Michigan vegetable growers rely on MSU partnership, research
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EmailMSU research helps advance Michigan's vibrant vegetable industry.
This story is part of a series highlighting the impact of MSU AgBioResearch’s work with Michigan agriculture and natural resources told through our stakeholders' perspectives. Through partnerships with the State of Michigan and industries, MSU AgBioResearch is finding solutions to some of the most timely problems facing our state. To view the entire series, visit agbioresearch.msu.edu.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — For more than 60 years, the Michigan Vegetable Council (MVC) has advocated on behalf of the state’s vegetable industry, bringing together growers, processors, shippers and other industry organizations.
Since its inception, the MVC has valued research as a necessity to ensure the long-term stability of the industry. To that end, partnering with Michigan State University has been one of the MVC’s top priorities.
“Just about everything we do in research and education is tied to MSU AgBioResearch and MSU Extension,” said Greg Bird, MVC executive director. “We know the research staff at MSU, and we know their skills and abilities. Over time, the MSU team has been tailored to fit agriculture industry needs, especially for vegetables. So when we’re doing planning, we know what’s available at MSU, which researchers to go to for certain things, and we’re not starting fresh each year. We look at our priorities and know what MSU can handle.”
According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), the economic impact of the Michigan vegetable industry totals more than $428 million annually.
Vegetables are grown on more than 3,000 Michigan farms. The state ranks highly in the production of several vegetable crops, including asparagus, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumbers (fresh and for pickling), green beans, onions, pumpkins, radishes, summer and winter squash, sweet corn, potatoes, tomatoes and turnips.
Sharing the results of MSU research with growers is something Bird identified as critical to vegetable production.
“Our organization survives by putting on the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo every December, where vegetable and fruit growers from the Great Lakes region go to get education and talk with companies and researchers so they can plan and be successful for the future,” he said. “That event is the main source of information for many growers, and essentially all of the research shared there is from MSU. We couldn’t put this event on without the university’s support.”
The genesis of much of MSU’s vegetable research involves Project GREEEN, a partnership among MDARD, the Michigan Plant Coalition and MSU to address emerging plant agriculture challenges.
“We always start with Project GREEEN for our research needs,” Bird said. “It’s not the biggest agriculture research program in the U.S., but we need and expect quick turnarounds. At the federal level, it can sometimes take years just to apply for grants and see any results. We need research that can provide something tangible fairly quickly, and many of these projects through Project GREEEN generate things we can use in just a year or two.”
Project GREEEN efforts have led to advancements in disease detection and management, including downy mildew, a pathogen affecting vine crops across the state. Bird said a monitoring system for downy mildew was created that’s continually updated to provide growers with the latest information and mitigation strategies.
Alongside Project GREEEN, Bird has helped to champion a newer initiative aimed at long-term issues, the Agricultural Resiliency Program.
“One of our biggest problems in the vegetable industry is related to water — having enough quality water on the farm and using water efficiently,” he said. “The Agricultural Resiliency Program was created to address this as one of its main focal points. Also, the aspect of making sure our industry is economically resilient is important, so bringing in MSU’s agricultural economists in that program has been really useful.”
Bird said funding for vegetable research through MSU remains one of his industry’s main priorities. Without it, growers would be facing an even more uncertain future.
“Growers are presented with an abundance of challenges, and MSU helps them deal with so many of those,” he said. “When I talk with the vegetable growers in the state, they continue to rank our partnership with MSU as a top priority. For many, research is the most important thing to help them continue to be profitable. In my role as MVC executive director, I don’t go a day without hearing something about how MSU research is affecting the vegetable industry in a positive way.
“We have the talent and commitment at MSU, and we don’t want to lose that. Agriculture research funds have to stay with MSU because if we didn’t have that, the research wouldn’t get done, and we wouldn’t be as good of a place to grow the fruits and vegetables we currently grow.”
Vegetable growers Nate Brink and Mike Bosch have experienced MSU’s commitment to bettering the state’s vegetable industry through research and outreach. Brink, a fourth-generation onion farmer at Brink Muck Farms in Grant, Michigan, consults with MSU researchers and Extension educators on a variety of issues facing his farm. Bosch, co-owner of Eding Brothers Celery Farm in Hamilton, Michigan, has hosted several MSU research trials.
Below is a Q&A with Brink and Bosch describing their interactions with MSU.
How does MSU research currently support your goals?
- Brink: No matter how many years of experience you have growing a crop, you always have moments when you scratch your head. There’s so much you can’t control with pests, diseases, weather — you name it. Just when you think you have it figured out, there’s a new or unique thing thrown your way. Also, the input costs are so high with onions. You sometimes feel like you’re putting a lot of money in a gambling machine and pulling the lever. The seed alone is expensive, and then you have spray programs because there are lots of disease issues with Michigan’s moisture. So to be able to reach out to MSU staff is very helpful. There are other states doing research, but when you can pick up the phone and call someone who knows exactly what we’re dealing with, that’s huge.
- Bosch: We’ve been working with MSU for a really long time, which started with my uncle many years ago. Hosting research trials has been a big thing for us. MSU has been great to work with in that regard. They’re easy to communicate with on timing for sprays, and the data we’re able to collect is very beneficial. That’s been a great experience because we’re able to see the results firsthand, which makes us very comfortable in terms of implementation of new strategies.
What outcomes or benefits do you expect from MSU research?
- Brink: I see value in MSU research because it’s not just about growing an onion. The customer has certain expectations of quality. The more research that’s being done that’s focused on quality at MSU, it gives us a competitive edge as Michigan growers in the marketplace. So that’s what I expect as a grower, to have research help us respond to problems now and be thoughtful about potential future problems we could face. Being able to call a researcher or an Extension educator when you have a question is really convenient, and they can reach out to their network to find an answer if they don’t know. All of that work helps us grow a better crop, which is ultimately our goal for our business and the consumer.
- Bosch: Recently, I’ve been asking MSU staff if they’ve been seeing new things during their research. It’s always helpful to stay on top of developing situations, and MSU is always communicating new things they’re seeing. That communication has been the backbone of our relationship with them. We expect to be on the cutting edge of developments in the vegetable industry, and we feel like we are with the research they’re doing.
Can you share an example of when MSU research has positively affected the industry or helped it overcome a looming challenge?
- Brink: MSU Plant & Pest Diagnostics has been a great resource. They helped us in 2021 when we had a chunk of a field totally collapse. One week the field was fine, and the next it was lying flat on the ground. I sent in a sample, and they confirmed it was anthracnose (fungal disease). The availability of the lab is of tremendous value because when you see something out in the field and can’t identify it, the lab helps you make better decisions if you know exactly what’s going on. We’ve also learned a ton about timing for management products. You’re always told to follow the label on those products, but we found out through MSU that we needed to be even more cautious and wait on a particular herbicide until the onions are bigger. That type of information is something we wouldn’t know unless we had that research. We learned that from a presentation at the Great Lakes Expo, and that was invaluable.
- Bosch: We’ve done quite a lot with cover crop research. We’ve seen benefits with weed reduction, soil erosion reduction, nematode control, and the biomass that goes back into the field from cover crops. We’ve also worked a lot with Dr. Mary Hausbeck’s (plant pathology) lab. That research done on our farm has gone really well, especially with her work on Stemphylium (fungal pathogen) and seeing products that work for it. Basically for us, finding products that work provides costs savings so we’re not guessing or trying things on our own. We’ve also had Dr. Zachary Hayden (soil and nutrient management) doing research on nitrogen inputs, and we’ve seen information from those soil samples. That’s led us to adjusting our fertilizer blends that we use. Everything is really geared toward cost savings.
How can MSU research help to position the industry to thrive moving forward?
- Brink: Really, it’s about continuing the type of work that’s already being done. I’ve been directly involved in showing support for research. I’ve filled out forms to express that the work Dr. Mary Hausbeck has done with things like Stemphylium is needed. Without that type of research and a lot of the other projects at MSU, we’d be doing a lot of guessing, which doesn’t work well when it comes to spending your money while operating a business.
- Bosch: Obviously continuing this current research is necessary. Outside of that, I think one of the most important things is keeping in touch with growers to see if we’re seeing new things. We’ve seen various issues with celery, an example being celery meltdown over the last few years, which has caused some problems. Staying in touch with growers is critical for issues like that, and MSU has been great. The other thing would be working on weather-prediction models, particularly predictive models for issues like Stemphylium would be helpful. I know that’s something we’ve discussed that MSU is working on.
What would you say to legislators to advocate on behalf of continued funding? What would it mean not to have this funding support moving forward?
- Brink: I’m very grateful for what MSU has done and continues to do. This type of funding support is necessary, especially for us with onions. Onions are a fairly small industry in Michigan. There are a lot of acres grown, but it’s not one of the state’s bigger crops. We don’t have private industry support for research the way some of the large row crops do, so we rely on MSU.
- Bosch: Funding is paramount because we can’t have this research without it. In order to get that research to happen, we need those dollars. To have MSU doing this work in an unbiased way is really important for us. As I’m sure many specialty crop growers point out, we don’t have a lot of private industry support. Without MSU, growers would have to try things on their own, and that can lead to a lot of cost and production issues that we simply can’t afford.
Michigan State University AgBioResearch scientists discover dynamic solutions for food systems and the environment. More than 300 MSU faculty conduct leading-edge research on a variety of topics, from health and agriculture to natural resources. Originally formed in 1888 as the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, MSU AgBioResearch oversees numerous on-campus research facilities, as well as 15 outlying centers throughout Michigan. To learn more, visit agbioresearch.msu.edu.
