SUTHERLIN, Ore. — Geoff Bale is continually trying to read the hemp market. After the hemp rush of the past couple of years came to a halt, Bale decided to focus on marketing the hemp flower and to ease up on the CBD oil market.

“It seems like the flower is where the market is headed,” said the 36-year-old who founded Umpqua Valley Hemp in 2018. “There’s so much biomass, it brought the oil price down significantly in the past two years. There are less extractors available now so if you don’t have your own extractor facility, it’s hard to make a profit.

“I’ve learned a lot the last two years,” added Bale, who has a botany degree from Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. “We’re just trying to stay ahead of other people in the industry … anticipating the direction the industry is headed.”

Umpqua Valley Hemp is a partnership of Bale, his wife, Maria, and his parents, Mary and Barry Bale. Geoff and Maria were vegetable and medical marijuana farmers in the Grass Valley, Calif., area before becoming intrigued by the potential of hemp. They purchased bottom land with water rights alongside Calapooya Creek west of Sutherlin. The property is near where Maria, an Oakland, Ore., High School graduate, grew up.

Four acres of hemp were planted in 2018 and after it produced a profitable crop, the couple sold their California property and moved north permanently.

In 2019, 50 acres were planted to hemp. After that harvest was impacted by rain, Geoff Bale admitted that “we planted a little too much and it was a little too fast of growth.”

“We were constantly behind and couldn’t keep up even with a crew of 40,” he said.

So in 2020, only 30 acres were planted. The farm is not certified organic, but Bale said organic practices are used. To deal with a grasshopper problem, chickens were released into the hemp field. To deal with elk loitering in the field and deer eating the hemp plants, hazing permits were obtained from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“We decided to concentrate on quality rather than mass production,” Bale explained. “We reduced our harvest crew to 15 and learned to be more efficient with our process. We’re appealing to the flower market rather than the biomass market and extraction for oil.”

Bale said Umpqua Valley hemp is now selling trimmed flowers by the pound all over the world to individuals, brokers and smoke shops.

The business planned to open its own online store in April or May.

Bale explained the hemp products offered will be 13 varieties of flowers, tinctures, salves, CBD gummies, pre-rolled hemp joints and terpenes. Any surplus biomass will be shipped to a lab in Eugene, Ore., where CBD oil will be extracted, giving Umpqua Valley Hemp one more product to offer through its online store.

“We’re trying to get out of the wholesale box, work on our own brand and our own products,” Bale said. “I believe in the long run if you play your cards right you can be profitable in this industry.”