Father and daughter enjoy first year growing hemp

BIG HORN COUNTY – Jude Buchanan-Sandoval and her father Collin Buchanan were both excited to grow hemp this year after it was federally approved in February of 2020. They decided to begin a small project to see how the growing experience would go this past summer.

Sandoval and Buchanan were able to acquire the licensing to grow hemp in early June of this year, and the two decided to plant 1.8 acres worth of hemp seed at Buchanan's farm in Big Horn County between Manderson and Worland.

Sandoval said that most of the state process was extensive and included a $750 charge, required exact Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates where the crops would be grown along with background checks that were conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

GROWING PROCESS

Growing hemp can lead in many directions, from the gathering of hemp seed and fiber, to growing the crop for cannabidiol (CBD) which is not proven in scientific studies yet, but CBD is believed to be a benefit for health and wellbeing.

According to Sandoval, growing hemp for each of these can lead to different experiences, when growing for hemp seed and fiber it is a very straightforward process like many crops. However, when growing for CBD all of the plants must be identical and female because if the plant is pollinated then the crop is ruined.

"My opinion is that people should do that (grow for CBD) if they are well equipped and have a lot of manpower along with a lot of investment," Sandoval said.

When growing for fiber and seed the intent is to grow a tall dense crop that produces seed which is harvested when you cut off the top with a combine and then a second passing to gather the fiber into a bale.

"It was a very easy crop to grow, it was not difficult," Sandoval said. "We wanted to try it this year not because we were trying to make money but because we wanted to learn what the process was and we wanted to learn about it."

The growing process is expected to take around 100 days, with male plants dying around the 70-day mark and the females continuing to grow until the seed matures. The two were able to harvest around day 106 or 107, with Sandoval believing that the cold snap over Labor Day weekend in early September actually helped the seeds pop more.

The results from the seed and the fiber are yet to been seen by the two, as they are waiting for the seeds and fiber to be processed by the state to ensure that the Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) level remained below the legal limit of 0.3% concentration so that the hemp is not considered marijuana.

According to Sandoval, there is a general consensus on how to keep your plant's THC levels lower, and that is by ensuring that the soil is more alkaline than acidic which she believes is a huge benefit of living in Wyoming as the soil is naturally more alkaline.

"When I was doing soil testing throughout the summer the lowest I would test was around a 7.3," she said. When working with a pH scale that varies exponentially, keeping a pH level above a seven indicates that the soil is more alkaline than acidic.

Sandoval does believe that they were able to harvest around 1,000 pounds of seed but it has been a learning curve trying to figure out how to properly clean and dry the wet seed that they harvested.

The end of the process did include a spot check by a state official, and a form that documented the growing process.

WHY NOW

Sandoval and Buchanan joined curious farmers throughout Wyoming who were intrigued by the aspect of growing a new crop, which had interest shown even during Wyoming Extension's Strategically and Technologically Informative (WESTI) Ag days which had around three dozen in attendance to hear about hemp even before it was federally approved.

There was no fear of the crop going awry and THC levels going too high in Sandoval's mind, as she and her father saw this as a learning experience and fun project the first year the crop is approved.

"We did it for fun, we did not do this because our lives depended on it," Sandoval said. "It was a fun project and it was something to see how hard it is and see how much red tape we would have to go through with the state, you know really they (the state) have been pretty gracious with us this whole time."

This whole process was seen as an opportunity to spend the summer growing with her father. She lives with her husband in Casper, and drove up to help him with the hemp primarily on weekends throughout the growing process.

"He does not really farm anymore, he just turned 80 this year," Sandoval said. "He knows so much and he has such a wealth of information and I thought it would be a lot of fun for the two of us to do this together."

Learning through this process and growing with her dad made the summer more interesting for Sandoval and helped the two of them take their minds off of everything happening in the world when she travelled up to the Basin.

LEARNING AND

GROWING

The growing process this year started later than Sandoval would have hoped for, as they were unable to plant the seed until early June due to the licensing process, as she would have hoped to plant the crop in May and hold an earlier harvest.

"The other really cool thing about this project was just to see what you do and what would you do differently next time," Sandoval said.

When looking back on the project, she feels as if they gave the crop too much water at times and would plant the crop different from how they grew it this year. According to Sandoval, they believed at first that the plant was less tolerant to drought, but they learned throughout the process is that hemp is more tolerant to drought as indicated by the bottom of the field where less water was distributed holding the "tallest and most robust" plants.

The best advice that Sandoval can give to anyone about the experience is to get your licensing early and try it out, as she believes this is a great opportunity for the state.

She also feels if someone is to process the fiber that they should put it through a process called decortication, which will allow for white starchy mucilage known as "hurd" within the plant to be processed out and sold separately to be used in different non-woven items.

Hemp has a wide variety of uses including textiles, medicine and other technologies; it brings with it a new opportunity for crop growing in Wyoming and a way to help try and diversify the economy to help stabilize a boom and bust system reliant on the oil industry.

"It is a new industry for Wyoming so we will see how the whole thing works itself out," Sandoval said.