$OGI Illinois Hemp Farmer Shares Experience of Going Back to Farming Basics

October 30, 2019

It is the middle of the hemp harvest season, and farmers from Warren County, among them Andy Huston, the founder of American Hemp Research, are just beginning the harvesting process. He is one of the first farmers to grow hemp legally in Illinois and he shared what the journey has been like.

Huston said that farmers in Warren County are harvesting hemp manually, and it is hard work; he says it seems they have gone back several decades.

The Industrial Hemp Act, which legalized the growth of hemp in Illinois, was signed back in August 2018 by the former Illinois Governor, Bruce Rauner. When the Farm Bill which legalized industrial hemp production was passed in December 2018 by Congress, Illinois can now export the extracted CBD oil to other states.

Huston said the act of harvesting hemp is all new and that they are figuring things out as time goes by.

He added that hemp could not be harvested using modern farming equipment because when he tried using the combine harvester, most of the crop was left behind on the field. He further said that since hemp is relatively new, there are no specific tools for harvesting the plant.

Huston hopes that come next year; harvesting methods will have improved. However, the current model of harvesting has provided an avenue of learning for him and his team. Last year he harvested his hemp with the help of a research grant. This year, Huston has more than 90,000 seeds.

Logan Bird, another American Hemp Research farmer, said that hemp farmers are using different techniques and different pieces of machinery when harvesting their plants.

Bird says that harvesting by hand is a lot of hard work and that it slows down the harvesting process. And, he estimates harvesting to take another two weeks.

Andy Huston planted five different strains of hemp using different farming techniques. His hemp crop is going to be used for CBD oil extraction.

The weather is also a massive contributor to harvesting delays in Illinois. Prevention of mold formation during the bagging process requires hemp to be dry during harvesting. Since there is much moisture in the atmosphere in the morning, Huston and his team preferred to harvest the crop in the afternoon when the air was less dense.

According to Huston, the harvested hemp is good and dry and appealing to the eyes because there is no mold or dust present. He believes that the manual method of harvesting hemp to be working out well.

Huston is a 6^th generation farmer, and this year he also cultivated corn and soybeans. He adds that as a hemp farmer one will have to do more weeding, walking around the farm, and paying attention to every detail about the crop.

He also says that from the day he planted the crop, not a day has passed on which he has not gone out to the field. He further noted that the new hemp strains are perfect for the Illinois climate, and irrigation is not necessary because there is moisture in the air.

Compared to the western states, Huston is positive that Illinois farmers will have an easy time in terms of cost when producing hemp.

Analysts believe that hemp companies, such as Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) and Organigram Holdings Inc. (TSX: OGI) (NASDAQ: OGI), are glad that despite the challenges faced, hemp farmers are hopeful things will be better in the coming seasons.

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