In 2019, hemp farmers who were growing hemp for the first time learned the hard way about the cost of doing business without having harvesting plans or purchase contracts in place.
Most of the farmers were promised that they could make profits of up to $50,000 per acre, and since they were looking for a reprieve from low crop prices and foreign tariffs, they rushed into planting and cultivating the newly introduced legal crop.
However, the growers did not put into consideration the cost of harvesting, drying, and processing the crop before getting it ready for sale. Those who have been growing the plant for long are now sharing the strategies that new farmers should use to grow and harvest a profitable yield as well as the methods to apply when storing for future use when the prices are favorable.
Last month at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California hemp veteran producers explained the costs and dangers of producing and harvesting hemp.
Harvesting involves a lot of work and is expensive
Harvesting hemp requires a new game plan and science, even for the most seasoned farmers.
Most of the growers have learned that hemp is not an easy crop to handle, especially with the strict federal rules and the limited window of submitting a harvest report to the authorities and getting the plant out of the field.
Mike Christensen, who oversees farm management and development for Agland Management Consulting, said that the farmers learned some of the following lessons last season:
- Cutting the crop down and leaving it to dry in the field for several days like hay degraded its CBD content, eventually reducing the value of the plant.
- Wet baling caused the hemp to develop mold and ferment, ultimately ruining the crop.
Christensen further said that even the experienced farmers need to have a game plan when it comes to harvesting hemp.
According to the founder of the Jefferson Packing House and Jefferson Hemp Exchange based in Medford Oregon, Matt Ochoa, the cost of hemp production inputs include seeds or clones, labor, and equipment but farmers usually don’t plan far enough when it comes to the cost of harvesting, drying, and processing the crop.
Ochoa further said that the cost of harvesting hemp flower and getting it out of the field ranges between $3,000 and $5,000 per acre. Drying the crop costs $15 per pound, and this does not include the cost of bucking, processing, and packaging it for the market.
The president of Agland Management Consulting, Josiah Thomas, said that hemp farmers also had challenges in accessing infrastructure to dry the crop, so they had to contract facilities to dry their produce.
Thomas advised the farmers to grow as much crop as their infrastructure can support and make sure to line up buyers for their produce.
Ochoa also added that the farmers should have in place proper shipping and handling strategies to ensure the crop has good airflow to reduce composting and fermentation, which starts post-harvest because, without these procedures in place, the quality of the plant can degrade rapidly.
Analysts believe that hemp sector actors like SinglePoint Inc. (OTCQB: SING) could have seen more than their fair share of farmers whose crop was ruined by the mistakes discussed above. Prospective farmers would therefore be well-advised to learn from the mistakes of others and avoid those pitfalls.
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