Jonathan Ballard, Vice President of LeafyPack – Interview Series

As cannabis yields, volume of subsequent packaged products, and overall supply and demand for cannabis continue to increase, many large-scale cannabis producers have begun utilizing automated sorting and packaging machines as opposed to human labor. Obviously, such widespread manufacturing changes are causing a great number of questions and concerns at multiple levels. For a closer look at how automated machinery is becoming a production necessity rather than just an advantage, mycannabis.com had the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan Ballard, Vice President of LeafyPack.

What first caught your professional attention about robotics and automation technology? What subjects did you previously study that sparked your interest in those topics? 

Professionally, I’ve always been drawn to how businesses operate,how things are made, scaled, and improved. At Montana State University, a school rooted in architecture, engineering, and computer science, I gravitated toward coding, economics, design, and problem-solving, even while majoring in business. That blend of technical curiosity and business training fueled my interest in the hands-on, process-driven world of manufacturing.

I didn’t set out to work in automation or packaging equipment, it more or less found me. Growing up on my grandfather’s farm in eastern Montana, I spent countless hours helping him tinker with combine harvesters and other machinery. He later bought my brother and me an old Armatron (an ’80s-era pick-and-place “robot.”) My brother lost interest immediately, but I obsessed over figuring out how to make it grab and toss anything I could fit in its claw. Looking back, that was probably the moment I got hooked—long before I knew where it would lead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armatron

During your role with Sweet Leaf Capital LLC, how did you gain a better understanding of cannabis companies and their manufacturing practices?

During my time at Sweet Leaf Capital LLC, I gained a deep understanding of cannabis companies by financing equipment at a stage when the industry was still defining itself. Early on, we funded everything from retrofitted Case tractors and homemade C1D1 “labs” to CO₂ extraction and large-scale drying systems, much of it untested and evolving in real time. To make informed lending decisions, we had to work closely with operators and manufacturers, learning exactly how each technology functioned, why it was needed, and how it impacted product quality and production workflows. 

As the market shifted from hemp toward commercial-scale THC production, we tracked that evolution closely, seeing firsthand how equipment needs changed, how regulations shaped operations, and how business fundamentals like balance sheets, tax burdens, oversupply, and price swings affected companies. Each new state that came online followed familiar patterns, giving us a front-row seat to both the growth opportunities and the industry’s growing pains.

Ultimately, financing wasn’t just about funding machines, it meant understanding how these businesses were built, where they struggled, and how strategic capital deployment could make or break a startup, or help established operators scale responsibly.

In the time that you’ve been serving as VP of Market Development for LeafyPack, how have you seen cannabis manufacturing technology evolve, and why were those evolutions necessary?

Cannabis automation evolved in lockstep with the industry itself. Early on, tradeshows were dominated by lighting, genetics, irrigation, and HVAC, because the market was still focused on growing the plant. As the industry matured, those booths gave way to trimmers, extraction systems, and evaporation units, etc. Eventually, the focus shifted again toward packaging automation, end of line case packing and robotics, as well as pre-roll production, which is where much of the innovation is happening today in machine design and innovation.

What’s fascinating is that the core technology always existed, or borrowed from food, pharma, and manufacturing, but cannabis had to reach the scale and regulatory complexity that made automation necessary. You don’t need automated pouch lines when products are sold deli-style; once the market commercialized, consistency, safety, and compliance demanded it.

Today, we’re seeing truly industry-born solutions; pre-roll robots, small-scale joint rollers, and automated systems designed for products that never existed before cannabis. The industry has evolved from hobbyist roots into a full commercial manufacturing environment. Automation isn’t just a luxury, it’s essential for product quality, consumer safety, and helping operators survive in an increasingly challenging business landscape.

What are the most common manufacturing issues that you’ve seen your clients/customers deal with? How do automation machines such as LeafyPack’s models provide a remedy to those issues?

Across the cannabis manufacturing landscape, the most common challenges we see are labor shortages, inconsistent manual output, compliance risks, and bottlenecks that limit a facility’s ability to scale. LeafyPack’s automation systems directly address those pain points by bringing accuracy, repeatability, and speed to processes that traditionally relied on manual labor. Whether it’s precise weighing and counting, consistent pouching and sealing, or AI-powered pre-roll identification and robotic placement, our equipment removes variability and reduces operating costs while dramatically increasing throughput. Ultimately, automation gives our customers a reliable, scalable foundation so they can focus on growth, product quality, and meeting demand rather than fighting the same operational fires every day.

As someone who used to work in cannabis packaging for over three years myself, a frequent issue we had with the sorting machines was inaccurate weights being sorted through the machine (an 8th coming out as either 2.7 grams or way over 4 grams, for example). How are you and the LeafyPack team ensuring that the sorting machines are calibrated and accurate in their measurements and operations?

Great question and there are a few developments that have occurred over the past couple years to ensure accuracy and reduce waste or failure rates. The first is that we are using high quality critical components. Specifically for weighing, we’re using German loads cells from well trusted suppliers that are common and easily accessible in the event that we or the client can directly get the components they need. In addition, it’s becoming commonplace now to have the full combination scale NTEP certified. This is a 3rd party certification process that is the benchmark for weighing systems accuracy and consistency certifications. Often, companies will only have their precision check system after the primary weigher certified, but we go above that and have all the buckets certified. It doesn’t resolve all the issues, and SOPs are the most important part of the process, but it does allow for tighter tolerances.

Why are automated machines now a necessity for cannabis cultivators as opposed to previously just a great advantage? When did that exact moment occur?

It did seem that back in 2018-2020, automation was a luxury, both in packaging and production. After the pandemic, labor became more sparse, price per hire went up dramatically, and there was a short but aggressive increase in demand for cannabis during that time. Our clients needed more product out faster with less hands. Then the drop came, people went back to work or remotely, supply dropped, and prices fell. (This is a generalization but I feel it is still accurate). So now the name of the game was how to create a sustainable and standardized production and packaging process with the limited hands they had on deck. Automation comes in a lot of forms, single stand alone pouch labeler, automated tabletop depositor, semi auto counter, etc. It doesn’t always need to be a full end to end solution as many advertise, but in the end automating the time intensive processes is critical in the volatile price and supply / demand game the cannabis industry plays, state by state.

Since cannabis packaging regulations and requirements can vary slightly by state market, how do LeafyPack machines ensure those variations are accounted for?

It’s fairly simple for us, and more challenging for the end users and operator. We always require non-infused samples, and packaging well ahead of getting machines into production. This allows us to customize and tailor grippers, suctions cups, frame sizes, and other ancillary components to match the requirements of the clients packaging regulations. We work a lot with printing and labelling, so that’s another important aspect we need to fully understand prior to getting a machine into production for our clients. In short, each of our systems, for better or worse, is tailored to the clients specific packaging and regulatory framework.

Regarding the design of the machines, how is employee/operator safety not only considered but also fully implemented?

In general there are absolutes across all industries, cannabis or otherwise. Kill switches for when doors open, hit detection systems on robots, safety cages, accessible PM components, etc. Some that people don’t think of that we implement into our machines are the servo change over. This is whenever someone needs to change bag sizes or adjust gripping arms, it’s done from the PLC. Normally the operator would need to climb into the machine and manually adjust each arm (sometimes up to 16 or more individual arms) and whenever you’re inside a machine there are chances of hitting your head, dropping something, etc. It also limits the changes from over an hour to ~10 minutes at most.

Given that the pharmaceutical industry is another heavily regulated and regimented industry, what do you think cannabis manufacturers can learn from pharmaceutical companies when it comes to automation practices and applications?

A few major parts that could be taken from Pharmaceuticals is traceability and reporting. Knowing exactly what is being wasted, units sold versus manufactured. There is still a lot of loss, and waste created from the amount of manual processes employed at the facilities. Pour and scraping gummies, hand filling pre rolls, flower into packaging, etc. Pharma has very skilled, and knowledgeable operators which took a long time to build. That transfer of knowledge is beginning to build into cannabis, and we’ve had a lot of wonderful and experienced people come in and support the facilities that are integrating automation into their work flow process. Automation does save time, increase throughput, and save cost, but it also truly helps support the tracking and traceability of the products and helps business owners make informed decisions.    

How do you address concerns that automation in the cannabis industry will take employment opportunities away from human workers or at least lessen those opportunities? 

I’ve heard this before and I feel this is a debate from 2015. There isn’t the market that existed 10 years ago for manual labor, or factory work in general. Times have changed, and what I understand is that you can’t throw enough money at people to come in and do these repetitive tasks. Couple that with a lot of facilities being located in low population areas exacerbates this even further. In my mind, what we do is bring in equipment and train up the valued members of the team with new skills they can take anywhere and is actually a form of promotion and value add to their lives when they are employed there but also skills they will have and are translatable to other industries if they choose to exit. Now as a business owner, this might sound bad… but to me we need these sorts of growth paths for the people in this space and that skill growth creates that much needed transferable knowledge as more are hired and companies grow.

How do you envision these machines evolving over the years as the cannabis industry changes and grows as well? 

This might sound less exciting than people want to hear but we’re still playing catch up to other industries. What I think is next is the progress of the “pre roll” market and it moving more towards what we see in the tobacco industry. The other part which I’m excited for is the “end of line”. That’s the case packing with pick and place robots, case formers and erectors, cobot palletizers and other robotics which we are actively engaging clients to consider as we approach 2026. It’s one thing to weigh, fill and packaging a product, but getting that package and product ready for delivery is a time and labor intensive process. Companies are looking to streamline that and we’re here to answer their questions and call.

Thank you for joining us, Jonathan! For more information on LeafyPack and their machinery, please visit its website.