CONSIDERATIONS FOR GROWING HEMP FOR GRAIN

1. Minimum acreage re Health Canada (HC) regulations must be 10 acres.
2. Highly recommended to obtain a market contract for the crop you plan to grow before planting.
3. Must obtain a license from HC to grow the crop. The license application is quite simple. Get forms from HC or contact OHA for copies.
4. First you must obtain a Police Criminal Record from local police station. Cost will be $25 to $50 and can take couple of weeks to obtain. When you apply make sure you inform them it is required for business. Usually this will speed up the process.
5. Complete and submit your application for license to grow hemp ASAP. There is no cost. It will take couple of weeks to process. You will have to indicate the variety, source of seed and who contracted with to purchase the crop. OHA will be able to help you with this if you have questions.
6. You will be asked to provide GPS coordinates for the field being considered for hemp production. You can always change fields and update HC with new coordinates at a later date. You must however, provide GPS coordinates for a field with the application. You may be required to provide a site plan on the entire farm showing concessions and side roads and adjacent schools, if any, as well as GPS coordinates of the farm property extremeties.
7. Seed cost will be from $1.50 to $2.50/# this year. Recommended seeding rate is from 25#/acre to 35#/acre depending upon the variety and germination. Recommend planting Hemp grain varieties available with adaptation to Ontario.
8. Recommended optimum seeding date is end of April to early May depending on location.
9. Essential to prepare a well worked, firm seed bed for seeding. Seeding depth should be ½ to 1 inch depending upon moisture, time of seeding and weather conditions. Fertility levels should be considered similar to that required for a good crop of wheat. A minimum of 80 #/a actual available N. This N must be available to crop in June. No herbicide is recommended and none is registered.
10. Your field(s) will need to be sampled at flowering time (end of July to early Aug) for THC analysis. HC will be prepared to recommend licenced samplers at your cost and the lab analysis will be at your cost. Usually sampling cost is $250 plus small additional fee for more than one field and the lab fee is $90/sample.
11. You will need a good condition combine (like JD 9500) with conventional cylinder or modified rotary cylinder for harvesting. Certain models and makes will not work. Good information is available for proper combine settings and preparation for combining. Custom rates of $100 to $120/acre should be considered. It is essential to establish how and who will do combining before planting. Combine must be cleaned before and after harvest.
12. It is also essential to have arrangements in place to dry the grain immediately after combined. Normally the hemp grain is harvested at 20-25% moisture and as a high oil seed it will begin to heat in wagon immediately. Grain needs to be dried to about 10% moisture for safe storage.
13. Drying conditions must be around 100 F with high air.
14. Arrangements can be made to clean the grain after drying in the contract (range from $0.12 to $0.15 /#)at an appropriate cost if you are unable to do this yourself.
15. Require a grain sample from combine (1 kg) and after drying (25 kg) for evaluation re grain quality and lab analysis for the processor.
16. At this time there is no market for the straw post grain harvest. It will be your responsibility to swath the remaining stubble and bale to remove from field or disc into ground. Shredding is virtually impossible. Growers have successfully worked the straw and stubble into the soil. Good reports have been recorded re excellent results for crops following hemp. In 2006 there may be market for post grain harvest straw by harvest time. Consider cost of windrowing, baling and temporary storage.
17. The OHA will be available to help you with questions.