1. Idaho hemp program detail

Declo, Idaho, farmer Brad Darrington was impressed as he stood surrounded by his first hemp crop.

“It reached 13 feet high,” he said. “It literally grows like a weed.”

Darrington harvested 33 acres of hemp, for fiber, in mid-August.

“I love it,” he said of the crop. Usage of water and fertilizer was low, as was weed pressure.

“I plan on growing more acres” in 2024, Darrington said. He plans to develop a hemp plan and map out his fields for 2024, for submission to the state Department of Agriculture.

Idaho’s second hemp season is finishing. The state law allows the production of industrial hemp and related research, processing and transportation. The law allows tetrahydrocannabinol up to the federal threshold of 0.3% on a dry-weight basis but does not allow in-state sale of products that contain THC.

The state approved about 1,273 acres of hemp this year, up from about 500 in 2022. New processing facilities include Hempitecture in Jerome and Whitefield Global Holdings in Rexburg.

Tim Cornie, a farmer who co-owns 1,000 Springs Mill in Buhl, grew about 8 acres, similar to his 2022 total.

“We had more success this year,” Cornie said. “We upped the seeding rate this year, and so it was a nice-looking crop.”

But a friend’s crop looked better, apparently the result of planting in rows for improved cultivation, he said.

Filer-area farmer Roger Vincent planted his first-ever hemp crop in 22-inch rows, instead of drilling seed or broadcast-planting. The idea was to improve cultivation and weed control.

“The crop looks pretty good, but the weeds did come,” he said. A different variety next year “would shade the ground and outgrow the competition from the weeds.”

For Cornie’s hemp harvest, completed Aug. 30, the timing between swathing the hemp and picking it up, with a combine harvester, was a key to quality.

“If it gets too dry, it gets hung up in the machine,” he said. “You want a little moisture in that fiber.”

Hemp acreage likely will double on Cornie’s farm next year, he said.

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For now, the grain is going to the mill as a food ingredient — it is a “complete protein” with nine amino acids, plus Omega 3 and Omega 4 fatty acids, he said. The fiber is returned to the soil. Hemp fiber is known for efficient retention of water.

As acreage increases, the fiber likely will be sold for use as a building material such as insulation, Cornie said.

On the state’s east side, Triston Sponseller of Idaho Premium Hay Farms planted about 550 acres of hemp, up from 320 last year. He plans to start harvesting it for fiber this week or next.

“It’s looking like a really great crop,” he said. “We got a lot of spring rain, which seemed to help. We didn’t really have to water too much early on. We kept it wet all summer.”

While figuring out how to best harvest hemp can challenge the grower at first, it grows well and can be a nice complement to other crops, Sponseller said.

“It has a really great place in our rotation,” he said. He plans an increase in hemp acreage next year on the Roberts-area farm, which also produces hay and barley.

Sponseller is a partner in the Whitefield plant and is involved in overseeing its operations. He plans a grower day, probably in November, during which farmers can learn more about growing hemp to be processed at the plant.