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Midwestern Hemp Database helping farmers find hemp that fits

A researcher at the University of Illinois says farmers venturing into growing hemp have one of the most in-depth regional resources in the world at their disposal.

Dr. Chance Riggins says the Midwestern Hemp Research Database has been continuously expanding over the past four years.

“Having it progress over a few years, we’ve got some good data that will help growers make some decisions about which varieties may perform best in Midwestern conditions,” he says.

He tells Brownfield prior to hemp’s inclusion in the 2018 Farm Bill, there wasn’t much modern information available to Midwestern growers.

“We’re seeing a lot of, well, a lot of variation,” he says. “But we’re finding the varieties that are a little more consistent in the yield, the productivity, and also the cannabinoid levels that help growers kind of fine tune that sampling window.”

Riggins says hemp has historically been a successful crop in the region.

“Hemp likes the same conditions as corn and soybean, you know, and there was a lot of hemp grown here back in World War 2, and that’s one of the reasons why, fiber and grain hemp really love it, you know, they take off.”  He says, “Of course, you know, it wasn’t grown here for a lot of decades. There’s still a lot to learn.”

A link to the database can be found HERE.

AUDIO: Dr. Chance Riggins – University of Illinois