LANSING – Last fall, while planting the seeds for a modest educational conference for growers hosted by the Michigan Corn, Soy and Wheat Check-Off Programs, organizers never dreamed that the inaugural Great Lakes Crop Summit earlier this month would grow into such a huge success.
The Summit, held January 22 and 23 at FireKeepers Casino/Hotel in Battle Creek, drew more than 475 farmer-attendees who were on hand to listen and engage with expert speakers, researchers, exhibitors and sponsors.
Jim Zook, Executive Director of Michigan Corn, said that since so many Michigan farmers grow some combination of corn, soy and wheat, collaborating on the GLCS made sense.
?With so many winter meetings for growers to attend, we thought it would be effective to join forces with Michigan Soy and Michigan Wheat to pool our resources and make this a valuable conference for our growers,? Zook said. ?Once we started setting up speakers and publicizing the Summit, we had to adjust to handle the overwhelming response and accommodate everyone interested in taking part.?
The GLCS was specially designed to connect producers with research and industry experts to improve farm profitability and the strategic position of the Michigan corn, soybean and wheat industries.
?This truly is a growers? summit,? said Natalie Rector, Research Coordinator for the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan. ?We see this as an extension of research where we have a wonderful opportunity to educate and bring research data back to the farmers. This is a great example of how we are taking good care of their invested check-off dollars.?
With the unique challenges that growers face today, Rector said that farmers have to take a systems approach on their farm to work efficiently and effectively. And that means ongoing education.
?Our goal was to provide a variety of crop-specific sessions to assist growers in their main areas of production as well as general sessions targeting topics such as climate change, irrigation and social media and much more,? Rector said. ?Attendees also earned valuable credits, including 12 Restricted Use Pesticide credits and 10 Certified Crop Advisor credits.?
Over the course of the two days, growers heard from ag researchers from four universities and several top-notch private consultants from across the Midwest.
The Summit opened with a commodity executives panel with national corn, soy and wheat leaders, including Rick Tolman, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association; John Becherer of the United Soybean Board; and Jim Palmer from the National Wheat Program.
The Summit also included a farm trade show, and the annual meetings for both Michigan Corn and Soy, where yield contest results and winners were announced.
