May is a month for appreciating the out-of-doors. Golfers hit the links. The sounds of softball games fill sports fields at schools and parks. Motorists cruise along roads bordered by newly green expanses of grass. Homeowners tend and cut their lawns.

Mother’s Day, May 11, is often a time for outside barbeques. People gather for outside activities, in celebration of this beautiful state and its traditions, during Michigan Week, May 17–26. On Memorial Day, May 26, many Michiganians go on picnics. Some, especially in small towns, bring flags and flowers to grassy, green knolls of cemeteries. All these traditional rites of springtime are associated with a fascinating and little-known Michigan industry—the turfgrass industry.

Although you may not be aware of the turfgrass industry now, you will soon be able to review the details of the industry. The Michigan Agricultural Statistics Service (MASS), a partnership between the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture, has been asked by the turfgrass industry, and by state and federal agencies, to create the first-ever turfgrass survey in Michigan.

Every year since 1919, when the state of Michigan made an agreement with the federal government to avoid duplication and collect timely agricultural statistics, MASS has collected, verified and analyzed agricultural data. Other states do the same. Thus America overall, and Michigan specifically, can make decisions about crops and understand exactly what and how much we are growing now, leading to decisions about what we need to grow in the future. Major crops and livestock are surveyed each year and annual reports are released.

To some people, statistics may seem challenging or a trifle dry. But to State Statistician Dave Kleweno, head of MASS, statistics are an intriguing picture of the work done by thousands of farmers and agribusiness people who fill out the voluntary surveys conducted by MASS throughout the year. “I give those folks special thanks and appreciation,” he says. Dave directs a staff of 21 employees at the MASS offices in East Lansing, who work in conjunction with a telephone and field staff of approximately 150 interviewers throughout the state.

Next Page | 1 | 2 | 3 |