Industrial Hemp

[imp]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

After some brief searching, a question still remains for me on phytoremediation: where do the plant parts that take up the contaminants go?
Some of them are burned for bio-fuel. So I guess they go airborne in the combustion exhaust?
What about the ones that aren’t burned? It cant go into food or feed (legally). Composting it and spreading it would return the problem or move it elsewhere.
So what do they do with the crop that takes it out of the soil?

Don't know the answer to that, but it's a good question.

[nbardo]

Found some information put out by the university of kentucky. Its 5 years old so some of then information isnt up to date but it highlights some of the challenges. Namely the uncertainty with laws and with competition from other countries, the lack of a large established market with processing facilities to handle production, tools for processing the stalks to fiber efficiently, etc. And the lack of crop insurance for hemp is (was?) a big deal. They thought it would get started purely as an oilseed crop and if the market develops that technology and expertise might allow for more of the benefits of the fiber to be realized.

Hard to justify all that when corn, soy, canola, and cotton are all known quantities, and farmers have gotten very very good at growing them.

https://www.uky.edu/Ag/AgEcon/pubs/r...mpfarmer28.pdf

Interesting topic


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[Cole_Robbie]

Part of the reason that hemp will not replace trees as a paper source is that a large part of the trees used for paper in the US are grown in sparsely populated, often swampy and scrubby regions of the southeast, land that is not well-suited to any other type of agriculture, whether from climate or lack of infrastructure.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by nbardo

Found some information put out by the university of kentucky. Its 5 years old so some of then information isnt up to date but it highlights some of the challenges. Namely the uncertainty with laws and with competition from other countries, the lack of a large established market with processing facilities to handle production, tools for processing the stalks to fiber efficiently, etc. And the lack of crop insurance for hemp is (was?) a big deal. They thought it would get started purely as an oilseed crop and if the market develops that technology and expertise might allow for more of the benefits of the fiber to be realized.

Hard to justify all that when corn, soy, canola, and cotton are all known quantities, and farmers have gotten very very good at growing them.

https://www.uky.edu/Ag/AgEcon/pubs/r...mpfarmer28.pdf

Interesting topic


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My info about there being only 4 places designated in NYS was way out of date since when I googled it I found a very different picture.

For instance,they aren't usually called farmers,they are called industrial producers since that's ALL they grow.See the title of this thread.

Here is a link for you which I know will help, at least for the situation in NYS.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hemp...&bih=815&dpr=1

Not too far from me on rt 313 which goes from NYS to VT there was a huge complex where mushrooms of all kinds were being grown and I used to go there to buy same.But they closed and some one else bought the place and applied for a license to grow hemp, but was turned down, I don't remember the reasons,but for each industrial grower the places where they wanted to grow hemp were visited to see if they met the specifications being asked for.

Carolyn

[Worth1]

I had the helicopters hoover around me in my garden before.
I'm pretty sure they thought I was a pole dancer.

Worth

[pmcgrady]

Originally Posted by nbardo

What can an acre of hemp yield? How much does it cost to produce? How much can a farmer sell it for, per acre, at current market rates? What is the total annual global production of hemp? I have heard all the miraculous claims about its beneficial properties but i have never heard these kinds of economic questions asked. If farmers could be making a lot of money growing and selling hemp, it would be more common. If there was an economic engine driving this thing it would have been made legal years ago. It seems very niche.


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As long as it's not GMO roundup ready hemp seed, it will be ok...Monsanto or big Pharma get their hands on it, we're screwed.
Too many cotton subsidies over the years have limited hemp production is my take on it.

[pmcgrady]

People of the US are already eating Glyphosate contaminated breakfast cereal, do we want children writing on Glyphosate contaminated paper?
It probably already is...

[imp]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Part of the reason that hemp will not replace trees as a paper source is that a large part of the trees used for paper in the US are grown in sparsely populated, often swampy and scrubby regions of the southeast, land that is not well-suited to any other type of agriculture, whether from climate or lack of infrastructure.

What a shame, as hemp paper is quite good and doesn't fox as badly as the acidic papers used now in books and such.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by pmcgrady

As long as it's not GMO roundup ready hemp seed, it will be ok...Monsanto or big Pharma get their hands on it, we're screwed.
Too many cotton subsidies over the years have limited hemp production is my take on it.

Mine too, protectionism to its fullest.
They in part lobby for legislation to keep it illegal.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Tormato

This is not meant to be religious, nor political, but...



in the context of Marbury v Madison...
Genesis 1:29...(EVERY seed bearing herb)

and the free exercise clause of Article 1...


...it appears any such laws are null and void, but currently are not considered so, because We The People are clueless.



And please, no religious or political comments.

Would George Carlin's take on it be acceptable.

Worth

[Cole_Robbie]

https://www.agweb.com/article/what-f...chris-bennett/

[PureHarvest]

Excellent article.
So much of what I read on ag is fluff or recycled news bit type stories.
I want to have Spears’ operation with the greenhouse full of clones.

[pmcgrady]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

https://www.agweb.com/article/what-f...chris-bennett/

I have access to 3-5 acres to "play with hemp", but there is no infrastructure setup yet...

Where do I get my permit to grow it?
Where do I get certified seed?
Where do I sell seed/fiber?

It will take a lot of pockets being filled before anyone in Illinois gets answers to these questions...

[GoDawgs]

I’m not sure Sunn Hemp is the industrial hemp but I think maybe it is. Sunn Hemp is Crotalaria juncea. Marijuana is Cannabis sativa, a totally different genus. In no way does Sunn Hemp resemble Cannabis. Leaf margins are entire; no serration.



It's a fast-growing, nitrogen fixing, soil building legume. It also creates a ton of biomass to incorporate into the soil when cut at the recommended 5-6' height while it is still very tender. Any taller and it gets very fibrous and hard to deal with tilling it into the soil when growing it as an amendment.

It also has the ability to suppress nematodes in the soil and that's why I tried some in one bed last summer in my vegetable garden. I got my seed at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. There was a lot of seed in that pack. They germinated almost 100% and came up in about three days.



I cut down the Sunn hemp at 53 days of the listed 60 days to maturity and the tallest plants in the center of the bed were 6' tall. I took the hedge shears and working down the stems, chopped the hemp into 4" pieces so the stems wouldn't wrap around the tiller tines. They tilled in just fine. As it turned out, some of the thicker stem pieces took a long time to break down, many laying on top of the soil and needing several subsequent tillings for incorporation.

In my online research last year, the only drawback I discovered is that it can be a deer magnet and so is useful in wildlife feed plots. Fortunately the local population either never discovered my bed of it or ignored it. I think I will try it again this fall in one particularly 'todie' bed but cut it down sooner this time.

For more information:
https://petcherseeds.com/pages/sunn-...oduction-guide
https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proc...96/V3-389.html
http://jute.org/Sunnhemp.htm
https://votehemp.com/PDF/hemp97.pdf (a 1997 piece but a lot of information)
https://mosesorganic.org/sunn-hemp/

[PureHarvest]

Sunn Hemp is definitely not Industrial Hemp.
Industrial hemp is Cannabis, where Sunn Hemp is Crotalaria, like you mentioned.
Every state has to set up a commision to set up rules and framework. The state's dept. of ag and university extension have to be involved.
Each state creates a pilot program from this process. It seems that each state can interpret what the pilot program should look like based on the 2014 Farm Bill allowing Industrial Hemp.
Most likely you are 1-2 years away from seeing anything significant in the ground.
North Carolina is way ahead of many states. Here's a brief snip of what is required:
"Rules for producing hemp have been approved and the commission has begun licensing growers to grow hemp under the rules. To grow industrial hemp in North Carolina, an individual must be a bona fide farmer in the state and provide tax information to show that.

Stewart says farmers must also agree to work with either North Carolina State University or North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to meet eleven research objectives established by statute in North Carolina.
Every farmer who grows hemp needs to address one or more of those objectives and turn over the information to the universities at the end of the year. We’re doing this so we can learn more about the crop,” Stewart says.
All planting of industrial hemp will be subject to sampling of THC, the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture will conduct sampling of industrial hemp field and perform the sampling. By law, industrial hemp must have a THC level of 0.3 percent or less."

So, it will come down to how your state writes the rules.

NC State has a great site on this. Lots of great articles and links:
https://industrialhemp.ces.ncsu.edu/

And here is the application information page that a farmer wanting to sign up would go to, will answer a lot of your questions and maybe indicate what your state might mimic:

http://www.ncagr.gov/hemp/application.htm

The actual online application: https://apps.ncagr.gov/AgRSysPortal/IndustrialHemp/

And the FAQ page for applying:
http://www.ncagr.gov/hemp/Application-FAQs.htm