Hemp – shaping the future of farming

This will in turn create a more profitable and planet friendly outcome providing futuristic manufacturing materials to multiple industry sectors as well as healthy, sustainable food and health products.

And Broadleaf Hemp CEO Dylan Wood says the NSW Murray Valley is primed to take advantage.

“We have been trialling just about every possible way to grow and process hemp since 2017,“ he said.

Broadleaf Hemp is an Australian Hemp seed, food and fibre company - forming strategic partnerships, developing seed/fibre industries and growing cooperatives globally.

Hailing from the Northern Rivers district, Mr Wood said the 2022 floods put them nearly two years behind with their farming as there was just “too much water up here for hemp, so I grew rice instead”.

“Our big picture is to increase agriculture on a federal scale through initiatives,” he said.

“The initiatives will take efficient use of water into account to provide the maximum benefit to farmers and the economy.”

Mr Wood said this region is ideal as a growth region of hemp farming due to its large cropping areas, multigenerational farmers and their extensive equipment and existing irrigation systems.

Hemp seed is one of the healthiest sources of protein on Earth.

It requires less water than conventional crops to grow, allowing more drought resilient fibre industries and efficient protein production.

“It can be grown with little to no artificial sprays or fertilisers, if maintained properly in regenerative rotation, and pulls carbon out of the atmosphere to sequester the ground,” he said.

Regenerative farming with hemp can help to increase soil carbon levels rapidly, which is beneficial to water retention and increased fertility.

Many farmers overseas have reported better yields of other crops after growing hemp.

Hemp uses 3-5 megalitres of water per hectare on average, although sometimes it can be more.

In comparison, rice requires 12-15 megalitres of water per hectare.

An overhead irrigation system is the most economical form of watering, but flood irrigation can also be applied to hemp.

“The hemp crop returns can be compared to that of a corn crop in the Deniliquin region,” Mr Wood said. “Cotton is not as attractive a comparison as corn in dollars per hectare returns.

“If you took into consideration the overheads and specialist machinery required to grow cotton it balances the comparison out.

“We are focused on water usage, salinity and the mental health of farmers and their businesses.”

The company’s goal is to value add to raw hemp materials, to create a sustainable manufacturing industry in Australia.

Broadleaf Hemp supplies seed, provides agronomic advice and biomass purchasing for its processing plant.

“Once the hemp is harvested and processed into the four raw materials derived, there are 25,000 products that can be manufactured from it,” Mr Wood said.

“There is not only the opportunity to farm the hemp crops, but the added possibility of establishing manufacturing hubs.

“This not only provides environmental positives, but also enables economic stability and the prospect of job creation.”

Growing hemp, farmers can generate two crops per season - one from October to January and a second planted in January/February for an April harvest.

The first crop creates fibre biomass and grows about 4m to 5m tall.

It has the potential to generate a biomass of 1015 tonnes per hectare bailed, and buying avenues are already established after your harvest in mid to late January.

You can plant again in late January to February, and the crop will grow to 1.5m to 2.5m tall.

This will enable a feed yield of 1-2 tonne of grain per hectare.

The food product also has buying contacts established, but that industry is still being developed.

Mr Wood hopes the company’s model inspires farmers across the globe to adopt more sustainable and economically resilient cropping programs.

“We would love to see the switch to more sustainable, environmentally friendly farming practices to grow better food, better soils and healthier, happy people.”

Broadleaf Hemp will be supplying industrial hemp planting seeds to farmers across Australia for the upcoming spring season.