The first farmers who planted their industrial hemp fields in May under a new law that allowed the commercial cultivation of the crop have reported to the state Department of Agriculture in Alabama that they haven’t experienced any problems and their crop is almost ready for harvest.
Ed Glaze, who is growing hemp in St. Clair County, says the plants are doing well and some have grown to be five-feet tall. Glaze fondly says that the plants generally look “cute.”
However, some of the plants at his farm look much smaller than the others, but these small ones are the exception so he has no worries about his crop.
Fran Summerlin is another of the pioneer hemp farmers growing the crop on a five-acre field. She says that she was initially worried by the presence of deer in the area but despite the visible deer prints in her field, not a single hemp plant has been chewed by these grazers.
Summerlin also hasn’t had any problems with pests and her crop is growing well without the use of any chemicals. This is a big relief to her because she isn’t allowed to use any pesticides on these plants that will be processed to extract CBD.
Rick Pate, the Commission of the Alabama Department of Agriculture says that Glaze and Summerlin are part of a group of farmers that were licensed to pilot hemp cultivation in the state and all are reporting that things are going well with their first crop.
Pate says that despite hemp being a new crop in the state, they trust that the farmers, who have massive experience in growing soy, cotton and other crops have the ability to deal with any issue that may come their way. Luckily, no major problem has arisen, except the insufficient rain that some farmers feared would compromise their crop.
The only hiccups so far have been from a law enforcement perspective, Pate adds. One farmer in Coffee County reported that some of his crops had been pulled up by a thief but he was finding it hard to get back those that were dropped in a nearby county and were handed over to law enforcement.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has been conducting aerial patrols over the state in order to locate illegal marijuana grows. The Department of Agriculture has shared the GPS coordinates of hemp farms with the agency so that they don’t mistake a hemp crop for the illegal marijuana.
This approach seems to be working, with only one farmer reporting that a law enforcement helicopter landed on his farm and they only left after he showed them his license to grow hemp.
One farmer has also notified the agriculture department that his crop is ready to be harvested and the state tested and cleared the crop to be harvested since its THC content was well within the legal limit for hemp.
The Department of Agriculture foresees that September will be a busy month for their lab since most farmers will be harvesting their hemp around that time. The state is doing everything to ensure that no delays occur when testing the samples since a harvest could be delayed if test results aren’t released in a timely manner.
For now, industry watchers believe that the entire hemp industry, including Canopy Rivers Inc. (TSX.V: RIV) (OTC: CNPOF) and Earth Science Tech Inc. (OTCQB: ETST), is glad that the effort of these pioneer hemp farmers is going to pay off.
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