10 Things To Know Before Growing Hemp
With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, the prospect of actual hemp farming across the U.S. became a reality for the first time in 82 years. Even in the federal government’s Hemp for Victory campaign, when it owned dozens of hemp fiber mills, farmers had to purchase Producer of Marihuana [sic] tax stamps. But no more. Now under USDA jurisdiction hemp can be allowed in every US state, territory, and tribe. Many are diving into the new “Green Rush” unaware of just how little they really know about farming hemp. In this first of a series of White Papers by Richard Rose on various aspects of why and how to grow Hemp, he covers some of the things you should know before growing hemp.
1) Should you even grow Hemp? While returns as high as $100,000/acre are possible on paper, achieving that is much harder than just growing and selling most other crops. Consider the math: say you can pull in 1,000 pounds per acre of 10% CBD hemp flowers and can get at least $1 per pound per percentage point of CBD. That’s 1,000 x 10 x $1 = $10,000. Some yield twice that or more. But only if everything goes perfect, and I guarantee it won’t. Some have lost entire fields because unstable genetics exceeded 0.3% max THC, others were sold seed which wasn’t as claimed, and others lost it after harvest to mold. Plus all the usual risks of farming like hail, infestation, wind, etc. Did I mention thieves? They can do the math, too. Well, many of them anyway, and your new crop will have a high value.
2) Does your state have a hemp program approved by the USDA? Do you qualify for it? Are you willing to cede sovereignty of your land to unannounced government inspection at any time? Can you afford the start-up costs? Do you have genetics lined-up? Will your county or neighborhood allow it? Do you qualify for any USDA grants or programs? Do you have water rights? Do you have proper farm equipment? Are you in the right latitudes (hemp is a temperate crop, north from 35 degrees)? For example, growing Canadian hemp outdoors in Hawaii won’t work, it will flower too early. Growing hemp cultivars developed in Hawaii won’t work outdoors in Canada, they will flower too late.
3) Be sure you know before planting how you will harvest, dry, process, trim, who will buy it, and for how much. What form will they want it? Should you sell as flowers or extract and sell the CBD instead? Should you even grow for CBD? The styles of hemp agriculture are very different, often CBD hemp today is bred, grown, cured, extracted, and packaged by mostly ex-marijuana growers; it’s just marijuana with an upside-down Cannabinoid ratio, high in CBD and low in THC. On the other hand, mankind has been growing dense broadacre hemp for millennia, first for its fiber then seed for food in just the last 20 years. Safe, non-toxic, nonintoxicating CBD products are a recent phenomenon, taking off only in 2014. If you grow for fiber or seed, figure out what to do with it before planting. Sell it raw as biomass for fiber, or process it for higher value such as animal bedding? Sell whole seed for eating, or shell and press oil for a higher value? The more processing you do, “the longer you hold onto it,” the higher the value.
4) But it’s hard to go it alone to grow and process seed or fiber: processing infrastructure is expensive (from $2 million for seed to $20 million for textiles) and it needs hundreds or thousands of acres within a reasonable distance to feed the processing lines. For example, to run one seed shelling line one shift per day for a year requires about 1,000 acres of seed. Plus the cost of harvesting, drying, cleaning, grading, and storing it. That requires either one very large farm committed to hemp with deep pockets, or better: a co-operative of farmers located within 50 miles buying farm and processing equipment together. Don't let the processors control the market as we see in Canada. Instead, form a co-op to buy the harvesting and processing equipment to add value before letting go of the product. Perhaps even create a new brand around it (“XYZ Hemp Co-op” brand, like Blue Diamond Almonds and many dairies, have).
5) The selection of which cultivar(s) to grow is perhaps the single most-critical part of the growing hemp puzzle. Choosing the wrong cultivar can be a disaster, losing your crop after expensive inputs due to flowering issues, lack of market, lack of seed or cannabinoids (CBDa and CBGa), or high THC level (0.3% max THC in US and Canada, 0.2% in EU, 1% most everywhere else).
6) I'm not a fan of mandatory certified seed, as that decision should be left up to the one who has to live with those consequences, namely the farmer. It does have its use, mostly for growing acres and acres of long straight stable, uniform, and consistent plants between 40 and 60 degrees latitude, usually on irrigated land, easily harvested and processed by mechanized means. Most certified hemp cultivars are for fiber, a few in Canada for grain, and none for resin (CBD). There are around 200 certified hemp cultivars. AOSCA is the ultimate certifying body, but it's done locally usually by an agriculture, seed, or crop department or association. Canada does it, so does Colorado; California is supposed to. Even the U.N. is involved. 3 Certified seed is mandatory in many nations, including Canada, the E.U., and Australia, as well as California and a few other states. Gratefully, the 2018 Farm Bill was silent on certified cultivars, hopefully, USDA will be agnostic as well. It does have the potential to be abused to be a monopoly or oligopoly situation, many have been working to that end for years, “cornering the planting seed market.” I expect a hemp association to start pushing for it, such as the recent “0.0% THC” variety from GenCanna. That's the nature of regulatory capture, to let the government make a market for you then use it to protect you.
7) Use Good Agricultural Practices. Learn the recommended protocols. Hire that rare proven Agronomist familiar with your area as well as with farming hemp. Expect to amend the soil before and during the growth cycle. Test the soil first, and during to see what the hemp is taking up. Most use conventional herbicides pre-emergent, although some do grow organically.
8) If you are a breeder you’ll want to aim for certification of your new creation. We are nowhere near having all the cannabis cultivars we need and want, and currently have a narrow commercial gene pool. The certified cultivars have been slow to respond to market changes, including grain and now increased CBD. Breeding with others' seed is problematic, everyone does but be cool about it. That's also why many seed sellers refuse to sell to breeders. When you certify, the story of its provenance should be intRAstate, if you are in the US committing a felony to transport your then-Schedule 1 Breeder seed pre-2018 Farm Bill will win you no brownie points when certifying with an AOSCA agency.
9) What should you grow this year? I suggest this first year to buy 1 big bag of each and every seed variety you can get your hands on, and do field trials the first year. Figure out how to walk before running. Test the soil. Decide your data points. Start with your intended end-use for the crop, then work back to decide what to grow. Have a market lined-up before going big. Don't be seduced by just CBD %, there are other end-uses to consider, including such product segments as “negative-carbon” building materials, carbon fiber sheets and supercapacitors from hemp fiber. Because of the 2018 Farm Bill, you should no longer need a DEA permit to import or transport interstate viable seed, just a Phytosanitary Certificate. Many states (Nebraska) require seed sellers to be licensed.
10) Hemp Genetics (Seed and Clones). Some vendors have certified hemp seed cultivars, most have proprietary cultivars they have bred and now multiply. I can't vouch for them all, so do your due diligece, as always.
Bonus Tip #1: Contract farming. If you're not a farmer but want to hire them to grow for you, buy the seed you want them to grow and guarantee to purchase the material, monitoring it weekly, and controlling the actual harvest.
Bonus Tip #2: When a product has 25,000 uses, which should be your first, and why? New markets for hemp are emerging quickly, such as non-tobacco tobacco replacements made of hemp flowers, for smoking. Nobacco was one brand I open-sourced to educate people about the emerging segment. Not-Pot was another. Today, there are thousands of stores selling CBD hemp buds for smoking, merchandised much like dispensaries in the states do marijuana. It has massive positive implications for public health.
Bonus Tip #3: Are you an engineer? Design the right equipment to cut at the ground and at say three foot intervals, as well as gently gather the seed heads and trichomes at the top. That's the way to do true double- and triple-cropping. Or design a better decorticator, especially one that works in the field. Or a flower dryer. Or a million other pieces of equipment we will soon need. The old hemp equipment was suited to fiber (“Hemp 1.0”), not grain (“Hemp 2.0”) and not trichomes (“Hemp 3.0”). If you are a young botanist or ag student, try to specialize in cannabis, especially Hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill has created a new occupation in the US: Hemp Agronomist.