Irrigation has been critical for Michigan specialty crops this season as nearly 60 percent of the state has experienced some form of dryness.
Molly Sears, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics assistant professor at Michigan State University, tells Brownfield, “Yields, in general, are really high, it’s especially true in tree fruits.” “They had a cold, rainy winter but not a lot of freeze cycles and yields are astronomically higher than they were last year—apple production is up 68 percent,” she says.
Bumper specialty crop harvests offer opportunity
