Last Week’s Hemp Commentary

Hemp Flower a Boon to Small Farmers

These early days of hemp production, processing, and marketing are very much a time of experimentation.  Cannabinoid production started with labor intensive methods in a spectrum ranging from row crop or tobacco style production to orcharding or Christmas tree production models.  Essentially various flavors of high-labor production, paired with falling hemp prices. 

Flower production is high labor, but for producers locked into current trade flows, it pencils out nicely with returns exceeding $150,000/acre or more.  Much more, in some cases.  These figures are based on 1000 lbs. marketable flower/acre, at $150/lb. wholesale pricing.  Greenhouse yields can easily exceed 30 grams/ft², the equivalent of nearly 3000 lbs./acre, or $525,000/acre, using $175/lb. wholesale pricing. 

The question really is what…