Anyone Round Bale Hemp?

calico190xt68, I will fore worn you, the guys here in Kentucky have had very bad luck getting paid, the above farmer refused to put the first plant in the ground until the contractor had paid him up front for all his projected labor, to the sum of around $400,000, and I've been told he is still waiting for another even larger sum of money, and is holding back the product until payment. Another farmer friend planted hemp for seed production, and was never paid by the same contractor, they kept enough product to recoup there costs by made no profit.  Both of these farmers are doing hundreds of acres and are not certain they will be doing it again, not do to the problems with weather, but due to there experiences with the buying/selling process, they both said its tobacco done over but with out the security of the old contracts.  

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a new crop, my grandma grew up on a hemp farm here in Kentucky, and we’ve been growing test plots here for a couple of years now. I think we’ve just jumped in head first around here. Not to mention it’s grown just like Kentucky’s #1 cash crop(marijuana). Just doesn’t have to be hidden in the woods anymore lol. My thoughts are to stay away from it for now, and wait and see what happens and the equipment costs.

Hi all it looks like this hemp thing is the next big thing even here in New Zealand every one is jumping into it with seed production and fibre

Hi we have a company called Carrfields that has contacts for hemp and they have a Claas lexion combine with two fronts the top one is a Macdon which cuts the seed heads and feeds them through the drum and the lower one is a silage chopper front and cut the stalks which are left to dry and then baled with a 4600 hesston type baler you can go to www.carrfields.co.nz dual cropping . Because the THC level is so low the government have let people grow it but it comes restrictions like police checks it is not to be grown within so many meters of a main road etc. Will start a new post about the Allis tractor in New Zealand

Here is a video from the Gleaner road show with hemp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyGvWKN9_y0

Michael, they are harvesting by hand and loading on old school busses.

Everybody around here is dealing with it much like tobacco. Hand cutting it in the field, hanging it in the barn to dry, then striping it by hand, and putting it into big bags.

One local guy that has part interest in a sawmill is hanging it in the lumber kiln dryers are the mill and drying it that way.

It’s pretty labor intensive, but most people raising it are ex-tobacco farmers and are better setup for all the hand labor.

The figures I was hearing back in the spring was average $40k gross per acre at harvest time. I don’t know what it cost to put it out, but it’s my understanding that there are no chemicals labeled to use on it, so you have to cultivate it when small, then hand hoe it once it gets too big to run through with the cultivator.

Another real issue around here is cross-pollinating hemp with marijuana. It’s my understanding that if somebody plants some illegal marijuana plants near your legal hemp crop, it can cross-pollinate with the hemp and raise the THC to illegal levels. Here in TN, all crops are tested for THC levels, your crop test too high, you have to destroy it all.

Thanks for that feedback from Colorado. I suspect that Colorado doesn't have the same red tape that we have here. That's a lot of money off of a half acre! That was also a lot of money to invest in a half acre. Sounds like growing conditions were good which may not have been true this year. As well, more people are jumping in which will lower the price. This is the second story I have heard where going small isn't a bad idea.

I think he is referring to hemp.  MJ has very tight controls and I am not sure about growing outside at all.  Colorado is one of the few places you can get quality hemp seed from what I found on doing research.   I am sure they have transferred their MJ growing skills over to hemp.

thomaspeket wrote: It's still kind of weird we can grow that stuff now...

Has to be below a certain level of THC to be able to be grown out in open fields (probably have to smoke a bale's worth to get high- haha). It is tested and if above the amount of THC, it has to get destroyed. Happened here in Massachusetts and a few farmers grow it. Signs along road saying stuff like no trespassing and low thc to stop theft.

Hemp doesn't have THC in it, smoking bales of it would do nothing but make you cough!  They processed tons of it during WWI or II, so a trip to the library might be in line to see if you can find out how they did it.  If the company wants it to make products out of then chopping it would defeat that purpose.  Maybe an antique corn binder would be the way to go.  A lot of work but that's why you can get work Visa's for our neighbors to come work for us.

If it was for the fiber wouldn't it be better if it wasn't chopped up? But I guess it would be like wool or cotton it would have to be spin to make thread?