When the Pulcipher Family Cleared Its Michigan Cherry Orchard

The trees along US 31

In summer 2023, John Pulcipher cleared sweet and tart cherry trees from his family’s orchard along US 31 in Acme Township, near Williamsburg and Traverse City, Michigan. An account based on an interview with him that year put the number at up to 12,000 trees.

The land had been in his family for generations, but its history as a cherry orchard began more recently. Pulcipher said his father started planting cherries after World War II. He had worked on the farm as a boy, then returned full time in 2007 after a career in banking.

His daughter Jennifer also learned from him on the family farm. In a 2023 Michigan State University interview, she described that part of her education during school and college. Those years linked her time on the farm to a father who had grown up working there himself.

The cost of keeping an orchard

Pulcipher put what he received in 2022 at about 22 cents a pound when he spoke to a reporter the following year. A 2022 study by MSU Extension and the Cherry Marketing Institute put regional production costs for tart cherries at about 40 cents a pound. The researchers used the average yield in northwest Michigan.

The estimate included costs a grower faces well before the fruit comes off the tree, like establishing an orchard and paying for land. It also counted operating, harvest and assessment costs. The study gives you a sense of what growers were up against without telling you what Pulcipher spent.

Michigan Farm Bureau specialist Theresa Sisung pointed to frost, pests and cheaper imports as problems for growers. She also described pressure to develop farmland near Traverse City. When Pulcipher spoke in 2023, he planned to leave the cleared ground empty while he considered his options.