At the end of February, the USDA finally approved Wyoming’s hemp regulatory plan, which means producers can now apply for licenses to grow the crop. Gov. Mark Gordon approved emergency rules to facilitate producers this growing season.

It’s been a long road toward legal hemp production. While there is a legal framework to permit the industry to begin operating, hemp faces some tight restrictions that add burdens to the long road to firmly establishing itself as a viable crop.

Even after a producer has a license to grow the crop, the rules require that hemp crops test below 0.3% THC, the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana. Crops that test above that have to be destroyed, and farmers that repeatedly test above 0.5% THC can lose their license.

The testing has to be done within 15 days of harvest, which further complicates the process.

Justin Loeffler, president of the Wyoming Hemp Asscociation, has a lot of experience growing hemp in Colorado. Despite these rules, he said hemp has a flexible harvest schedule, so farmers can make it work.

“It’s totally doable,” Loeffler said.

The law requires the state to do the official test by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture Analytical Services Laboratory in Laramie prior to harvest. Loeffler, however, recommends producers constantly test their crop throughout the season to monitor the crop’s THC levels as it matures. There are private labs farmers can use to do periodic tests. If the tests show a field is getting up to that 0.3% level, the farmer will know it’s time to harvest. At that point, he or she can call the state in for the official test.

“They have to be vigiliant,” Loeffler explained.

Jeremiah Vardiman, University of Wyoming Extension agriculture and horticulture educator in Powell, agrees the testing is important and said there are mobile labs producers can use. If the farmer lets his crop go over the 0.3% limit, there’s no way to reduce it.

“You do not have a harvestable crop at that point,” he explained.

This means sometimes a farmer will need to harvest the crop before it’s at its peak condition, in order to avoid falling out of compliance with state and federal regulations.

There are potentially other regulatory hurdles after harvest. Once a certified crop is harvested, it has to be transported to a processing facility. Big Sky Scientific, a producer in Montana, was transporting 3 tons of hemp products, with a value of $1.3 million, from Oregon to Colorado when it was stopped by Idaho State Police. Since Idaho has no hemp law and views anything related to the cannabis plant as marijuana, the shipment was confiscated and the driver charged with felony drug trafficking. The driver eventually pleaded to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 180 days in jail.

Similar incidents have occurred in states where hemp can be legally produced, such as a case in New York. Last November, the New York Police Department decided some hemp tranported via FedEx was actually marijuana. They seized the shipment and asked someone from the company to pick it up. When the owner’s brother came to the station, he was arrested.

The charges were eventually dropped, but the company has had to file a suit against the NYPD, which refused to return the seized property.

Even without the regulatory barriers, hemp is an emerging industry so it lacks a lot of the infrastructure that other crops enjoy. There are some bright spots. Early in March, Powell-based GF Harvest was licensed as a producer and processor. The company plans to produce hemp-based food with locally produced hemp. With a local processing facility, hemp farmers in the Big Horn Basin will have one option to avoid any transportation issues.

Hemp publication available from UW Extension

The Hemp in Wyoming publication from the University of Wyoming Extension provides an overview of the annual herbaceous flowering crop, cannabis sativa.

When cannabis sativa is grown as a field crop for oil, food or fiber, it is typically referred to as industrial hemp. Some cultivars are grown for their medicinal or psychoactive properties.

This bulletin is for anyone who is curious about hemp as a crop and how it might fit into typical crop rotations in Wyoming, said Caitlin Youngquist, University of Wyoming Extension educator.

UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources master technician John Connett has had many years of experience as a field and greenhouse manager and would be happy to discuss any practical questions regarding hemp production. He can be contacted at 307-766-5022 or jconnett@uwyo.edu.

Visit http://bit.ly/HempinWyo to read the publication or http://bit.ly/WyoHempProgram for more information.