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The University of Missouri Southwest Research Center in Mount Vernon is conducting preliminary research into hemp to help farmers when they plant their crops next year. (Photo: Andrew Jansen/Springfield News-Leader)
LAWRENCE COUNTY — There’s a lot to see at the University of Missouri’s Southwest Research Center.
On one side of Highway H, there’s a vineyard dedicated to testing different kinds of grapes. On the other side, there are blackberry plants that are supposed to bear all of their fruit on one side.
But right now, it’s hard to match the interest in another plant growing on a small patch of soil in an undisclosed location that just might be the Show-Me State’s new cash crop.
That’s because it’s hemp, a type of cannabis plant with strictly regulated levels of THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets people high.
For decades, it’s been illegal to grow here under laws aimed at cracking down on marijuana. But in recent years, lawmakers in Washington and Jefferson City have warmed to the industrial cousin, which can be processed into rope, clothing and thousands of other products. And just this year, Missouri lawmakers passed a bill scrapping acreage limits for the crop.
Shortly after that bill was signed in late June, research began at seven MU research centers here and across the state to give farmers as much information as possible about the new crop before planting season next year.
Roughly a month in, David Cope, who runs the southwest center, says things are going as well as can be expected.
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David Cope, the superintendent of The University of Missouri Southwest Research Center in Mount Vernon, talks about conducting preliminary research into hemp to help farmers when they plant their crops next year. (Photo: Andrew Jansen/Springfield News-Leader)
Researchers are monitoring growth of four different varieties of seed donated by St. Louis-based Tiger Fiber and experimenting with different row spacings, he said in a Tuesday interview at the center.
Cope said he was a little disappointed in the seeds’ germination rate and that the plants started flowering earlier than he would have liked, but he added the latter issue was just a function of planting late in the season after the latest bill was signed.
He also noted that researchers have learned that farmers will need to deal with weeds and pests on hemp just like they do with any other big crop.
“These folks that think they can just put a seed in the ground and forget about it until it’s time to harvest are going to be sorely mistaken,” he said.
More: SWIN Dispensaries in Springfield focuses on hemp products
Tim Reinbott, an assistant director of MU’s Agricultural Experiment Station, said the test plants he’s observing up in Boone County are also offering a preview of potential challenges to come.
“If you plant too deep they won’t come up,” Reinbott said. “If they get too much rain on them, they won’t come up.”
“We’ve found that this being a new crop,” he continued, “we’re really going to have to watch things a whole lot more and that’s something we can convey to the farmers.”
But Reinbott said the reintroduction remained a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for farmers and researchers to get in on the ground floor of a new crop and provide rural economies with “a shot in the arm.”
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The University of Missouri Southwest Research Center in Mount Vernon is conducting preliminary research into hemp to help farmers when they plant their crops next year. (Photo: Andrew Jansen/Springfield News-Leader)
Joe Horner, an MU extension specialist undertaking a yearlong study of hemp’s potential in Missouri, said it’s not yet clear what kind of shot in the arm that will be.
The industry here is going to “develop in fits and starts,” he said, and where it ends up in 10 years will depend on several variables, including policy decisions outside producers’ control.
Missouri is also going to start out behind early adopters like Kentucky and Tennessee, he noted.
But Horner said if Missouri producers could learn from the techniques in those states and secure contracts with reliable buyers, the state could be a “fast second” into the industry and attract some additional processors.
“It’s a good crop,” he said, “and we got a great opportunity over the next few years, and we hope Missouri farmers will be in a place to make some money in the next few years.”
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