V O L U M E 2 8
DECEMBER 2019
M O N TA N A
GRASS ROOTS F E E D I N G T H E F U T U R E T H R O U G H F A R M E R S U N I O N E D U C AT I O N A P U B L I C AT I O N B Y M O N TA N A F A R M E R S U N I O N Is Industrial Hemp in Montana a boom or a bust? Right now that question can be answered in several different ways. The hemp industry in Montana has exploded in the last two years. There are 277 licensed growers and over 44,000 acres being grown. While this explosion might seem like a great new emerging crop for producers there have certainly been some bumps in the road.
PRODUCERS FACE CHALLENGES WITH HEMP BY JUSTIN LOCH M E M B E R S H I P D I R E C TO R
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 5
CORPORATE SUBSIDIES INSTEAD OF TRADE NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE
PAID LIVINGSTON, MT PERMIT NO. 93
First, producers had to pick a hemp variety to fit their needs. This was challenging given the newness of the crop in Montana and the limited supply of seed by Montana dealers. Varieties are grown for the lucrative CBD extracts, for fiber and food grade oil. The second obstacle producers faced was the quality supply of seed. Some seed failed to germinate which limited the amount of harvestable quality crop. The female plant is where all the high dollar tri-comes are held where CBD oils are extracted. Producers who planted hemp from seed that was not feminized experienced another problem- weeding out the male plants. Male plants in a field can lower the CBD content in pollinated females causing processing issues. Male plants must be removed from the fields to satisfy most processors. This proved to be very time consuming and labor intensive. Several producers had to round up crews to walk their fields and pull the male plants by hand. Once harvest hit many producers had issues getting the crop off of the field.
rently one of the largest exporters of beef to China from its plants in Brazil, Canada, Australia, etc. The B Y WA LT E R S C H W E I T Z E R facts are so outrageous they dePRESIDENT serve repeating. While family farm To offset losses caused by trade income is down because of trade wars the USDA created a taxpayer wars, the U.S. government is sendfunded program called the Market ing $90 million taxpayer dollars to Facilitation Program(MFP). Much JBS, a multinational corporation of the $14.5 billion dollars of tax- that is filling the void with foreign payer funds targeted to help pro- beef. ducers affected by the trade war ended up in corporate bank ac- Doesn’t make sense, but very little counts. of the MFP instead of trade makes sense. Although farmers in the One outrageous example is the North, Midwest, and West have $90 million dollars of corporate experienced the greatest harm subsidies given to JBS a multina- from trade disputes, 95 percent of tional meat packer. JBS headquar- counties receiving the highest paytered in Brazil has packing plants ment rates are based in the Southin the USA, Canada, Australia, east (Sonny Perdue country). The Mexico and numerous other loca- disparity in payments also makes tions around the globe. JBS is cur- no sense. Farms in counties side
by side get $150/ acre vs $15/acre. Most Montana counties got $15/ acre or less and are scheduled to get no more payments while counties in the south that got the highest rate are going to get two additional payments. Like the trade war itself none of this makes sense.
IN THIS ISSUE.... • Daines & Tester Work to Loosen Hemp Regulations • Thanksgiving Farmers Share • Legislative Measures Help Meat Labeling