Agriculture

A Farmer’s First Foray into Hemp

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A Farmer’s First Foray into Hemp

4/15/2020 by Field Work

Web player: https://podplayer.net/?id=102128754
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/APM_Fieldwork/play.publicradio.org/itunes/o/the_water_main/field_work/2020/04/15/fieldwork_20200415_6_128.mp3

Growing hemp was illegal in the U.S. for decades. But recent changes in federal law have opened the door to growing the crop. So as farmers across the country begin to experiment with hemp, hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora decide to learn more about commercial hemp production. In October, Mitchell visited Scott Thellman at Juniper Hill Farms in Kansas to hear about his first stab at growing industrial hemp. They talk sourcing seeds, keeping hemp under legal THC limits, harvesting with chainsaws, and much more.

I’ve heard a lot about hemp farming in the past but didn’t know much about it. Apparently it’s a good thing for farmers to live in a state that also has a recreational system in case the hemp comes in too hot. Also, since hemp has become federally legal the growers have greatly expanded while the market have grown more slowly, leaving it hard to market some of the production. Definitely interesting interview.

Agriculture can be a bit of a misnomer 🌾

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Agriculture can be a bit of a misnomer 🌾

Agriculture means field cultivation. Cultivating fields is a big part of farming but a lot of agriculture, is not field crops as much as grasses.

Grasses for pasture and hay, converted by rumens, especially beef cattle 🐮 into meat 🥩. A lot of areas aren’t really well suited for field crops and tillage due to slope and shallow soils but grow grass pretty darn well. Some corn silage 🌽 is a required for high performance Holstein dairy cattle but not so much for beef and other breeds.

You can see that well on the National Land Cover Dataset for New York. There are far more acres of pasture and hay (yellow) than cultivated crops (brown) even in many rural farming parts of the state. 🗺

I think legalized marijuana will be wonderful for agriculture 🚜🌿

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I think legalized marijuana will be wonderful for agriculture 🚜🌿

I can’t imagine a better way to get young adults interested in genetics, plant cultivation and preparation of commodities than legalized marijuana. Unlike hops and home brew beer production, marijuana is relatively easy to grow in a pot outdoors and prepare in the home. It literally could be a gateway drug to homesteading and careers in agriculture and bioscience. Families that might never grow lettuce or tomatoes in their back patio might grow cannabis for home use in baking or smoking.

Not to mention that cannabis may be a big and up and coming market for farmers and other growers. While hemp is an interesting and valuable crop, it’s hard to make a business out of it without also doing marijuana – as hemp with too much THC is cannabis. It would be like having a dairy farm but no market for dairy steers. Or running a hog barn without a crop business to spread the manure on. Or plastics manufacture without oil and gas fuel businesses. If you have people growing food grade cannabis then it opens up a lot of potential uses for fast growing hemp. Cannabis could also provide an additional line of business for dairies to get into.

Farmers frustrated that agriculture has been left off vaccine eligibility as growing season approaches | WSYR

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Farmers frustrated that agriculture has been left off vaccine eligibility as growing season approaches | WSYR

MADISON COUNTY, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Hundreds of essential workers want to be next in line for a vaccine, but there’s one group still waiting whose work impacts our daily lives and the food we eat.

Farmers and other agricultural workers don’t get a day off, and one farmer in Madison County says their immunity can end up impacting the amount of food we see on store shelves, which is what we saw at the beginning of the pandemic.

This time last year, store shelves were empty, food was limited, and milk was being poured out.

Today is National Agriculture Day

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Today is National Agriculture Day. 🐮 🚜 🐷

Here is a list of the 20 towns that have most land used for agriculture in the state (based on the 2016 NLCD).

County Town Acres Hay/Pasture Acres Cultivated Total Farmland
St. Lawrence Lisbon town 17,160 11,300 28,460
Seneca Fayette town 2,157 25,908 28,065
Schuyler Hector town 20,397 7,392 27,788
Niagara Royalton town 11,225 15,678 26,903
Ontario Phelps town 3,879 22,075 25,954
Jefferson Clayton town 23,908 1,989 25,898
Jefferson Ellisburg town 7,276 18,052 25,328
Orleans Seneca town 1,337 22,786 24,123
Livingston York town 2,833 20,881 23,714
Jefferson Cape Vincent town 17,207 5,512 22,719
Jefferson Lyme town 19,945 2,251 22,197
Ontario Gorham town 3,210 18,652 21,862
Jefferson Brownville town 20,654 989 21,642
Tompkins Lansing town 9,908 11,549 21,457
St. Lawrence Canton town 17,080 4,322 21,402
Jefferson Orleans town 20,435 870 21,305
Montgomery Minden town 14,737 6,303 21,040
Orleans Barre town 2,097 18,744 20,841
Ontario Canandaigua town 8,514 12,297 20,810
Niagara Wilson town 3,947 16,724 20,671

Pygmy Goats Angling to Take Dog’s Place as ‘Man’s Best Friend’ | HowStuffWorks

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Pygmy Goats Angling to Take Dog’s Place as ‘Man’s Best Friend’ | HowStuffWorks

Pygmy goats left Africa for the West around the mid-20th century, making a new home at Swedish zoos. From Sweden, they spread to England and Canada, according to the Oklahoma State University Department of Animal Sciences. By 1959, the first pygmy goats arrived in the United States at the behest of the Rhue family in California and the Catskill Game Farm in New York. They have since been typically used at zoos, for medical research and as pets. Of course, now they can also be found helping adventurous yogis with their asanas.

I had no idea that the Catskill Game Farm was the original source of Pygmy goats in America.