September Newsletter
A Note From The Founder
Hey there,
This is our first newsletter! There are a lot of you pouring into our community, so we thought this would be a great platform to communicate about what’s going on each month and engage in various ways with everyone.
For those who don’t know, my name is Trevor and I am building OTEK Solutions with the goal of helping small farmers live better lives and feed their communities in sustainable ways. We’ve done 300 hours of research with 80 farms around the Midwest to learn more about the biggest challenges small farmers face. Through this process, we became super passionate about ways we can make production easier and more cost effective for the farmer. Today, we’re looking to work with our growing network of farmers to build a transplanting device that is affordable and makes transplanting-life much simpler, quicker, and more efficient. We believe that if we can take the back-breaking labor out of transplanting, it will allow the farmer to focus on what matters - delivering nutritious food to their communities. We’re calling it the OTEK Transplanter.
We’ve enjoyed every second of the work we’ve done to date, mostly because our farmer friends have been there with us along the way. This newsletter is another way we’re aiming to continue building relationships with you all.
Thanks for taking the time to stay up to date with us 🙂
Best,
Trevor Bowie
Founder | OTEK Solutions
News From The Field
Did you know that the average vegetable grower spends 37% of their time on transplanting activities? At least this is what our survey of over 1000 farms suggests. We thought this was very interesting and insightful towards what we’re aiming to accomplish with the OTEK Transplanter. The vegetable industry is also expected to grow (no pun intended!) 4.5% over the next 5 years. These are some of the objective reasons we believe it’s important to make the transplanting process more efficient.
What We’re Reading: Revitalizing Rural Communities Means Supporting Small Farms
Event Horizon
1. The 19th Annual Emerging Farmers Conference
📅 November 1-2, 2024
📍 Minneapolis, MN
The annual Emerging Farmers Conference (formerly the Immigrant & Minority Farmers Conference) serves to advance the success and sustainability of farmers who traditionally face barriers to the education and resources necessary to build profitable agricultural businesses, including immigrant farmers and farmers of color.
More Info & Registration: Here
2. MCCC Annual Meeting and UMN Soil Management Summit
📅 January 28-30, 2025
📍 Mankato, MN
Join agricultural professionals in the Midwest Cover Crops Conference and University of Minnesota Soil Management Summit to discuss cover crops' role in sustainable farming. Topics will include improving soil health, water management, and farm profitability using cover crops. This event offers hands-on workshops, expert panels, and opportunities for farmers to exchange ideas and practices.
More Info & Registration: Here
3. Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association Conference
📅 February 13-15, 2025
📍 Newark, Ohio
This annual event is one of the largest organic food and farming conferences in the Midwest, bringing together farmers, educators, and advocates for sustainable agriculture. Participants can attend workshops, networking sessions, and explore an exhibit hall featuring eco-friendly products and services.
More Info & Registration: Here
Farmer Spotlight - Hammerie Farm | Somerset, OH
Each month we’re going to feature a farm whom we visited, talked to, or otherwise engaged with during the month. We thought this would be a great way to celebrate and acknowledge farmers for the work they do everyday.
This month, we’re featuring Hammerie Farm! Located in Somerset, OH and run by Clay (left) and Kevin (right). Hammerie Farm grows a variety of vegetables and sells specialty items such as jams, honey, pet treats, hygienic products, and more. They also pasture-raise turkey, hogs, and chickens.
It’s been such a joy with them over the two afternoons we’ve visited. They’re so passionate about their work, as all of you are, and truly love and care for the land they’re using to grow and feed their local community.
You can find them at the Dublin Farmers Market (Bridge Park) and the Westerville Farmers Market. They also have some of their products available online.
Thanks again Clay for the ways you’ve been a part of our journey thus far 🙂
OTEK Roundup
Over August and September, we’ve been working on a small-scale design and build of our transplanting device. We expect to have this version built by the first week of October. Shoutout to Tim, who has been doing an amazing job on all of this!
The goal of this phase is to construct the core components of our planting system within a smaller frame in order to put our system through stress-tests in the field and see how it holds up. More importantly, we plan to use this small build as a way to demonstrate our concept to our community of farms and get feedback.
We are adamant on working WITH all of you farmers in our community, to build this together, and for you all to have a meaningful hand in bringing this idea to life. As I’ve told many of the folks in our community, you are the most important part of all of this to us. Our purpose is to build something that is meaningful to you, and we can do that to our best ability with your help.
Looking Ahead: Once we’ve had substantive and informative dialogue with our farmer friends about our concept and how it works, we will make any adjustments to our design based on what we heard from you all, and begin working on a full-scale design and build. We are ambitious to have this completed before the cold months really kick in, but hey that’s what all the late nights are for, right? At least I believe so!
I will share more details about this in Octobers’ updates once we’ve transitioned into this phase.
Let’s Connect: How You Can Get In Touch With Our Team
There are multiple ways you can engage with our group here. We have a scheduling link here if you’d like to chat face-to-face or over the phone with us. Have a quick question? This is an open form for you to drop in any queries, curiosities, or comments. Our website can be found here, if you’d like a general overview (still a work in progress!). And, of course, you can always call or email Trevor directly.
We always look forward to continuing engagement with you all 🙂
OTEK’s Ask
We are looking to pay a visit to a no-till farm. We’re particularly interested in grabbing measurements on the compactness of no-till soil, how rough it is, and speaking with a no-till farmer. If you or someone you know uses no-till methods, we’d be really grateful to speak with them!
Thank you in advance for this.
If you’d like taken off this newsletter, just reply and let us know 🙂
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