Many farmers in Kansas have started harvesting their first hemp crop hoping that this could be the turning point in their fortunes since this crop promises to be several times more lucrative than the traditional crops that they have been growing.
Heartland Hemp Farm, located in Leavenworth County, is one of the 196 entities licensed to grow hemp in this pilot program. J. Bradley, the Master Grower at the farm, says that they are racing against the clock to get all their plants harvested within a 10-day window to prevent the THC content from exceeding the legally accepted threshold for industrial hemp.
Bradley says that they have simply been cutting the plants down to prevent the THC concentration from rising.
Todd Schuler, the Chief Operating Officer of Heartland Hemp Farm, explains that it has been hard work harvesting the hemp plants by hand because some of them have very thick stalks.
Schuler and his two partners decided to participate in the state’s hemp pilot program after the department of agriculture started receiving applications from farmers who wanted to grow this newly legalized crop.
The department of agriculture says 99 percent of all the hemp that has been grown this year was in outdoor fields while the remaining one percent was in high tunnels and greenhouses. All these farmers are taking part in a learning process through which the state hopes to learn what will or will not work during the cultivation of industrial hemp.
According to the Kansas department of agriculture, 2,376 acres of hemp were planted this year. The planted acreage is just 47 percent of the total land area for which farmers obtained licenses to grow industrial hemp.
So far, 17 license holders have notified the state that they didn’t plant the crop on their plots for a variety of reasons, such as the failure to get seed in time and the ground being too wet at the time when they wanted to plant. Another 30 license holders have not yet been in touch with the state department of agriculture to report whether they planted or not.
While some farmers were citing extremely wet conditions as the reason why they didn’t put their plants in the ground, Heartland Hemp Farm experienced drought conditions in July and they had to water their crop every other day to help the plants to establish.
The ongoing harvest will reveal whether all that effort was worth it or mistakes were made that resulted in plants whose CBD content is not high enough to fetch the best rates from processors. In the meantime, the state will receive grower applications until the end of November for those who want to participate next year.
Industry watchers are of the view that entities like Marijuana Company of America Inc. (OTCQB: MCOA) and Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) are hoping that the pilot program is a resounding success so that many more farmers are encouraged to join in and benefit from the opportunities available in growing hemp.
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