Accra, Oct. 3, (UPI/GNA) - A glut of CBD oil on the market, severe weather and a complex harvesting process will make this year's first mass hemp crop in 80 years in the United States a disappointment for many farmers.
As harvest season winds down and winter frosts threaten the northern United States, hemp is proving to be a complicated plant for farmers to harvest and process. Buyers for the crop are tapped out, which is driving prices down, industry observers say.
About 230,000 acres of hemp was planted in the United States this summer, but only about 40 to 60 percent, or 115,000 to 138,000 acres, actually will be harvested, predicts Vote Hemp, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.
"A significant number of farmers rushed into farming hemp without having a plan in place," said Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp. "Since we're not a commodity crop yet, it's challenging for people to take this crop to market. You can't just sell it like corn or soybeans yet."
About 79,000 hemp growing licenses were obtained this year in states where hemp was approved for 2019.
Weather hurts
Hemp has taken off among farmers in Oregon, but wet weather and mold damaged much of the crop this year, said "Farmer Tom" Lauerman, who runs the Vancouver, Wash.-based Hemp Farming Academy, an online farming course.
Plants in Oregon this year were crammed in too close together, causing mold and powdery mildew. Hail in the eastern part of the state and higher-than-normal rainfall also was disastrous, Lauerman said.
"There's no guarantee in agriculture.You just have to be prepared to withstand the worst-case scenario," he said.
In Tennessee, mold also dampened the hopes of many of the 3,500 farmers who applied for licenses to grow the crop, said Harold Jarboe, who also is known as The Old Hemp Farmer.
"This summer might have been the perfect storm as far as going and wrecking people's dreams," Jarboe said.
He and his partner have raised hemp for five years, "losing our shirts" for the first two. They now run Tennessee Homegrown, an online and retail CBD products company.
Jarboe said the hemp rush in Tennessee was like a "green fever," with people convincing themselves they could earn "$50,000 an acre," he said.
Unfortunately, many farmers had their crops damaged by heavy spring rainfall followed by extreme heat into October.
Even worse, farmers who had contracts with extractors ended
GNA
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