General company updates.
Dual-Purpose Hemp Crop Production
NWG believes that this early in the hemp industry, you can not have a fiber industry without a grain industry, and vice versa. This is why we first created dual-purpose varieties. Depending on processor prices, these varieties can be grown for single purpose production, however when grown for both grain and fiber yields, the dual-crop approach allows hemp acres to compete economically with other large commodity crops. As farmers adopt hemp into their rotation, they find the highest profits are earned through dual-crop production. Utilizing good grain production varieties also lowers the cost of fiber seed production. Dual-crop hemp production is common in European production where they have successfully developed markets using well adapted dual-purpose genetics. Dual-cropping relies on genetics that raise crops tall enough to offer significant stalk yield while producing good grain yields. A great dual-purpose genetic is the NWG ABOUND family of genetics – bred and adapted in the US. Even a year ago , valorizing both stalk and grain was minimally feasible due to the lack of functioning, regional fiber processing infrastructure, but slowly and steadily regional constellations of fiber and grain processors are coming online across the US working with both grain and fiber. Numerous fiber specific processors have come online in the last year, mitigating the logistics costs associated with trucking massive hemp bales. A successful dual-purpose crop starts with good genetic selection and agronomic management. Existing on farm equipment for row cropping and alfalfa production can handle both of these processes. Fertility [...]