Prairie PROducers Podcast | industrial hemp: it's not the future; it's today

Today’s interview with Aaron Rydell, is both exciting and eye-opening.  I met Aaron at a recent ag expo; I fell in love with their products and instantly asked if they would be interested in sharing their hemp story – of course they said yes! Aaron is an enthusiastic hemp farmer and business owner in Colorado. He has been growing hemp and expanding his knowledge and experience in the industry since 2014.

In this episode I interviewed Hunter Buffington, who is the Executive Director of the Hemp Feed Coalition.  The Coalition is a diverse set of stakeholders from across the United States and Canada. Their mission is to gain Federal approval for hemp and its byproducts as animal feed to create new markets for farmers, processors and feeders.

As the Executive Director, Hunter utilizes her experience; as well as her passion for data collection, by working with regulators, policy makers, universities, nonprofits and businesses to implement strategies for developing our emerging hemp industry.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed doing the interview!

Connect with Hunter directly via email: hunter@hempfeedcoalition.org

From all of us at Prairie PROducers, we’d like to wish you a Happy New Year and say thank you to all of those that supported us in one way or another in 2020. We are extremely thankful for the connections we made, the opportunities we were given and the growth our future holds. In today’s episode I thought I would give a podcast overview and a recap of our year.

We launched the Prairie PROducers Podcast in July, since that time we published 11 episodes. We interviewed a variety of people from our own staff, the MN Department of Agriculture, cannabis accountants, a variety of hemp entrepreneurs, and many others! Our episodes have been played over 550 times, around the world. In fact, we have listeners from 10 countries. Our goal going forward is to continue to share information and education on a variety of industrial hemp topics.

As a business, we worked closely with local farmers who each raised a trial grow of roughly 20 acres. Each farm operated a little differently, as far as planting dates and planting methods. Between us and them, we also experimented with cutting and baling methods. Overall, we believe the farmers were successful and learned a lot through the process. We truly wouldn’t be where we are today without them. Behind our facility we grew our own test plots, where we experimented with 5 varieties of seed, 3 planting dates, and 3 populations. We monitored stand counts, rate of growth and fiber quality in both our plots and the farmers’ fields.

Towards the end of the summer we had a Field Day, where over 150 people attended to view our plots, and learn more about industrial hemp. We gained many connections that day and are thankful for all that attended.

Currently, we have our hemp bales stored as we wait on processing equipment. Our Genetics Research Manager, Joe Dollerschell has been busy with indoor grows. He harvested feral seed, and is now growing and cross-breeding different varieties and documenting what he is learning. His plan is to plant these varieties in our test plots to get a true representation of how each variety grows in our Minnesota weather conditions. As we did in 2020, these plants will be tested by the MN Department of Agriculture for THC levels. This process is an internal experiment, that will most likely take years to develop best practices and a true understanding of growing industrial hemp.

In 2021 we plan to be fully processing and look forward to connecting with those that are either interested in growing hemp for fiber or are already growing for grain or cbd and want to sell us their fiber, to eliminate waste and potentially open another market. In the few short days we’ve had in the new year, we already have some great conversations going and can’t wait to share all those details with you as they unfold!

In today’s episode, I interviewed Tyler Hoff, one of the founders of Bulk Hemp Warehouse. We talked about the retail side of hemp, as well as building a successful hemp-related business. At Bulk Hemp Warehouse, they sell a variety of hemp products; such as bags, clothing, rope, twine, food, oils, raw hemp seeds and more! But Tyler also has a passion for education and marketing, so you can also find him at   HempAware.com – which is a platform he uses to spread awareness about the benefits and value of Cannabis Hemp. They are here to shine light on hemp's essential uses for food, shelter, clothing, and 25,000 other things!

Ways to connect with Tyler:

In today's episode, I experienced the excitement of talking about accounting for the cannabis industry with Mark Waller and Betsy Morem.. yes, I said excitement!  We talked about the importance of hiring a CPA firm who is passionate about what they do, so you have the time freedom to be passionate about what you do.  We also discussed how technology is evolving the world of accounting; as well as financial reports, taxes and most importantly; what it would look like if you worked with Mark and Betsy directly!

In today’s episode I went on a virtual farm tour with Grant Herfindahl. He showed me the feral hemp growing on his family farm, and explained what a typical day is like for him, as Congressman Collin Peterson’s Staff Agricultural Assistant. We talked about regulations, learning curves and where they see the future of the industrial hemp industry.

In today’s episode, I interviewed someone with so much energy who is making waves within the industrial hemp industry. Her name is Erica Halverson and her company is called Tiny e Paper.

Her goals are BIG, her vision is inspiring and her mission is going to have a major impact on not only the hemp industry, but the economy and the environment as well. TINY e PAPER makes 100% pure hemp paper on a commercial scale within a nominal cost increase over its tree paper version.

They make hemp paper out of hemp stalks and the waste from CBD Extractors, taking care of 2 problems within the cannabis industry and beyond..... they sell their products and run their companies using a smarter resource than trees and utilizing a lot of waste being generated by a rapidly growing category. She discusses how holistic the entire plant truly is and how her journey has evolved because of it!

That's a wrap on Prairie PROducers' first Harvest!  In today's episode, Mike Marks gives us an overview of what our very first crop production year looked like; from planting to baling.  He shared what worked well, what didn't and what we are looking forward to as the hemp fiber industry grows! 

If you'd like to contact Mike directly, you can email him at mike@prairieproco.com 

My goal today is to explain what hemp is, the process of growing it from licensing to harvesting and what we are doing here at Prairie PROducers.

In today’s episode, we bring in a hemp expert from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture: Her name is Margaret Wiatrowski and she is the Industrial Hemp Program Coordinator in the Plant Protection Division for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Margaret and I discuss the details of the MN Pilot Program for industrial hemp and how it will transition into the upcoming Commercial Program. We discuss everything from how the industry is evolving to licensing and testing procedures, and so much more! We hope you enjoy this episode, as she is a great resource for growers and processors throughout Minnesota.

To contact Margaret or Katie, you can email hemp.mda@state.mn.us

In our very first episode of the Prairie PROducers Podcast, I sit down with Paul and Tim Seehusen and ask them everything from why the hemp industry to how farmers can get involved, even if they’re a bit skeptical. We discuss the vision behind Prairie PROducers and where Paul and Tim foresee the future. Tim talks about the process it takes for farmers to grow industrial hemp and Paul discusses the unlimited potential and impact industrial hemp fiber will have in the ag industry. 

This summer, Prairie PROducers is launching a Podcast called The Prairie PROducers Podcast.

At Prairie PROducers, we grow and process industrial hemp fiber into user-specified sizes, feeding American-grown hemp fiber back into the American supply chain. As the very first hemp fiber processor in the state of Minnesota, our goal is to provide information and education on industrial hemp and explain the benefits and relationship of hemp and the agriculture industry. We will be talking to people in all levels of agriculture; from policy makers and university experts to equipment dealers and seed manufacturers, and many other hemp related companies that have already began paving the way throughout the nation, but most importantly, we will be talking to the farmers – the hard working men and women who have dedicated their lives to providing the food, fuel and fiber of our modern lives.

You see, industrial hemp fiber has many purposes and possibilities, including the solution to man-made problems; it can reduce our carbon footprint, it can draw out toxins from our soil, it can clothe us, it can create biofuel and remove our dependency on foreign oil, it can be used to build sustainable housing, it can decrease our dependence on paper, plastics, and nonbiodegradable products. We finally have the ability to put not only our health, but also the health of the planet first!