Announced in May, the inaugural Great Lakes Tek Flex event will bring live in-field ag-tech demonstrations to regional growers Sept. 10-11 at the Michigan State University Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center in Benton Harbor, Mich.
Since the announcement, Mark Ledebuhr, principal with Application Insight, says more companies have signed on to exhibit at the event and that he’s been impressed with the response to the event and hopes the number of exhibitors continues to grow.
“This could very well be the biggest ag automation or ag-tech event in the country if we keep playing our cards right,” he says.
Ledebuhr is particularly excited to have Agribility attend and provide demonstrations of adaptive farm equipment.
Exhibitors and Technologies Featured at Great Lakes Tek Flex
Exhibiting companies currently listed on the website include:
- Peulher Ag Co.
- Foundation Ag Inc./Ceres Air
- Verdant Robotics
- Ecorobotix
- Foundation Ag/Vector AG Spray Drones
- LJ Tech Agriculture
- Carbon Robotics
- Haggerty AgRobotics/Burro
- Haggerty AgRobotics/Naio
- Frucotec Orchard Automation Systems
- Mechanical Transplanter Co. LLC
- John Deere/Greenmark Equipment
- Niqo Robotics
- Agribility
- Sabanto
Solving Labor Shortages and Adoption Gaps in Specialty Crops
Ledebuhr continues to emphasize the need for this regional type of ag-tech event to tackle the challenges facing growers across the country.
“I’m really hoping that we can trailblaze a little bit with this, whether or not we’re the ones that help other people organize it or other people just glom onto this and do it and follow the recipe book,” he says.
Ledebuhr recently spoke at an event hosted by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers where he discussed the biggest challenges facing the specialty crop industry and why ag-tech adoption lags in the East.
“Ag-tech adoption in specialty crops is a bigger part of that problem,” he says. “And nobody owns that problem.”
So, he says, without Extension, banks, engineers and the industry working together to tackle a delay in ag-tech adoption, “the likelihood of success in this broader question is zero.”
Ag-tech companies often lack farm experience, he says, adding, “They’ve got super-earnest people, but they miss one or two key details, and they don’t have enough time to [learn].”
With Great Lakes Tek Flex, Ledebuhr says he hopes to create a space to have the industry come together and tackle the challenges facing ag-tech adoption.
“Create the space and create the opportunity, and people are smart and they figure out what their highest needs need to be and they get on it,” he says.
