Since the coronavirus pandemic spread to the U.S., it has shaken up how people purchase food, clothes and even cannabidiol (CBD). From Q1 to Q3 2020, Brightfield Group saw CBD consumers move their purchasing from smoke or vape shops to buying online directly from companies and CBD specialists. But what about other emerging, more mainstream CBD channels such as pharmacies and beauty retailers? These channels have and will continue to present unique opportunities within the industry. 

Pharmacies Focus on Topicals

Pharmacies were among the brick-and-mortar CBD channels that saw a bump in consumer shopping in Q3 2020, according to Brightfield Group’s consumer survey; 18% of CBD consumers reported buying CBD through this channel in Q3 compared to only 8% in Q1. This is partially because pharmacies have been able to remain open as essential retailers throughout the pandemic, offering brick-and-mortar shoppers a consistent and convenient location to find CBD.  

Consumers who use CBD to treat a chronic condition—or the “Chronic Symptom Attackers”—are those who are most likely to purchase at a pharmacy, with 37% purchasing through this channel in Q3 2020 (up from just 9% buying in pharmacies in Q1 2020). And with more than half of Chronic Symptom Attackers reporting use of CBD topicals in Q3, it seems some of them have found their preferred topical products on pharmacy shelves.

Chain pharmacies have expanded their CBD offerings throughout 2020. However, they continue to only stock topicals, as CBD cannot be marketed as a dietary supplement or added to food under current federal law. CBD topical products are only legal if they don’t have disease claims on their packaging.  

Among pharmacy chains, CVS has been the most active in adding CBD products. Throughout 2020, CVS added numerous CBD products from different brands—including Burt’s Bees, Hydrocanna (Irwin Naturals), Karibo and Sky Organics—to its website and select stores in California. The majority of these new CBD products are skincare-focused for the face and body, while the retailer’s initial CBD lineup, which included CBDMEDIC and Medterra, was therapeutically focused with products like balms, muscle rubs and roll-ons. CVS also partnered in November 2020 with Ecofibre (owner of Ananda Hemp) and its EOF Distribution division to launch the Balans Labs skincare line for exclusive sale at select CVS locations.

The Rite Aid drugstore chain, which has expanded the number of stores carrying CBD products since introducing them in two states in 2019, intends to focus more on CBD in the near future. In a September 2020 earnings call, Rite Aid COO Jim Peters noted the chain is overhauling its merchandising approach and curating an assortment of products that supports its customers’ whole health needs. The company is doing so by enhancing and expanding categories like CBD products, holistic skincare and healthy beverages.

Pharmacies have benefitted from the CBD industry’s growing mainstream momentum, which is still drawing in new consumers. In turn, CBD also benefits from pharmacies’ position in the mainstream—the public already recognizes, understands and has confidence in the infrastructure surrounding pharmacy retailers. Shoppers’ trust in drugstores should help lift social stigmas surrounding CBD use and concerns about CBD products’ safety and efficacy as these retailers continue expanding their offerings. 

Beauty Retailers Hold Spending Power

Although beauty retailers are experiencing lower foot traffic than before the coronavirus pandemic, this sales channel remains a viable one for CBD companies. Consumers who patronize beauty retailers tend to spend more on this channel than consumers shopping through other distribution channels. While only 11% of all CBD consumers reported spending an average of $100 or more per CBD product in Q3 2020, that percentage rises to 21% for those shopping through beauty retailers.

Due to the COVID-19 virus, CBD purchases at beauty retailers declined slightly, as these retailers were not considered essential businesses and were generally closed from March through May 2020. In Q3 2020, 3% of CBD consumers reported buying CBD through this channel compared to 4% in Q1. Many beauty specialist chains spent this time improving their CBD product assortment to appeal to beauty and skincare enthusiasts looking to CBD for self-care. For example, in late February 2020, Sephora announced its new CBD standards on quality, sourcing and testing, as well as its addition of Prima, a hemp and botanical-based skincare product line. The retailer used endcap displays to highlight the Lord Jones line of CBD products and offered a Sephora Favorites CBD Skincare Kit to encourage consumer trials.

Sephora’s rival Ulta Beauty also focused on CBD in 2020 by devoting extensive in-store shelf space to CBD products. The retailer added the Hempz line of CBD-infused products to the original Hempz body care line that contains hempseed oil. The retailer also expanded its range of CBD products to include hair care, oral care and skincare products from Hello (a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive), Derma E, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Fekkai, Pur, Smith & Cult and Truly Beauty. While consumer visits to beauty retailers have slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, this channel provides a great forum for brand discovery, as customers can interact with store staff and receive product recommendations.

As the CBD industry looks forward to widespread COVID-19 vaccine availability in 2021 and the gradual resumption of usual activity, pharmacies and beauty retailers have the opportunity to offer consumers a wide variety of topical products to meet their needs. Therapeutic-focused topicals can appeal to fitness buffs and others who are exercising to lose weight gained during the pandemic, while CBD skincare topicals can appeal to beauty aficionados who adopted these CBD products as part of their at-home self-care regimen.

Virginia Lee is the CBD research manager at Brightfield Group. She develops and executes syndicated and customized research covering the U.S. CBD market.

Madeline Obrzut is a content specialist for Brightfield Group. She’s a cannabis professional that closely watches the industry from both a market research and consumer perspective.

Lanternfly Invasiveness

The spotted lanternfly, known by many names—lanternfly, “SLF” or its Latin name, Lycorma delicatula, to name a few—is native to Southeast Asia and invasive in the U.S., where it has established a foothold in several states east of the Mississippi River. These pests are successful in this new habitat for multiple reasons, Briggs says, including that they feed on at least 70 different plant species. In addition, she says, “In the U.S., we don’t have the same natural predators that keep them in check in their native range.”

Those natural predators include Anastatus orientalis, a “solitary egg parasitoid” (an insect that produces parasitic larvae), and Dryinus browni, “a solitary ecto-parasitoid on nymphs,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. These predators are currently being researched for their ability to control the spotted lanternfly.

The spotted lanternfly has one lifecycle per year, all the while being fed on by these natural predators—and feeding on various plants.

Hatching from overwintered egg masses, the nymphs come out in the spring. “We see them on a wider range of plants that tend to be younger or more herbaceous,” Briggs says. “Then, as the season progresses and they mature, we start to see the adults much more on trees, specifically [the] Tree of Heaven. That seems to be one of their preferred host plants.”

Later in the year, spotted lanternflies sometimes disperse again from Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) to other plant species, which often tend to be woody plants, Briggs adds.

Heavy Feeders

Spotted lanternfly insects were first discovered in Berks County, Pa., in 2014, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA), and have since increasingly become a nuisance for growers of grapes, nursery crops such as rose bushes and maple trees, and others. Penn State researchers have preliminarily studied lanternfly pressure on hops, which Briggs notes is one of the most similar crops to hemp. The PDA has since set up a hotline to report SLF sightings.

They are sap-feeding planthoppers, using piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on plants’ phloem, which transports sugars throughout the plant, Briggs says. That damage becomes difficult to assess, she adds, as the pests suck life out of plants rather than visibly chewing on them, as some others do. (Multiple pests with piercing-sucking mouthparts feed on Cannabis sativa L., including aphids, leafhoppers, mealybugs and whiteflies, J.M. McPartland wrote in a 1996 article for Journal of the International Hemp Association.)

The PDA also reports that spotted lanternflies produce a secretion, called honeydew, causing black sooty mold to develop, and damage plants.

Briggs primarily studies the spotted lanternfly in vineyards and continues to do so as she researches the insects on hemp, given viticulture’s status as a major industry in Pennsylvania. Hundreds of the insects can appear on a single grapevine at once. “Growers are reporting trouble with their vines,” she says. “Some of them are saying they’re having lower yields.”

READ MORE: Spotted Lanternfly and Hemp

Briggs and other Penn State researchers are conducting a multi-year study to try to determine at which point the pests damage grapes. They have set SLFs on the crops, then analyze vine growth, she says, as well as things like “photosynthetic rate, sap flow, shoot growth and carbohydrate content.”

“So, we’re really trying to figure out exactly what the lanternfly [does] to the plant physiologically, and then we’re also trying to figure out the more practical side of it, like at what point does a grower need to take action?” Briggs says. “How many lanternfly are dangerous to a grapevine?”

Identification Required

The PDA and other departments of agriculture in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia have issued quarantine measures to curb the spread of the spotted lanternfly across several states east of the Mississippi. These measures are in place to prevent any material that could harbor the lanternfly from being moved, according to the Delaware Department of Agriculture. As of Jan. 5, Pennsylvania’s quarantine zones covered multiple areas around the state, including Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. Other areas in the northern parts of the state, including State College, Scranton and Erie, were not under quarantine.

Under its SLF quarantine order, PDA requires businesses to obtain permits to transport various items, such as plants and mulch that could harbor insects or egg masses.

Penn State Extension has not heard from hemp growers about spotted lanternfly concerns, Briggs says. However, she says it is important for farmers to be able to identify the pest and be on the lookout. Growers can learn how to identify it by referring to the Penn State Extension lanternfly web page for information and photographs.

“If they were to see a lanternfly,” Briggs adds, “I would recommend reporting the find, especially if they are also seeing damage to their plants or it’s a new area where we don’t have the quarantine zone—that would be especially important.” Pennsylvania growers can report spotted lanternfly on Penn State Extension’s lanternfly web page or by calling 1-888-422-3359, and growers in other states can call their state department of agriculture.

Stay Tuned

Penn State researchers plan to continue this study in 2021, particularly if SLF becomes problematic or more commonly observed in hemp. Any results would likely come near the end of the year.

Patrick Williams is the senior editor for Hemp Grower, Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

Cover crops have been in the political spotlight of late (with President-elect Joe Biden vowing in his campaign that the government would pay farmers to plant carbon-sequestering cover crops), but growing them can be novel territory for some farmers. Planted before and after primary crops, cover crops can benefit hemp cultivation in several ways, from preventing erosion and increasing soil aeration to suppressing weeds and providing essential nutrients. However, some growers are not yet planting them, in part because they are uncertain which cover crops to choose.

Researchers have recognized the need to develop proven guidance on cover crops and are studying hemp with different cover crop rotations. Growers are also conducting their own on-farm research on which cover crops work best with their hemp—in rotation or as a living cover.

Part I of this two-part series spells out considerations for deciding which cover crop is best for your farm and explores two popular options. (Part II will explore other cover crop choices.)

Choosing a Cover Crop

Growers should weigh several factors when choosing a cover crop:

1. The cover crops should work in their regions with their soils;
2. The cover crops should have a low risk of disease or insect movement from cover crop to hemp;
3. The crops should meet the growers’ specific goals, like weed suppression or nutrient building;
4. The crops should fit into the growers’ budgets (cover crop seeds aren’t always cheap); and
5. They should be readily available (shortages of certain crop seeds can occur).

Cover crop choice and usage will vary depending on a farmer's production model. For example, a grower using a transplant model may opt to have a living cover between or within rows of hemp. The grower may need to manage weeds around the plants to reduce competition between the hemp and the cover crop. A grower that is direct seeding with tight row spacing is likely going to plant a cover and then terminate it before seeding their hemp.

Popular Options

Research continues on the best cover crops for hemp, but two options are popular among agricultural producers—rye grass and hairy vetch.

Rye Grass (Secale cereale)

This cover crop is planted in the fall after harvest and will continue to grow the following year. Rye grass is a popular cover crop option because it is inexpensive and has some great benefits for the soil. It can help prevent erosion and increase overall soil structure. It can also suppress weeds and increase organic matter in the soil.

A hemp grower will want to plant a rye cover in the early fall for ideal establishment, but the time frame will differ depending on the region. Rye grass would be a good option for hemp growers harvesting later in the fall because it can handle colder weather. This crop will continue to grow in the spring, so timing on killing the crop is important.

There are a few ways to terminate rye.

Tilling the crop under is one method of termination, but it must be done when plants reach, at most, about 18-20 inches in height. Rye can have allelopathic properties, meaning it can release chemicals into the soil to suppress the growth of other plants. Because it has this ability, growers should not plant their hemp immediately after killing the rye. When growing corn, it is recommended that the corn is planted a minimum of 10 days after the rye is killed, but we do not yet have an ideal timeline for when to plant hemp after a rye cover crop. Hemp seeds are small and do not have strong seedling vigor, so the time between terminating rye and planting hemp may be longer than corn.

© Razbitnov | AdobeStock

Mowing is another option for termination; growers may then bale or remove the grass from the field.

Using a roller crimper is another method. This option, which is more technical and more common in the organic growing community, crushes the plant’s stem and kills it if timed during late flower.

Herbicides are another way to kill a rye crop, but growers should make sure there are not any concerns that the herbicide will carry over to the hemp crop. Certain herbicide residues could prevent or delay germination and cause damage to growing hemp plants. While we do not have much research on herbicide carryover in hemp, we can use the herbicide label to guide us. Hemp falls into the “other crops” category on a herbicide label, which can be referenced for the rotation restrictions. Other factors contribute to how long an herbicide can persist, including rainfall and soil type. A grower should understand the label and the environmental factors that could contribute to how long residues may last in the field. Farmers should also check their state’s pesticide office to determine if they can apply herbicides before planting their hemp in the spring. Some states don't allow pesticide applications in a field where a grower intends to plant hemp. Each state has its own pesticide rules, guidelines, and pesticide label interpretations, so make sure to check.

Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa)

Hairy vetch is another cover crop planted in fall. Early fall planting will result in better establishment. This cover crop has many benefits, one of the largest being the supply of nitrogen this legume provides. Legumes, including vetch, have the ability to fix nitrogen and make it available to subsequent crops. Vetch can also suppress weeds and help with erosion control, but a thick stand must be achieved to reap these benefits. Vetch, if allowed to flower, will be visited by honeybees and other pollinators.

This crop can be tilled under using a variety of tillage types. Strip tillage, or keeping the vetch between rows as a mulch, can provide additional advantages, like providing a habitat for beneficial insects. However, there are diseases that can infect both vetch and hemp, including downy mildew and gray mold. This could be especially problematic for hemp growers that have a vetch living cover between their rows of hemp. Other termination methods include roller crimping and herbicide application.

Purdue University and Rodale Institute are currently researching both rye grass and hairy vetch as a cover crop planted before hemp. The research is funded in part by a USDA Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative Grant.

Once growers weigh these considerations, they should spend some time digging into the details of how to successfully incorporate cover crops. It’s also important to note cover crops are just one facet of a crop management plan; growers still need to assess and control weeds, diseases and insect pests.

Marguerite Bolt is the hemp extension specialist at Purdue University’s Department of Agronomy. She received her M.S. in entomology from Purdue University and her B.S. in entomology from Michigan State University. Bolt’s research has focused on hemp-insect interactions and plant chemistry.

In December 2018, Colby Johnson, a fourth-generation farmer, attended a state department of agriculture meeting in Great Falls, Mont., roughly 60 miles from his home in Conrad, Mont. Johnson—whose family farm grows 300 acres of hemp grain varieties—had a lofty goal that day: to gather enough signatures from state farmers to approve the formation of the Montana Hemp Advisory Committee.

Current and prospective Montana hemp farmers packed the meeting as the state’s pilot program under the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the 2014 Farm Bill) was in full swing. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) had also just passed, and interest in hemp as a lucrative commodity was piquing. That same year, a crop report released by hemp industry advocacy organization Vote Hemp stated that Montana farmers grew 22,000 acres of hemp under the state’s pilot program.

Despite the interest, however, complications of growing hemp were already becoming apparent in Montana’s market. Johnson thought an advisory committee could help address those issues. For one, farmers were getting burned by bad actors: namely, processors and extractors that promised payouts for hemp biomass but never delivered. “People would do the acreage and grow on these contracts, and when it came time to harvest and pay up, people couldn’t find these guys that they thought they trusted,” Johnson says. “We needed to figure out a way to hold these individuals accountable.” Johnson thought a committee could improve the market by creating recommendations to the state department of agriculture and set a standard for the rest of the country.

The committee would also institute the country’s first state hemp checkoff program, which would collect a tax from licensed hemp farmers to invest in marketing, research and education.

After a resounding, unanimous vote of approval, the committee was ultimately formed (and the hemp checkoff program implemented) in March 2019. Montana Department of Agriculture Director Benjamin Thomas appointed nine small- and large-scale hemp farmers from across the state to serve on the committee.

But the committee’s approval wasn’t the only great thing to happen to Johnson at the meeting. It was also where he met the love of his life, Jackee Beck of Racetrack Beck Ranch in Deer Lodge, Mont. Beck, who had been growing hemp for cannabidiol (CBD) for the past year, attended the January meeting and was also appointed to the hemp advisory committee.

The rest is history: Two years later, Beck and Johnson have fallen in love, had a son, Carter, and joined forces to help each other and their families grow and harvest hemp at their respective farms, which are 200 miles apart. All the while, they continue to actively help other Montanans grow hemp, securing their place as the next generation of successful and more sustainable farmers.

Why Hemp?

Sometime between 1915 and 1920, Johnson’s great-grandfather, Tom, a sheepherder, founded Johnson Farms in Conrad, Mont.

“Since then … our family has transitioned from sheep herding to growing wheat … in the Golden Triangle,” Johnson says. (The Golden Triangle, known for its ideal wheat-growing conditions, consists of the cities Havre, Conrad and Great Falls in North Central Montana.)

On more than 5,000 acres, the Johnsons, including Colby and his father, Paul, primarily grow malt barley for the brewing powerhouse Anheuser-Busch, along with spring and winter wheat.

After a brief departure from the farm to attend Duke University, Colby Johnson returned after graduation in 2012 and convinced his father to grow different pulse crops (leguminous crops harvested for their seed), including peas, chickpeas and lentils. In addition to pulse crops, the Johnsons also started to grow canola, mustard, hay, corn and soybeans. (In 2018, Colby Johnson was also appointed to the Montana Pulse Crop Committee.) Besides diversifying their offerings to bring in more revenue, Johnson also wanted to integrate new crops to benefit the soil. “Each plant gives and takes different nutrients,” he says.

© Matt Ehnes

© Courtesy of Jackee Beck and Colby Johnson

© Matt Ehnes

When the Johnsons began considering hemp, prices for many U.S. commodities began tanking due to the trade war with China. That dispute “wasn’t good for farmers,” Johnson says, but hemp gave them an additional commodity to work with and potentially profit from.

Hemp farming seemed like a natural next step for the Johnsons after years of experimenting with different crop rotations. However, they wanted to keep their risk relatively small. So, they’ve dedicated about 200 to 300 acres (4% to 6% of their total acreage) to hemp each year.

“Jeff Kostuik [of Canada-based Hemp Production Services/Hemp Genetics International] was the first guy I talked to,” Johnson says. “I understood that Canada had been growing hemp for almost two decades before we were allowed to, so I got a hold of him, and … he gave me a lot of info.”

However, Johnson couldn’t purchase Hemp Genetics International's (HGI) seeds because of unclear guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Frustrated, Johnson’s brother (and Johnson Farms’ attorney) Ross wrote a letter to U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana outlining the struggle. Tester took up the issue—within two weeks, Johnson says—by co-writing a letter with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and CBP in April 2019. Shortly thereafter, U.S. farmers were permitted to purchase hemp seeds from Canada, and Johnson began legally buying seeds from HGI.

Two Farms, Two Uses for Hemp

Johnson and his farm have since been focused primarily on grain production. “Being a small grain producer, I always knew that the grain aspect of hemp fit in best with our operation, although it wasn’t the shiny, awesome, huge money-maker that CBD was two years ago,” Johnson says. “I always knew it would always make money, and we didn’t have to change our operation drastically.”

Victory Hemp Foods processes the grain Johnson produces; the grain is eventually made into products for Severino Pasta (sold at Whole Foods), Dr. Bronner’s soaps and lip balms, Patagonia Provisions' seed mixes and more.

For Beck in Deer Lodge, about three hours south of Conrad, CBD hemp made the most sense. Also a fourth-generation farmer, Beck and her family now primarily raise beef cattle on land the family previously used for sheepherding. Her family has flood irrigation set up for the feed they grew for the cattle on the ranch. In early 2018, an agency representing hemp farmers contacted Beck to see if she would be willing to grow hemp under the flood irrigation to collect data. “I originally said no just because of the stigma behind [growing hemp],” Beck says. Shortly after that, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and she started to investigate the medical benefits of CBD. She called the agency back and agreed to give it a shot. Beck and the agency are no longer working together, but she has stuck with the crop. Three years later, Beck is producing 100 acres of recently USDA Organic-certified hemp.

Her products are extracted by a contracted processor into menthol rubs, gel caps, lotions, gummies and more via two different brands: Mountain Mend and Diamond B Collective. The Mountain Mend brand is positioned to attract outdoorsy-types who like to hike and ski and is sold in local outdoor-gear shops, such as Bob Ward’s. Diamond B Collective, named after the Becks’ beef cattle brand, is more of a boutique brand sold at high-end golf courses, ski resorts and private clubs throughout the state. She hopes to eventually distribute Mountain Mend and Diamond B Collective products to gas stations and convenience stores.

Last year, the Johnsons tried growing hemp for CBD in Conrad; however, “it didn’t really pan out,” Johnson says. “We had a pretty good snow in September that wrecked everything. That’s what you get for living in Montana. The only month I haven’t seen it snow is in July.”

The Big Sky Country Advantage

Cold as it may be, Montana is an ideal state for growing hemp, according to Johnson and Beck. The growing season is short because the frost creeps up quickly and the snowfall is heavy—but its arid atmosphere and cool nights stave off waves of botrytis that quickly can ruin a farmer’s crop.

“This is my push with all crops: Montana has the cleanest air, the cleanest water and the cleanest soil,” Johnson says.

Beck says her water in Deer Lodge comes “straight from mountain lakes [and] snowpack, right to the field.”

“I’m sure if we wanted to … we could market it as ‘glacier-fed,’” Johnson says.

Seventy acres of Beck’s farm are under pivot irrigation, and 30 acres are under drip line and plastic mulch (flood irrigation), she adds. When she was researching hemp and attending conferences, people told her she’d never be able to grow hemp under flood irrigation because it could drown hemp seeds, which are known to be sensitive to water. But Beck says she’s found success because of her family’s years of experience with the technique. “There’s a lot to it,” Beck says, from setting dams in the right place to correctly managing the flow of water. “It’s sort of a lost art,” she adds. “My dad has been doing it his entire life, and he’s the one who guides me.”

In Conrad, Johnson uses mostly pivot irrigation for his grain hemp—except for about 150 acres of dry land that solely depend on rainfall.

Neither Johnson nor Beck have had any severe insect issues, like the grasshoppers they’ve seen plague other farmers in the state. Gophers, on the other hand, are pests that have had their way with both their crops. “The growing point for hemp is above-ground, so if they nip it off right at the ground, the plant’s dead,” Johnson says. “But as far as anything else, we’ve been pretty good.”

© Courtesy of Jackee Beck and Colby Johnson

Montana has been good to hemp crops, and the crops have, in turn, been good to Montana.

“The first thing I noticed [in Conrad] was the amount of honeybees that were in [the fields]. Everywhere,” says Johnson, recalling the first season he planted hemp. “They look like B-52 bombers flying around because they’re so loaded with pollen.”

In Deer Lodge, Beck commissioned a company to install honeybee hives next to the fields. She’s currently the only hemp farmer in her valley, she says, so she doesn’t worry about pollen drift and cross-pollination from neighboring hemp crops.

Johnson says the ground in Conrad doesn’t have much topsoil and has a hardpan underneath. “The tap roots on the hemp were able to break that up. Not only would they break it up, but the roots that were left would decompose, and it was just amazing,” he says, adding that the decomposed roots add nutrients into the soil. It has helped the Johnsons achieve record yields of their malt barley crop after it follows hemp.

Hemp stands also help cover the ground and keep it cool, Johnson says. He experimented on a 10-acre plot with a different seed variety that he thought was grain but ended up being fiber, which grew up to 14 feet tall. Underneath the canopy, “you can [sense] a huge temperature difference,” Johnson says. “If it’s 95 degrees outside and you walked in there, it was 80, 85 degrees. The soil was cool. It was moist. And that adds a lot to the soil.

“I like to make money, but that kind of stuff gets me just as excited about farming,” Johnson says.

Another exciting aspect of farming is working with a significant other when given the opportunity, Beck says. Johnson and Beck frequently make the 200-mile trip back and forth from Conrad to Deer Lodge and are involved heavily in each other’s operations.

“As a farmer knows—you do everything around the weather. So, if it’s bad in one place, we can run down to the other and get something done, whether that’s seeding or harvesting or baling or planting or combining. … We just go hand-in-hand together to all of those places and do all those things,” Beck says. “And honestly, it is really great.”

A Tale of Two Harvests

Johnson and Beck are also gaining experience in the different styles of harvesting hemp.

In Conrad with the grain crop, they use a John Deere S680 combine with 640D draper headers. “When it comes off the combine, we deliver it to our grain bins that have quite a bit of airflow,” Johnson says. “Our full-floor aeration bin is 4,500 bushels, and then we have [multiple] hopper bottoms that have forced air that is 2,200 bushels.”

During the drying process, the grain is taken from the bin and put back in, a process called “turning it over” that allows more moisture to escape. The fans are left on until the grain starts to draw below a 10% moisture threshold.

Deer Lodge’s harvest is quite a different process. Beck, Johnson and a close-knit group of family and friends hand-cut 70 acres of auto-flowering CBD varieties. The harvest took two weeks. “We had anywhere from just me out there cutting to 15 people out there cutting at once,” Beck says, joking that her helpers may not “answer my calls now.”

They transport the hemp in a trailer to her brother’s logging facility warehouse, about 60 feet x 50 feet x 14 feet in size, where the hemp is hung up to dry, all by hand. “We were concerned hanging that much CBD product the way people had been doing it—which was in rafters or on ropes. … We didn’t have enough space,” she says. “So, I came up with this idea of hanging [on an] orange construction fence.”

Beck wanted to make sure the hemp flower would properly cure, so she brought in industrial humidifiers, dehumidifiers, heaters and exhaust fans to make sure she was continually controlling the temperature and humidity.

With this season’s harvest, she made a pivot from extracted products to smokable hemp. “The terpene readout [was] way higher than your typical auto-flower hemp crop. … I’m competing with the indoor, very structured growers, and turns out I just happened to have a great process here,” she says. Beck, Johnson and their team are working on hand-trimming the flower now, which will eventually be sold as smokable hemp under the Mountain Mend brand.

Mentoring Farmers

At this point, Beck and Johnson have found reliable business partners and feel good about where they’re headed. But they are still not strangers to those who may want to take advantage of farmers.

“The middlemen have … ruined part of the industry,” Johnson says. “I’ll get a phone call, and somebody’s interested in buying what I have. And now, usually the first question I ask is, ‘Are you working for this company or are you a broker for the company?’ And 95% of the time, it’s, ‘Yeah, we’re just brokering a deal.’ I can’t do it, because a lot of these brokers, they’ll say, ‘Oh, we’ll come get the biomass, and then we’ll pay you in installments.’ And I say, ‘Absolutely not. If you guys want it, you guys can buy it, but I need a check the day you pick it up.’ … And the deal falls through.”

“It’s sad because you want to trust people, but it’s just part of playing it safe in the industry because we’ve seen so much negativity,” Beck adds.

Now, Johnson and Beck are teaching new farmers about what to look out for. “I tell all farmers who have any kind of biomass or anything to sell, ‘Make sure you get your money right away … because there’s a lot of people who’ve lost semi-loads of stuff,’” Johnson says.

They say the Montana Department of Agriculture and its work with the committee has also been helpful for farmers.

“I absolutely rave about our state ag department and the director [Benjamin Thomas],” Beck says.

“They are 110% percent on board with the hemp industry and making it work for farmers,” she adds. “They want to see the industry succeed for the farmers in Montana.”

Johnson adds, “Montana seems to be a state where senators, congressmen, they fight for farmers. It’s pretty cool … to witness.”

One of those ways the state has helped farmers is by requiring extractors and processors to be licensed “so we can confirm that they’re real people through the state,” Beck says.

Since 2018, the industry has become much more tight-knit, according to Johnson and Beck. “Everyone sort of talks with everyone,” Beck says. “Now that we’ve been in the industry for a while, it’s easier to sort out the people who we know are just trying to bluff.”

And the couple’s extraction and processing partners go out of their way to help. For instance, when Beck had a small lot of cannabigerol (CBG) hemp plants she had to cut down earlier than the rest of her crop, her extraction partner didn’t want to take on the smaller portion, but the team there helped her find someone to work with it.

In 2020, Montana growers planted hemp on about 11,000 acres and in 104,000 square feet (2.4 acres) of greenhouse space, according to the Montana Department of Agriculture. On Nov. 1, 2020, the state switched from its pilot program to the USDA-approved hemp plan.

Even with all the success they’ve seen so far, Johnson and Beck still plan to keep their hemp-farming risks low for the time being. “As much and as long as we’ve been farming hemp, we’re not putting our entire plates into it, just a small portion,” Johnson says.

Johnson adds that his advocacy for hemp—including his push to create the hemp committee back in 2019—revolved around the idea of creating an industry that, even if all other commodity prices were low, could earn farmers a profit to carry them into the next year.

“That’s just kind of the way of a new industry. You’ve got to win some, you’ve got to lose some,” Johnson says. “Hopefully, keep on doing it the next year.”

Cassie Neiden Tomaselli is the conference programming director for Cannabis Conference, produced by Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower, media brands for which she serves as contributing editor.