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
