On this week's podcast, host Eric Hurlock travels to Geneva, New York, on the top of Seneca Lake to take part in Cornell's Hemp Field day, held Thursday, Sept. 11.

This episode covers both the morning and afternoon sessions for the field day.

The day started in Jordan Hall on Cornell's Agritech Campus, where hemp program director Larry Smart got things started with a reminder why we were there in the first place.

"Hemp is an interesting crop, has a lot of potential, but there are some things that we just don't understand about this crop," he said.

The morning session was focused mostly on hemp grain as a livestock feed. Cornell scientists presented their research on broiler chickens, dairy cows and horses.

Andrew Bish from the Hemp Feed Coalition talked about the opportunity that hemp seed meal presents for farmers.

"If 5% of the chickens are eating 20% of their diet in hemp seed meal, you need almost 275,000 acres of hemp grain produced in the United States," he said.

The morning session ended with Pennsylvania farmer Herb Grove from Brush Mountain Bison in Centre County, where he grows hemp grain and operates a bison feed lot and finishing operation.

"We started the bison industry in 2011, and we started raising hemp in 2019. 2011, we had six head of bison. At the end of last year, we had 300 animals on feed."

The afternoon session of the field day shifted from science to practice.

Bob Pearce from the University of Kentucky talked about the S-1084 multistate trials, which bring together universities from Louisiana to Vermont to test hemp cultivars across latitudinal differences and growing conditions.

"That's the ultimate goal, making sure that a grower in New York knows which cultivars to pick for that location, and a grower in Kentucky or Tennessee has the opportunity to choose a cultivar that is well adapted to their conditions," he said.

There were equipment demonstrations, discussions with seed suppliers, and a very interesting talk from Lynn Sosnoskie, weed science specialist at Cornell, who, because of the lack of chemistry labeled for hemp, stressed the importance of non-herbicide methods of weed management, especially equipment clean-out.

"We have to be focused on the weed seeds that we are moving from field to field, especially because we have Palmer amaranth in New York state now. We have waterhemp in New York state. These are two pigweed species. They are exceptionally competitive with our crops. They are spreading. You do not want to have one of these weeds get established in the fields where we have very few options of weed control," she said.

The day ended with a demonstration of the mobile decorticator.

On this episode you will hear the voices of:

Larry Smart, Cornell University

Chuck Schmitt, New York Department of Agriculture & Markets

Luis Monserrate, Cornell University

Andrew Bish, Hemp Feed Coalition, Bish Enterprises

Raj Kasula, Wenger Group

Natalie Trottier, Cornell University

Morgan Tweet, IND HEMP

Xuedan Zhu, Cornell University

Tom Overton, Cornell University

Herb Grove, Brush Mountain Bison

Lynn Sosnoskie, Cornell University

Bob Pearce, University of Kentucky

Jacob Bish, Cornell University

Terry Moran, Kanda Hemp

Robin Destiche, KonopiUS

Corbett Mitteff, KonopiUS

Reuben Stone, UniSeeds

The trip to Cornell continues on the next episode with one-on-one interviews with Christine Smart, director of Cornell's Agritech campus; Larry Smart, plant geneticist and head of Cornell's Hemp program; Luis Monserrate, doctoral candidate studying hemp fiber yields; and Jane Hamilton, a doctoral student studying the effects of UV light on powdery mildew on hemp.

Learn More:

Cornell University – Hemp Program https://hemp.cals.cornell.edu

New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets https://agriculture.ny.gov

New York State Office of Cannabis Management https://cannabis.ny.gov

Hemp Feed Coalition https://hempfeedcoalition.org

Kreider Farms / Kreider Feeds https://www.kreiderfarms.com

University of Kentucky https://hemp.ca.uky.edu

Kanda Hemp https://kandahemp.com

UniSeeds https://uniseeds.ca

KonopiUS https://konopius.com

HempIT https://hempit.fr

IND HEMP https://indhemp.com

Bish Enterprises https://bishenterprise.com

Hemp Harvest Works https://hempharvestworks.com

Brush Mountain Bison https://brushmountainbison.com

News Nuggets from HempToday.net

U.S. Democrats sign off on framework to rein in hemp intoxicants while protecting CBD https://hemptoday.net/u-s-democrats-sign-off-on-framework-to-rein-in-hemp-intoxicants-while-protecting-cbd/

Trump administration push to trim red tape leaves hemp industry still tangled in rules https://hemptoday.net/trump-administration-push-to-trim-red-tape-leaves-hemp-industry-still-tangled-in-rules/

Texas agencies directed to tighten oversight of hemp THC products under new order https://hemptoday.net/texas-agencies-directed-to-tighten-oversight-of-hemp-thc-products-under-new-order/

Thanks to our Sponsors

IND HEMP https://indhemp.com

Forever Green, distributors of the KP-4 Hemp Cutterhttps://www.hempcutter.com/

National Hemp Association (NHA) https://nationalhempassociation.org