Hemp, hemp hemp
#1
So this was the year of Hemp.  Suddenly it felt like half the agricultural grows were no longer hemp.  I know nothing about hemp, except it's not exactly Marijuana.  In the late summer, the smell of the stuff wafting over the west Medford area was incredibly strong.  Sad that it didn't have some loveliness to it. Then watching as fields went on standing and seemingly rotting. Now, I know nothing about growing hemp, so when I see the fields of hemp just standing there with obvious frostbitten crops in them, I wonder if that's part of the process. Some fields never seemed to get harvested. "Oregon went from 11,000 acres planted in hemp in 2018 to more than 60,000 acres in 2019." Jackson County was the largest producer of any county in the state at 8,500 acres." https://mailtribune.com/news/top-stories...truck-gold Then, the article goes on about growers' nightmares trying to grow and harvest successfully. Seemingly people who don't always know what the heck they are doing, with possibly 60% of growers failing and going bust from this years grow.  The market is glutted, the USDA wants to change the testing method for the percentage of THC, investors seriously underestimated the amount of capital involved in keeping their grows going another year not to mention how it unsettled the existing field labor market.   

Well, I guess the Hemp growing market will shake itself out, but I wonder what it means in the long term for Southern Oregon?  I've found S O to be frustrating in terms of employment opportunities.  I've always wanted an industry that allowed people of entry-level skills to be able to join and grow from the ground up, but we don't seem to really have that here. I know lots of people who ditched their low-level jobs to join in the hemp industry as harvesters or in the Marijuana industry as budtenders.  Maybe for Southern Oregon, it's just retirement, medical industry and hemp and MJ.  And if the Feds decide to move forward to legalize MJ that could change things too. Although I do think that legalizing it Federally would calm things down at the State levels with smuggling and that sort of assorted crime, but now I'm rambling.
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#2
Pears agree with you.
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#3
(11-24-2019, 12:01 PM)bbqboy Wrote: Pears agree with you.

Well, when it comes to paying their workers....it's very competitive.  But saying pears agree with me...I'm not anti hemp...I'm just musing but the pear growers at least seem to know what they are doing..
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#4
This is what happens when government gets involved, medeling in man's God given right to earn a living.
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#5
(11-24-2019, 03:01 PM)tornado Wrote: This is what happens when government gets involved, medeling in man's God given right to earn a living.
This is what happened? How do you figure the government had anything to do with so many hemp farmers failing?
 Amazing how you far right wingers will jump at any chance to be anti government.

The government  wants to use a different testing method that will make it hard on hemp growers but that's only a proposed rule so far.
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#6
(11-24-2019, 10:28 AM)Juniper Wrote: So this was the year of Hemp.  Suddenly it felt like half the agricultural grows were no longer hemp.  I know nothing about hemp, except it's not exactly Marijuana.  In the late summer, the smell of the stuff wafting over the west Medford area was incredibly strong.  Sad that it didn't have some loveliness to it. Then watching as fields went on standing and seemingly rotting. Now, I know nothing about growing hemp, so when I see the fields of hemp just standing there with obvious frostbitten crops in them, I wonder if that's part of the process. Some fields never seemed to get harvested. "Oregon went from 11,000 acres planted in hemp in 2018 to more than 60,000 acres in 2019." Jackson County was the largest producer of any county in the state at 8,500 acres." https://mailtribune.com/news/top-stories...truck-gold Then, the article goes on about growers' nightmares trying to grow and harvest successfully. Seemingly people who don't always know what the heck they are doing, with possibly 60% of growers failing and going bust from this years grow.  The market is glutted, the USDA wants to change the testing method for the percentage of THC, investors seriously underestimated the amount of capital involved in keeping their grows going another year not to mention how it unsettled the existing field labor market.   

Well, I guess the Hemp growing market will shake itself out, but I wonder what it means in the long term for Southern Oregon?  I've found S O to be frustrating in terms of employment opportunities.  I've always wanted an industry that allowed people of entry-level skills to be able to join and grow from the ground up, but we don't seem to really have that here. I know lots of people who ditched their low-level jobs to join in the hemp industry as harvesters or in the Marijuana industry as budtenders.  Maybe for Southern Oregon, it's just retirement, medical industry and hemp and MJ.  And if the Feds decide to move forward to legalize MJ that could change things too. Although I do think that legalizing it Federally would calm things down at the State levels with smuggling and that sort of assorted crime, but now I'm rambling.

I've found S O to be frustrating in terms of employment opportunities


Before I could get in the IBEW I took whatever jobs I could. I worked at Reeter fruit. I sold Crab on the corner at west main and Ross and my cut was 25 cents a pound. I tried planting trees in white city. I sold pine cones for the seeds to the Government.
But most of all I cut and sold wood.. tons of it. Even managed to buy a 1 1/2 ton old truck. I had to cut wood to get by through part of my apprenticeship.


frustrating in terms of employment opportunities
It's been that way since I moved here in 1979. Even as an electrician I have had to travel to find work a lot. Even as an apprentice back when Reagan's trickle down bullshit ruined the economy.
I guess you have to want to live here or find a way to get a decent paying job. When I started as an apprentice electrician a Journey made 17.65 an hour in 1980. Six years later and four years of school when I finally got enough hours to take the test to be a Journeyman.
By then Journeyman made 15 bucks an hour Confused And my first job I could get locally as a journeyman was residential, A retirement home and I was paid $13.60 an hour because of a special deal to compete with non union workers.
Anyway even in a union wages can suck. I considered going non union but thankfully I didn't. When I quit/retired I was making $29.50 and hour and with my pension I was really making 35.00 an hour.
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#7
(11-24-2019, 04:57 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-24-2019, 03:01 PM)tornado Wrote: This is what happens when government gets involved, medeling in man's God given right to earn a living.
This is what happened? How do you figure the government had anything to do with so many hemp farmers failing?
 Amazing how you far right wingers will jump at any chance to be anti government.

The government  wants to use a different testing method that will make it hard on hemp growers but that's only a proposed rule so far.

It is also ZERO reason for why this years crop has been a failure to many.
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#8
The easy part with hemp is planting and growing, the real work starts at harvest, i think a lot of clueless folks chasing the money grossly underestimated post harvest procedures and lost their crop and investment because of it.
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#9
(11-24-2019, 06:11 PM)GPnative Wrote: The easy part with hemp is planting and growing, the real work starts at harvest, i think a lot of clueless folks chasing the money grossly underestimated post harvest procedures and lost their crop and investment because of it.

I saw so many fields sitting with hemp sitting in it all black and shriveled after frosts...not knowing anything about it, I was wondering if that was the method?
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#10
It sounds like many growers really underestimated the cost of field preparation, so that will wean the greenhorns right out along with the new USDA standards, if they are adopted.
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#11
(11-24-2019, 06:19 PM)Juniper Wrote:
(11-24-2019, 06:11 PM)GPnative Wrote: The easy part with hemp is planting and growing, the real work starts at harvest, i think a lot of clueless folks chasing the money grossly underestimated post harvest procedures and lost their crop and investment because of it.

I saw so many fields sitting with hemp sitting in it all black and shriveled after frosts...not knowing anything about it, I was wondering if that was the method?

No, but thats not to say that the grower would not try to pass it off as "biomass" and there you would have the clear evidence in spectrum of quality on the market. Making it critical you know you are buying from reputable companies and not hempmiraclecureforeverthingrockbottomprice.com
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#12
I think the issue is, people who knew nothing about pot, saw dollar signs.
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#13
(11-24-2019, 06:11 PM)GPnative Wrote: The easy part with hemp is planting and growing, the real work starts at harvest, i think a lot of clueless folks chasing the money grossly underestimated post harvest procedures and lost their crop and investment because of it.

Actually In the MMT it says it costs 20 thousand to prepare a one acre field for hemp.

It costs the same to harvest and process the plants. I think a lot of growers may have thought they could sell the bulk hemp to others who would process. And I think the glut may have killed that idea.
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#14
(11-25-2019, 11:57 AM)chuck white Wrote: I think the issue is, people who knew nothing about pot, saw dollar signs.

I guess you meant hemp?
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#15
(11-25-2019, 02:21 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 11:57 AM)chuck white Wrote: I think the issue is, people who knew nothing about pot, saw dollar signs.

I guess you meant hemp?

Like comparing  white corn to pop corn. it's only breeding.
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#16
(11-25-2019, 02:20 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-24-2019, 06:11 PM)GPnative Wrote: The easy part with hemp is planting and growing, the real work starts at harvest, i think a lot of clueless folks chasing the money grossly underestimated post harvest procedures and lost their crop and investment because of it.

Actually In the MMT it says it costs 20 thousand to prepare a one acre field for hemp.

It costs the same to harvest and process the plants. I think a lot of growers may have thought they could sell the bulk hemp to others who would process. And I think the glut may have killed that idea.

Right, my point was and still remains, they had no clear post harvest plan and it cost them the crop and investment. "Thinking" they would be able to sell bulk hemp in a relatively short harvest window was hardly a viable business plan.
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#17
(11-25-2019, 05:13 PM)chuck white Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 02:21 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 11:57 AM)chuck white Wrote: I think the issue is, people who knew nothing about pot, saw dollar signs.

I guess you meant hemp?

Like comparing  white corn to pop corn. it's only breeding.

And yet you meant hemp
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#18
(11-26-2019, 02:29 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 05:13 PM)chuck white Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 02:21 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 11:57 AM)chuck white Wrote: I think the issue is, people who knew nothing about pot, saw dollar signs.

I guess you meant hemp?

Like comparing  white corn to pop corn. it's only breeding.

And yet you meant hemp

I remember when somebody argued that the pot they were busted for, (back in the 70's) was cannabis indica and the law read that cannabis sativa was illegal. The courts ruled that there was only one species of marijuana. So call it hemp if you want, it all pot.
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#19
(11-26-2019, 03:20 PM)chuck white Wrote:
(11-26-2019, 02:29 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 05:13 PM)chuck white Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 02:21 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 11:57 AM)chuck white Wrote: I think the issue is, people who knew nothing about pot, saw dollar signs.

I guess you meant hemp?

Like comparing  white corn to pop corn. it's only breeding.

And yet you meant hemp

I remember when somebody argued that the pot they were busted for, (back in the 70's) was cannabis indica and the law read that cannabis sativa was illegal. The courts ruled that there was only one species of marijuana. So call it hemp if you want, it all pot.
Wow you are really stretching it.  
Just because they are both cannabis plants doesn't mean it's logical to call pot hemp or hemp pot. Especially since as far as their use they are totally different. Unlike your popcorn theory.
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#20
(11-26-2019, 07:39 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-26-2019, 03:20 PM)chuck white Wrote:
(11-26-2019, 02:29 PM)tvguy Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 05:13 PM)chuck white Wrote:
(11-25-2019, 02:21 PM)tvguy Wrote: I guess you meant hemp?

Like comparing  white corn to pop corn. it's only breeding.

And yet you meant hemp

I remember when somebody argued that the pot they were busted for, (back in the 70's) was cannabis indica and the law read that cannabis sativa was illegal. The courts ruled that there was only one species of marijuana. So call it hemp if you want, it all pot.
Wow you are really stretching it.  
Just because they are both cannabis plants doesn't mean it's logical to call pot hemp or hemp pot. Especially since as far as their use they are totally different. Unlike your popcorn theory.

Well down at the store, they have a lot to choose from, The neat part is, they have analysis of CBC and THC. some have  a balance, some have more of one over the other.  So  yes it just breeding.  Some weed gives you a body high and some give you a head high..  They just know how to measure it now.
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