A Monroe hemp grower says there’s still an oversupply of hemp in the market. But she’s taken the steps to add value back to her plants.
FL Morris operates a 40-acre diversified farming operation just north of Monroe, Wisconsin. There she raises livestock, vegetables and hemp. But the size of her certified organic CBD hemp garden has been progressively decreasing from 1,000 plants to 40. Morris is also the co-founder of the South Central Hemp Cooperative, where she and other growers dotted across Dane, Grant, Green and Rock counties take their biomass.
Morris tells Mid-West Farm Report that the way the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp in the U.S. meant that hemp growers new to the game in Wisconsin were late to the party as hemp came in from across state lines from where it was already legal. She explains a lot of Wisconsin farmers had the same idea — grow hemp to add value to the farm and diversify the operation. But by the time Wisconsin growers came into the market in the fall of 2019, there was a major oversupply. Morris says the price for plants, biomass and oil then dropped significantly — as low as roughly a $1 per plant.
She says she still sees the value in hemp through selling directly to retailers, which is one of the goals of the South Central Hemp Cooperative.
Growing hemp is labor intensive from start to finish — Morris starts her seeds in a greenhouse, and has to continue moving the plant to larger containers to prevent ‘root binding.’ Root binding means the roots won’t grow larger, stunting the plant’s growth. With a cooler than average spring this year, Morris had to heat her plant trays, which is energy intensive.
Morris says she’ll put the hemp plants into the ground next week.
After the plants go into the ground, Morris will need to contact her FSA office to report how many plants she has and where they are planted. USDA took over the program at the start of this year — hemp sampling was previously under DATCP’s purview. Morris is optimistic about the change for several reasons: more available staff, lower cost and quicker turnaround.
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