Great Lakes Tek Flex seeks to connect growers in the Great Lakes region with in-field tech demos. The new tech event is set for Sept. 10-11 at the Michigan State University Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center in Benton Harbor, Mich.
Great Lakes Tek Flex plans to feature the latest in weed mitigation and crop management solutions using robotics, drones and precision agriculture technology. The event seeks to improve the sustainability and resiliency of Great Lakes specialty crop growers by removing barriers to technology adoption.
Mark Ledebuhr, principal with Application Insight, says the event is much needed for the region with growers struggling to find labor, whose needs are different than their Western counterparts. It will also bring together ag tech companies with growers in need of innovation.
“If we don’t get [innovation], we may not be growing a lot of specialty crops that we grow in Michigan in 10 years here,” he says.
Ledebuhr says he understands some of the challenges to marketing to growers in this region, which spans about eight states as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. The Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center is located within a day of 80% of the fruit and vegetables grown in the region, he notes.
“That’s the reason for the site choice,” he says.
Ledebuhr says it’s important to get the technology in front of growers in similar conditions to what’s grown in the region, adding that Great Lakes Tek Flex is designed to bring together entities to work together to solve some of the challenges today’s growers face.
“If you take smart people who are invested in the problem, and you get them together in a room, and you create the space to solve problems, problems get solved,” he says.
But this is more than just a tire-kicking event, he says.
The first day will connect growers with companies that have commercialized technologies with demonstrations to allow for interactions with company representatives so that growers can better understand the benefits of these technologies. These include see-and-spray technology, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence perception tools, orchard management, planting, vegetation management, harvesting, drone spray and AI decision support.
“We see technology transforming fields, making planting, monitoring, weed management and harvesting more precise and efficient,” says Randy Stratton, director of Great Lakes Tek Flex Expo and Field Days. “With these innovations, growers are building a smarter, more sustainable future for farming.”
The second day will feature targeted discussions with government officials, industry groups and supporting industries to better identify and align resources and activity to streamline the process of tech adoption.
“I’ve watched more technologies leave this market not because they didn’t have significant benefits, but because we couldn’t figure out how to make space for them to actually help farmers improve,” Stratton says. “So it was organizational and regulatory disincentive that kept these things out of the market.”
Ledebuhr says more companies will be added, but a list of the participating companies can be found at GLTekFlex.org.
Event partners and sponsors include Michigan State University Extension; Michigan Department of Agriculture; Michigan Vegetable Council; Michigan Grape Growers; Michigan Horticultural Society,; Ohio State University; Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness; Cornell University; The Ontario Ag Robotics Working Group; and Meshcomm Engineering.
“This event is the first of its kind in North America, right here in the Great Lakes region,” says Mike Reinke, Michigan State University viticulture Extension specialist and Great Lakes Tek Flex board member. “Growers and agronomists are going to find new and proven agri-tech manufacturers demonstrating their technology and connecting with potential end users of these amazing tools.”
