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Southwestern Michigan College’s inaugural Agriculture Day March 3 exposed 170 Centreville, Vicksburg, Eau Claire, Cassopolis, Niles and Van Buren Technology Center students to more opportunities than people exist to fill them.
SMC student Shelby Pruett, a 2015 Watervliet High School graduate and one of the first eight completing SMC’s Michigan State University Institute of Agricultural Technology partnership, will study in northern Ireland for six weeks this summer, including golf course turf management.
Then she will pair her associate’s degree/agricultural operations certificate with a bachelor’s degree in business she can finish on the Dowagiac campus through Ferris State University.
“I like agriculture, but more on the business and sales side,” Pruett said. “Take opportunities because it’s hard to know when they’re going to come. You come to college thinking you have an idea what you’re going to do. Opportunities change your whole plan. Always keep an open mind.”
Kayti Corwin, who also completed MSU’s program, is in her fourth year with Wilbur-Ellis, a leading international marketer and distributor of agricultural products, animal feed and specialty chemicals.
“Having all these women coming into the workforce, ag is a lot different,” Corwin said. “Two years ago, I went to a Chicago executive women in ag conference. They taught us networking because you’re never going to know everything yourself.”
Corwin presented on cover crops grown to enrich and protect soil in SMC’s new greenhouse with Senior Educator Ron Goldy, MSU Extension in Benton Harbor.
Students transplanted wheat, rye and oats into cups carried away as souvenirs.
Greenhouse space is reserved for FarmBot Genesis, an open-source farming machine that lets anyone create customized plots.
Users design with interactive software connected to a Raspberry Pi-enabled bot, which plants, waters and weeds automatically.
Stacey Rocklin, MSU’s SMC coordinator, hopes to double her program from 35 to 70 students pursuing agricultural operations, fruit and vegetable crop management, viticulture and landscape management, with “technology a huge part of where we go in the future.”
Agriculture, food processors and related businesses employ 923,000 Michiganders — 22 percent of the state workforce. Farmers’ average age is 58.
Michigan is home to 2,166 licensed food processors generating $25 billion in economic activity, 129 wineries and more than 200 micro-breweries.
Corey Johnson, March 15 guest speaker for SMC’s Ag Club, and Josh Welker, also from Stone Ridge Landscaping, Goshen, exploded five myths about their $78-billion “green industry”: all they do is dig holes, it doesn’t pay well, it’s seasonal, it’s not a prestigious industry and wastes college education.
“All false,” Johnson said. “Plenty of jobs don’t require you to get your hands dirty. Even on the production side, we use skid loaders and excavators. On average, our crew foreman is responsible for $100,000 worth of equipment. In winter, I spend 35-40 hours a week in the office, planning next year and talking to vendors and customers. Whenever I see someone with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, your resume jumps up my list because I know you have technical knowledge and drive.”
Welker, a designer, deconstructed a pie-shaped backyard patio with fire pit a Cubs fan completed with red and blue lights.
Robin Kniebes, a retired agriculture teacher who turned a hobby into Grapevine Nursery, Coloma, demonstrated plant propagation.
Bill Grabemeyer, Michigan State Horticultural Society past president, urged students to become “value-added products.”
“For 45 years I was the mechanic on our farm,” Grabemeyer said. “My office was a 45- by 60-foot shop with welding torches. Turning an apple into cider is a value-added product. You do it with agriculture students by knowing the difference between hay and straw (the former is grass or legumes cut and dried and generally used as animal feed, the latter grain stalks such as wheat, barley and oats after harvest).
“When a student worked for us last year a tire went flat on a big disc. He knew how to repair it. When I farmed with my brothers, we had to decide what we could afford to do ourselves and what we needed to pay someone who could do it more efficiently. If I have to pay somebody $50 to drive to my farm and $100 an hour for a service call to replace an O-ring in a hydraulic valve, that’s bad use of my time and money.
“If I have someone who knows how to do that, they’re a value-added product. If you know the difference between a starter and an alternator or how to use a grease gun, great! What I know how to do is not antiquated. I would love to pass on what’s taken a lifetime to learn.”