Have you ever thought about starting a hemp farm in New York? Well, if so, you may be in for a bit of a surprise when you begin. Although in theory, it may seem like a piece of cake, there could be a lot more work cut out for you than you bargained for. If you are ready for the work, then by all means it is probably more than worth it. If you don’t want to work…you may want to hire somebody else if you can.
Challenges with the Hemp Industry
Although the hemp industry alone is projected to bring in over 80 billion dollars within the next 5 years, it won’t be without some blood sweat, and tears. Because of the legalities that spring around hemp, and the way that it has to be processed, there are a lot of things that can go wrong in the production of hemp if you fail to properly cultivate it. As you may already know, in order for hemp to be in compliance with the law it has to have a THC content of 0.3% or less otherwise it is considered illegal. This may sound like it is no big deal, but if you want your plants to have a maximum amount of high-grade CBD you have to let them age to a certain point. Otherwise, when you harvest your crops they won’t have enough CBD content in them to be worth the rubbish that you throw in your trash. When the third party labs conduct a test to see how potent your hemp is, it will be way below the standard of acceptable CBD content.
If you allow your plants to grow too long, they will naturally produce more THC as they age, so if if you postpone harvesting the plants even just a little too long, you could end up with an illegal crop that the government can seize and leave you with nothing but a bunch of unpaid bills.
Harvesting High-Quality Hemp
Even after you take all of the necessary precautions that will allow for the most potent CBD with the least amount of THC you still need to harvest your crops just right unless you will be threatened with different problems. Since the highest concentration of CBD in the hemp plant is in the flower, or the bud of the plant, you have to be careful about the way that you harvest the crops. If you try to harvest the plants with a combine or a tractor, you will run the risk of ruining the buds of the plant with the harvester. All of the harvesting has to be done by hand by using a cutting tool such as a machete. This way your harvesters can cut them from the stalk just by the ground, and carefully lay them on top of each other so that the buds are not compromised or damaged.
Once the plants are stacked on carts, they have to be immediately put into a place where they can dry as quickly as possible with heat, airflow, and care. If the hemp plants lay around too long they will develop molds and mildews on the buds that will essentially contaminate the whole batch. If your batch goes to the lab and there is a substantial amount of mold and mildew present in the batch the entire batch will be considered contaminated and not worthy to sell. This is a direct threat to the whole batch of hemp extracts for the entire season. There is the potential of millions of dollars lost because of the poor handling of the harvested plants.
Conclusion
Although there are a lot of things that can go wrong with a hemp farm, in the end, it is all worth it if you get it right. There is a lot of money to be made in the CBD realm, so yes. It is very worth every bit of work that you have to put in in order to maintain a successful hemp farm. Go for it. You only live once.