CORVALLIS, Ore. — Researchers at Oregon State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service are teaming up for a first-of-its-kind nationwide hemp study to find out how different growing environments may influence the newly legalized crop.

Hemp was criminalized under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, but Congress removed it from the list of Schedule I drugs as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, opening the door for widespread cultivation.

Jeff Steiner, associate director of the OSU Global Hemp Innovation Center, said the crop was “essentially put in a time capsule” during the years it was illegal. While farming practices and technology for other commodities progressed, hemp was left behind.

Producers and academics alike are now rushing to catch up. The center was established in 2019, combining more than 40 OSU faculty members working to incorporate hemp into American agriculture.

“Now that hemp is out of the time capsule, doing (this) research starts to bring it up to speed with other crops so that farmers and other agriculture business people, and even the processors of hemp, can make science-based decisions on whether they should grow it, how they should grow it and where they should grow it,” Steiner said.

Earlier this year, lawmakers provided another leg-up for hemp by appropriating $2.5 million for joint research between OSU and the USDA-ARS.

One project, Steiner said, involves planting six varieties of hemp at 16 locations across the country, measuring how the differences in soil, temperature and amount of sunlight affect the plants’ timing, yield and levels of chemical compounds like cannabidiol, or CBD.

Project partners include universities in Alabama, New York, Vermont, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Montana, among others. Genetics include both full-season and auto-flowering varieties — the latter of which is not dependent on length of daytime to enter its flowering stage.

Steiner said the focus is on hemp grown for cannabinoids like CBD, used in oils, lotions, tinctures and other products. Scientists are also paying close attention to whether environmental factors have any effect on levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in the plants.

By law, hemp cannot have more than 0.3% THC, the component in cannabis that gets users high. If hemp exceeds the 0.3% benchmark, it is considered illegal marijuana under federal law and must be destroyed.

“This is the first nationwide trial of this sort,” Steiner said. “Right now, much of this market the last couple of years has revolved around CBD production and cannabinoids. But we don’t really know where is the best place to produce, optimally and economically, essential hemp varieties.”

That’s not the only project underway at the Center.

Steiner said the center is also working with the University of California-Davis on irrigation trials to determine how much water hemp needs to grow in drier climates. Testing began this year in Ontario, Hermiston and Klamath Falls in Oregon and Fresno and Yolo counties in California.

“We know from preliminary work last year that hemp does not do well having wet feet,” Steiner said. “You just can’t keep it wet. You’ll get root rot, and all sorts of other problems. We’re trying to find out how far you should take it down, and does that have an effect on the yield of cannabinoids.”

In another area of research, OSU and USDA-ARS are taking hemp biomass after cannabinoid extraction and using it as a feed supplement for livestock, including meat lambs and dairy cows.

Steiner said the material is actually superior to alfalfa in terms of nutrition and digestion for the animals. What’s left is to test the meat and milk for cannabinoids, including CBD and THC, to ensure it is safe for human consumption.

The trial is designed to generate data needed for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve hemp feed supplements for livestock, Steiner said.

Finally, Steiner said OSU is working with the USDA-ARS at a federal research lab in Peoria, Ill., analyzing cannabinoid testing methods and instruments to ensure results are consistent and accurate.

”There are many types of analytical instruments,” Steiner said. “They all are good machines, but they may give different results for the compounds being examined. What are the instruments you should use? What ends up giving you consistent results test after test?”

OSU might be leading this hemp research, but Steiner said their findings will benefit the entire industry.

”Underneath that original rubric is how do you fit hemp into American agriculture?” he said. “We’re having to learn that right now, very quickly.”