Another milestone is being reached in Kentucky’s effort to grow and market industrial hemp.
One of the state’s first legal hemp crops was harvested Thursday at the WKU farm in Bowling Green.
Agriculture professors and students gathered among the thin, leafy plants grown in a half-acre plot, one of nine locations around Kentucky. What began as seeds in early June were towering 12-foot tall plants.
WKU worked with the state Agriculture Department to grow hemp for research under a provision in the federal farm bill.
WKU Agriculture Professor Dr. Paul Woosley assessed the inaugural crop.
"It's grown pretty well, the plants that got established. "Because of the hold up with the DEA, we didn't get the seed when we would have liked, so it was about a month late," Woosley explained.
The seeds, imported from Italy, were held up for several weeks following a dispute with the federal government.Besides the seeds going into the soil late in the planting season, drought conditions this summer also hampered the plants' growth.
"We didn't get the particular amount of hemp in each plot we wanted," observed WKU Agriculture Professor Dr. Todd Willian. "It's a bit sparser than what we wanted, but that's due to weather conditions primarily."
With a pair of pruners in hand, Corinn Sprigler, a senior agriculture major from Floyd Knobs, Indiana, had the honor of making the first cut.
"It's ground-breaking research and I wanted to be among the first people to grow it, study it, and analyze the data," said Sprigler.
The plants were cut, weighed, and tied in bundles. They will be measured for their fiber and seed yields, then destroyed.
WKU worked with the state Agriculture Department to grow hemp for research under a provision in the federal farm bill.
