Michigan Vegetable Highlights

Total area of vegetable crops harvested annually averaged 113 668 acres in 1988-2001, yielding $200 million. Cucumbers (35,831.acres) and snap beans (23,722 acres) led in area, followed by asparagus (15,815 acres) and sweet corn (9,884 acres), with carrots and squash (about 6,178 acres each) next in importance. Production was greatest for cucumbers (176,370 tons), followed by tomatoes (95,901 tons), squash (46,297 tons), celery (38,581 tons), sweet corn (29,762 tons), pumpkins (25,353 tons), and cabbage (20,393 tons). Farm gate values were greatest for cucumbers ($52 million), tomatoes and carrots ($23 and $20 million), followed by asparagus, and squash ($15-16 million each). Other crops included cantaloupe, radishes, and bell peppers. Considerable proportions of the carrot, cucumber, snap bean, tomato, celery, pepper, pumpkin, and squash crops were processed.

Adapted May, 2005 from International Society for Horticultural Science

2007 In Review

Michigan vegetable growers produced 763,820 tons of fresh and processed vegetables in 2007. Harvested acreage was 110,100. Value of production totaled $211 million. Nationally, Michigan ranked ninth and fifth, respectively for fresh market and processing vegetable value of production. Michigan farmers produced 7.77 million hundredweight (cwt) of fresh market vegetables, a decrease of 10 percent from 2006. Processing vegetable production totaled 375,170 tons. Vegetable planting activities progressed steadily for much of the State through mid June. Planting and transplanting continued in June with cool conditions and little precipitation. The emergence and growth for many vegetable crops was slowed due to the colder than normal temperatures and light frosts experienced in May. The drought during the summer of 2007 caused many crops to become stressed and had an adverse affect on yields, resulting in lower supplies. Michigan ranked third among States for dual purpose asparagus production with 235,000 cwt produced, down 9 percent from last year's 257,000 cwt. Spears began to emerge in some parts of the State in late April. The crop did not exhibit any severe damage from winter weather conditions. Harvest began on a limited basis at the beginning of May and continued on schedule for the remainder of the month. The extended period of warm weather in June matured the crop quickly with harvest nearing completion by the middle of the month for most growers. Yields were average but the quality was excellent.

Abstracted July 2008 from Michigan Agricultural Statistics