountant or tax office, checked 10 November 2026):
Is my class a tax-free "lesson" or a taxable "admission" here? Missouri ruled a bakery's cookie decorating class was not subject to sales tax; Florida taxes admissions at 6%.
Is the take-home kit taxed as a retail sale?
Am I near a VAT or GST threshold? It is £90,000 in the UK, a CA$30,000 small-supplier limit in Canada and A$75,000 in Australia.
Our guide to agritourism and taxes: questions to ask your accountant goes further.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much profit does a farm class make?
It depends on price and seats. In our worked examples, a full $95 bread class for 10 left $599.45, a £75 wreath workshop for 12 left £564.10 and a $25 kids' class for 12 left $142.70. Your numbers will differ, so run your own costs.
What is a good profit margin for a farm class?
In our worked examples, full classes kept 48% to 63%. UVM's 2026 national study found agritourism profit averaged about 48% of revenue, but the typical (median) farm kept about 24%. Aim for the higher number by pricing well and filling seats.
How many people do I need for a farm class to break even?
Divide your fixed costs for the day by what each guest leaves after their own costs. In our bread example, $95 seats break even at 3 guests; $45 seats need 7. Set a minimum and reschedule if you fall below it. The Ethical Dairy needs at least two bookings to run.
Should I charge by the hour or by the class?
Charge by the class, priced from your costs and the local market. An old rule of thumb was about $20 an hour plus materials, with prep time added at a lower rate (Mother Earth News, 2017), but that leaves out card fees and insurance. Your price should cover all of them.
Should I sell my class on Airbnb or on my own website?
Both can work. Your own site with Wix Payments or Stripe costs about $3.06 on a $95 seat; Airbnb Experiences typically takes 20%. Use marketplaces to be found and price those listings higher, then invite guests to book direct next time.
What if only a few people book?
Set a minimum number in your terms and say what happens below it: move the date or refund. Peelham Farm in Scotland reschedules its butchery course if four or fewer book. A waiting list and a private-group option also help fill gaps.
What should I charge for my first farm class?
Start with a floor, then check the market. Michele Capron's rule is about $10 a head for the farm, $10 for the teacher, plus supplies doubled or tripled. A $12 kit tripled makes a floor of $56. The US farm sourdough classes we found sell for $75 to $132, so $95 sits safely inside that range.
Can I raise my class price later?
Yes. Hobby Hill Farm in Virginia now lists its fermentation workshop at US$72; its price history shows US$48 before. Sell-outs and waiting lists are your signal to raise prices for new bookings.
Your Next Step: Price Your Class Properly
You have now seen the gap. The same class can pay you $16 an hour or $86 an hour, and the difference is pricing, seats and the costs you can see coming.
My ebook What to Charge for a Farm Class turns that into a tested price for your own class. Inside its more than 100 pages you get step-by-step pricing worksheets, a real price table from farms in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, a ready-made package ladder (standard, upgrade, private), and copy-and-use deposit and cancellation scripts. It costs $27, less than a third of one seat in our bread class.
Not sure your farm is ready for paying guests yet? The free Farm Readiness Quiz shows which parts of your farm are ready for paying visitors and which need work first. It takes a few minutes.
Want more ideas beyond classes? The free ebook 150 Ways to Unlock Hidden Wealth From Your Farm gives you 150 ways to earn from the land, buildings and equipment you already own. Each one shows its difficulty, how to set the price and its earning potential.
P.S. Remember Veronica Baetje's $600 weekend that drew one buyer? The feedback said under $100. Five Oaks Farm charges $100 and every listed Saturday until late March is sold out. The right price is not the highest or the lowest. It is the one your market will pay, with costs you have counted.
Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. Prices, fees and rules were checked on 10 November 2026 and can change; worked examples are illustrations, and this is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.
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