Last week, Cal Poly hosted its trilogy of field day events: grapes on Wednesday and strawberries and organics on Thursday. All three brought in industry players, members of the community, and Cal Poly Students.

The largest and longest running of the three events was the Strawberry Field Day. The president of the California Strawberry Commission, Rick Tomlinson, called the annual Strawberry Field Day, “where the future of farming takes root.” This is no wonder; with over 600 industry members in attendance, it has become an event strawberry agtech companies should attend.

Hosted at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Strawberry Center, this is the 9th consecutive year that the field day has happened. The event spanned across strawberry fields, a parking lot industry fair, and the neighboring Wine and Viticulture Center. Throughout all these events, undergraduate and master’s students displayed their projects, showcasing Cal Poly’s “Learn by Doing” Mantra.

Startups familiar to the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology­Tric and Bonsai Robotics­gave in-field demonstrations. At such a largely attended event, these showcases do a great job of demonstrating to the industry that robots in ag are not on the horizon; they are already here.

The Grimm Organic Center held its fourth annual Organic Field Day immediately after in their Organic Sandbox. This was the first public viewing of the Organic Sandbox, which has recently been put into production. Unlike the on-campus Organic Farm, this plot is not Certified Organic, giving graduate and faculty researchers the liberty to trial organic and conventional treatments side by side.

People who have attended the field day every year have watched it significantly grow. This year, its two rotating stations had almost 200 people in attendance. This crowd gave graduate students a platform to present their research and continue to build connections with the industry and potential future employers. Inversely, it gives the industry a view into what Cal Poly students are being taught and hopefully an assurance that they will be ready to enter the workforce.