The Rural Voice, 1998-02, Page 20It grows from
seed' to 10-12 feet
high in just 60-90
days. It needs no
herbicide
protection. Its
stem's fibre can be
turned into
everything from
car parts to
clothing to paper.
It can produce
gross revenues of
$750 an acre. It can be harvested by
equipment generally available on any
farm that produces hay. And, it not only
doesn't mauer if it gets rained on during
harvest, it's actually better for having
gotten wet. Is it any wonder farmers
were lined up to talk to Mike Columbus
after he gave a talk on hemp production
at the Grey -Bruce Farmers' Week in
Elmwood in January?
It's not just Grey -Bruce farmers who
get excited by the potential. When word
came down over Christmas that
commercial hemp production would be
legalized in 1998, Columbus came back
from the holidays to find 23 inquiries on
his voice -mail about the crop. By early
January, he already had a list of 100
farmers interested in growing hemp —
and that was before the specialty crops
advisor with OMAFRA's Simcoe office
talked to Grey -Bruce farmers.
"I expect we'll see 30-50 farms
growing hemp this year — about 2,000
to 3,000 acres," he says.
Hemp production has been illegal in
Canada for more than half a century as
governments tried to combat the
growing of its hallucinogenic cousin,
marijuana. It was only in 1994, after
long negotiations and battles with
bureaucracy, that Joe Strobel, a retired
Fibre in your crop rotation?
In 1998 hemp will be legal as a commercial crop
for the first time in half a century, and there's plenty
of interest in growing it in Ontario
By Keith Roulston
Mike Columbus shows off a Tilley
Endurables jacket made with hemp fibre,
one of the many uses for the crop.
Tillsonburg-area teacher, was able to convince
government officials that hemp varieties low in THC, the
hallucinogenic chemical in marijuana, were not a threat to
the health and security of Canadians. Strobel, Columbus
says, had the credibility to win officials over. His parents
had grown hemp in Europe before he came to Canada. He
finally got an experimental licence to grow six acres under
the very close watch of federal and provincial authorities
and police.
Strobel got excited about the way his first hemp crop
took off. He formed a company called Hempline to prepare
for commercialization of the product, took on a partner,
Geoff Kime, and they expanded production. By last year
about 100 acres of hemp were grown under special licence.
(Unfortunately Strobel suffered a stroke and Kime is
keeping the operation going.)
Another grower, Jean Laprise of Paincourt, has spent
16 THE RURAL VOICE
about $2 million
preparing for the
commercialization
of the crop.
Before they
get too excited
about producing
the crop, however,
Columbus warns
potential growers
that there are high
costs involved.
Presently, for
instance, it costs about $150 per acre to
buy the seed for hemp, though
Columbus believes that will come down
as production increases. That seed is
planted in May, about one inch deep in
the soil. While it doesn't need the sandy
soil of tobacco country, where the
experimentation is done, it doesn't like
wet soil. Sandy loam soil is ideal.
The seed can be planted by an
ordinary seed drill in seven inch rows.
The close rows are to promote the plant
growing tall and fast, putting its
development into the stem which is
required for the fibre for which the stem
is grown. Depending on soil tests,
growers fertilize with 90-120 pounds of
nitrogen to promote the tremendous
growth of the hemp.
The plants grow quickly, averaging
about two inches of growth a day.
Various varieties of low -THC hemp
have been used in trials. They can grow
from eight to 12 feet in the 60-90 day
growth period.
Under normal planting conditions
hemp takes off quickly and gets tall
enough it smothers out weeds, so no
herbicide is needed. The bottom leaves
die and fall off. Canadian growers have
been warned to watch out for white
mould and grey mould which has been
devastating in other countries.
For fibre production, hemp is cut right after it flowers.
While one grower has imported a special harvester from
eastern Europe where hemp has been grown for years, it
can also be cut using a mower or a forage harvester. It is
put in windrows on the ground where it is left for two or
three weeks to dry. During that time it is turned two or
three times. It's helpful for it to get wet — in fact in some
places where it has been grown irrigation has been used to
wet the plants. The wetting, from dew or rain or irrigation,
helps separate the outside fibre layer from the inside white
core. That core is used for some paper production and for
building materials. The fibre in the outer part of the stem is
used for clothing.
Once the hemp has dried, it is baled in Targe bales of
500-700 pounds and stored in a dry place to await shipment
for processing. Large round balers can be used but they