The County Press

Michigan Tree Fruit Commission & MSU partnership: providing research focus, a brighter future together




Collectively, after gaining the support of growers, the Michigan Tree Fruit Commission and a partnership with MSU was born. The goal? Identify challenges, research needs, and ultimately solutions to keep the state’s tree fruit industry competitive and sustainable.

Collectively, after gaining the support of growers, the Michigan Tree Fruit Commission and a partnership with MSU was born. The goal? Identify challenges, research needs, and ultimately solutions to keep the state’s tree fruit industry competitive and sustainable.

LANSING — Michigan’s Tree Fruit Commission, formed in 2014, brought the state’s tree fruit industries together with MSU’s AgBioResearch to indentify challenges and solutions for keeping the tree fruit industry competitive and sustainable, long-term.

In 2013, an industry committee assembled by Michigan State University’s (MSU) AgBioResearch determined that years of declining funding had manifested itself in numerous ways, particularly in terms of research infrastructure at the land-grant’s four off-campus research stations focused on tree fruit.

Tree fruits, like many other specialty crops, do not typically generate much private-sector support for research and outreach. But that doesn’t mean it’s not big business.

In Michigan alone, apples are the largest and most lucrative fruit crop, surpassing even cherries, which bring in nearly $100 million annually. Other tree fruits, particularly peaches and plums, have smaller footprints around the Great Lakes State but certainly contribute to Michigan’s great diversity in agriculture.

The 2013 committee study also identified a desperate need for additional staffing to conduct research projects at MSU’s Clarksville Research Center in Clarksville, the Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Center in Traverse City, the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center in Benton Harbor, and the Trevor Nichols Research Center in Fennville.

“The study really opened our eyes to the fact that we had to find a new way of doing things if we wanted to maintain a strong industry,” said Jim Nugent, a cherry grower and owner of Sunblossom Orchards in Leelanau County. “That means investing as an industry in research and extension.”

Another member of the committee — Phil Korson, president of the Cherry Marketing Institute — saw an opportunity to bring together tree fruit commodities for a common cause.

“Because the four research centers already cover the four primary tree fruit crops — apples, cherries, peaches and plums — there was an obvious connection that brought the groups together,” Korson said. “The timing was right, in that the State of Michigan has been very supportive of agriculture.”

Several groups, including the Michigan Apple Committee, the Cherry Marketing Institute, the Michigan State Horticultural Society and the Michigan Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Association, recommended that growers band together to form a larger tree fruit organization.

Collectively, after gaining the support of growers, the Michigan Tree Fruit Commission (MTFC) and a partnership with MSU was born. The goal? Identify challenges, research needs, and ultimately solutions to keep the state’s tree fruit industry competitive and sustainable.

Paving the way for a brighter future

The MTFC was established in 2014 under Public Act 232, the same legislation that permits other commodity organizations to form and solicit grower funding for marketing activities. The commission consists of nine growers who must go through a grower-referendum every five years to continue operating.

Grower dollars have been legislatively matched by the State of Michigan, resulting in a combined total of more than $5.8 million as of 2018 year-end, ear-marked specifically for the state’s tree fruit industry research and outreach needs.

Korson said a unique benefit of the MTFC is that partners have agreed to perform administrative functions at no cost to the commission, eliminating the need for formal support staff while also allowing MTFC funds to be fully invested into research-related needs.

“Having the administrative portion of the commission covered by the commodity organizations and MSU is of enormous benefit,” Korson said. “It means that all of the money goes directly to the program for things like research station infrastructure, equipment and professional development.”

Nugent, who serves as chair of the MTFC, credits MSU’s financial management and on-site research center oversight for new infrastructure and equipment, in addition to growers and organizations donating additional time and resources.

“We’ve had a great, collaborative experience so far and not just in terms of big-picture needs,” Nugent said. “We have requirements outside of research projects — maintenance pesticides and everyday equipment. Items like that have been contributed, and that exemplifies the tremendous enthusiasm the commission has generated within the industry.”

Faculty and staff positions at MSU have been filled with assistance from the MTFC in the form of helping with funding for needed equipment and initial support. Two new faculty members in the Department of Horticulture, Todd Einhorn and Courtney Hollender, were hired in 2016. David Jones, an MSU Extension educator in western Michigan, and Marisol Quintanilla, a nematologist in the Department of Entomology, have joined the university as well.

“We’re grateful to the commission’s partners for entrusting MSU with the responsibility of delivering research and extension information to growers,” said Doug Buhler, the director of MSU AgBioResearch. “Grower contributions to our research facilities underscore the important relationship that has developed over time. In just a few years, the MTFC has strengthened that bond by positioning us to meet long-term grower needs.”

At the four research centers, tractors, sprayers, orchard platforms, deer fencing, irrigation controllers and pruning equipment have been purchased. One significant investment is a small-scale apple grading line for use by researchers and MSU Extension educators, which also received support from the Michigan State Horticultural Society, the Michigan Apple Committee and MSU.

The grading line is able to quickly rate apples using high-powered imaging software. The data collected informs reviewers about color, weight, external blemish detection and internal damage. As both a grower and chair of the MTFC, Nugent sees research and outreach as a way to enhance the reputation of Michigan’s tree fruit industry – both throughout the state and across the country.

“Specialty crops like tree fruit receive relatively little private sector support in terms of research, so we rely on our growers and on public research at places like MSU,” Nugent said. “Because Michigan is a dominant player in the cherry industry, for example, the entire country really looks to MSU for answers to a lot of questions. That’s true of other tree fruits as well.”

Korson added: “We have set the stage for the next generation of fruit growers to have a robust research partnership with MSU to address the challenges that will come. I am very proud of what we have been able to do. It will pay long-term dividends for the fruit industry.”