Murray State University School of Agriculture Dean Tony Brannon says the school’s first industrial hemp crop should be ready for harvest in mid-October.
He says they have begun bringing in seed, some of it for research purposes, and that the agriculture school already has plans for the harvested crop.
“We’re going to utilize some of it internally,” Brannon said. “We’re actually now going to heat our equine building with biomass crops, so we’ll use some of it just as biomass.
“I’m excited about the opportunity for equine bedding because we have an outstanding equine program and we’re having to give more and more for wood shavings. Straw has a 100 percent absorbency. Wood shavings has 200 percent, and we understand hemp has 400 percent of its weight absorbency, and that’s what you want with a good bedding so why not try it.”
Brannon says the school doesn’t yet have equipment for the fiber harvest but they are working with a company to get the right machinery.
“They say they have a biomass header that will harvest it,” he said. “So hopefully we’ll be able to demonstrate some of that also and work along that angle. You know, we used to it in the 30s and 40s by hand and we wanna do things a little bit more mechanical and a little bit more easier now.”
Brannon says the crop was planted late but is still doing well.
