Small Farmers Scare Up Big Halloween Bucks
Randy Bates has been working on Arasapha Farm ever since he was 5 years old, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.
At the farm outside Philadelphia, Randy grows corn and hay, and raises flocks of animals - but as far back as 1991 he realized, like many small farmers in America, he wasn't making enough money to survive.
Less than half of the 2.2 million farms nationwide turn a profit. It's a frightening reality for farmers trying to earn a living, so some like Randy are raising the dead.
That's right, ghouls and goblins now populate about a quarter of Randy's farm. Many live in a house aptly named "The Bates Motel."
Visiting the farm, Josh Heid liked "all the scary people jumping out at you and the rush of running away from all the screaming people."
Randy's farm is now a Halloween extravaganza: a tourist hot spot creating jobs for close to 250 people, and attracting up to 65,000 visitors in the month of October.
"What we do in the fall pays our bills for the rest of the year," said Randy.
Haunted house visitors pay about $30 a head. Last year, Randy grossed more than $1 million - 20 times more than the $50,000 he'd make as a farmer.
"I gotta pinch myself because I can't believe where we've gotten to at this point," said Randy.
He runs a company called Agritainment Inc., where he consults with other farmers across the country. It's estimated there are 500 farms in the U.S. that now feature Halloween attractions, according to the Haunted House Association.
"For a small family farm where you can't make profit on large amounts of corn, this is the wave of the future," said Randy.
For a guy who was once scared to lose his farm, he's now making a living scaring others, and that has him laughing all the way to the bank.
