pasture cropping industrial hemp

i was just wondering how effective pasture cropping industrial hemp would be. ive been look around for information but the closest ive come to something about this is corn. also Rag weed

Check out this 43 page study by Purdue University:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/pdf/small.pdf

Interesting, When they start talking about how the superior industrial varieties having pithier cores, I start thinking of nettles which when ready to harvest for fiber don't really have any core. I think I've got some really killer nettles. I keep hoping that someone in eastern washington has the hookup with Kazakhstan and we'll get to see how it works here.

I think hemp is a great thing to grow a lot of organic matter, but unfortunately it is illegal even if you grow the hemp which was used for ropes. At least this is what I know.

There are thousands of acres (legally) growing in Canada.
Shouldn't be too hard to find seed.

And is it just me or does the Particle Board in fig. 22 look like the thicker stemmed strains would be the most suitable?

I must find out weather it is legal in Australia and if you need a special permit. I think hemp is a great source of organic matter, oil, fibre.

Landon Sunrich wrote:Interesting, When they start talking about how the superior industrial varieties having pithier cores, I start thinking of nettles which when ready to harvest for fiber don't really have any core. I think I've got some really killer nettles. I keep hoping that someone in eastern washington has the hookup with Kazakhstan and we'll get to see how it works here.

i think nettles are cool but the part of it is you can use the core to make things now really cool things in buildings. also they figured out better ways to get the fiber out allowing you to harvest both the seed and more of the fiber now. my question is what else besides corn, wheat, and that stuff can you do in a pasture crop system. for example can you grow pumpkins. you can eat the whole pumpkin even the vine they do it in nigeria and other countries. it's like greens. we dont. we leave a lot of food in the fields. but i think pastures could be better used. you dont need to plow the land to plant the land it's an out of date concept


also you can setup and remove drip irrigation decently quickly as well


personally i want the old feral hemps that are in California and other places. i run across them from time to time. im tempted to run around collecting the seeds from all the feral hemp we have randomly growing


ps. the leaves from hemp also good for leave meal or fodder

just saying and it's harvestable without drama anymore nettles are great i think they are cool but im not sure how it would be pulled off in pasture crop which is in the middle of a pasture. the goal isnt to kill your pasture it's to stall it is what im thinking when i think pasture cropping. altho that isnt the way pasture cropping was done during my short run interning on da farm


another random. i think giant rag weed would also work out well


i know that i could in fact grow giant ragweed in a pasture. altho harvesting wouldnt be fun. but i could do it hell i coul d even probably run ducks between the fileld while i wait for the rage weed to finish off and get to seed/.. i also know it's drought tolerant. sorry iim trying to decide which one im gonna try my maine issue is. should itry for the hemp tho.. i could do the ragweed here.. or i could ask my friend to try the hemp one i just dont want to waste her time ... i got no good way to harvest a lot of giant ragweed for seed and fodder.

Colorado hemp task force unveils regulations for legal farming

Colorado officials unveiled regulations Wednesday for legal hemp growing, setting the stage for a new agricultural industry.
Hemp advocates at a public meeting in Lakewood said the crop's potential is great. But they said development might be slowed by the plant's continued illegal status under federal law.
That will create problems for farmers in procuring hemp seed to start their crops, speakers said.
...
The new state regulations call for farmers to register and pay a $200 annual fee, plus $1 per acre planted. Farms will be subject to inspections
...
Because of the federal ban on nonsterile hemp seeds, growers could in theory face criminal charges or have their foreign seed shipments confiscated by U.S. Customs agents.
...

John Polk wrote:Check out this 43 page study by Purdue University:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/pdf/small.pdf

thank you. but i was wondering about growing the low density seed kind? but no one seems to have grown in in a pasture setting. like maybe using seed starts or dunno


seems like the only info on pasture cropping options seem to be the normal stuff. corn, wheat, oats. so forth i guess trying something new ... is hard to do when you can only pasture crop every 3 or 5 years

I have often thought that it would be really silly for the feds to do a crackdown on industrial hemp growers.

It isn't a coincidence that the medical variety has been known as "weed" for some time. I have heard that as a crop it has water needs similar to corn, but I don't know what metric they were using to gauge growth or water needs.

I also don't know what was meant by "low-density seed production." Do you mean strains that were bred for fibre and not for seed? While individual seed and fibre strains do exist, it is more a question of individual plant spacing; if you space them closely, there is less branching and more stem growth, resulting in less flower and more bast in the stem. Less flower means fewer seeds.

Used for pasture cropping, it is unlikely that you would space the plants as closely as for fibre production, which means that you would get more seeds and less fibre regardless.

As to what could be used in a pasture cropping situation with industrial hemp, just consider the different functions needed as open slots in your pasture. Just make sure you have a diversity of each supportive function (i.e., hosts to nitrogen-fixing bacteria, nutrient hyperaccumulators, deeply taprooted plants that break up hardpan and perhaps engage in hydraulic lift), and then make sure that your choices also include pasture food crops, like some of the ones you've mentioned, but also sunflowers, sunchokes, and anything you can find your animals seeking out in wilder growth areas. With certain exceptions, they will probably know better than you what they consider the best forage.

Also, you might want to look into the benefits of a savannah-style approach to pasturage. Remember that it is a generally accepted fact that where there is edge, thus diversity, there is more life, and more for life to feed on.

Unless there is a legal way for you to get and cultivate hemp as pasture fodder, just make sure that you can plausibly deny your part in the seeding. If you can point to a source off-property that you can say the seeds came from, with some animal help, You stand a better chance of not getting in trouble for it.

My fear would be that some idiot do-gooder would see and demand that you let the municipality chemically control the weeds on your land. Too bad there's no spray for fools.

-CK

In the 1970's when small farms in Wisconsin were starting to go under there was an effort to legalize growing hemp. I know of no other plant that has so many uses. I sincerely believe it could have helped many small farms stay in the family/business. Canada (as in a previous post) has really benefited from the hemp industry.

If you are not aware of the multitude of uses ... you will be amazed to find out. Everything from food (seeds are a super food), clothing to bio-fuel and everything in between. If you are vegetarian I think you would put hemp seeds near the top of your shopping/growing list. They are legal because of being ground or cracked ... the seed is not viable ... and they taste good.

Has to be one of the most useful plants to include on a list of plants to consider using in permaculture. Since the 70's I have considered it a travesty that it (hemp vs the smokable) is not legal!

Does anyone know of any other plant that has so many uses?

Chris Kott wrote:
I also don't know what was meant by "low-density seed production." Do you mean strains that were bred for fibre and not for seed? While individual seed and fibre

-CK

i was interviewing a old commune guy who said that low - density planting is how you get the best seed production. (sorry i work a lot of hours during a project so most of the time my writing brain goes mush with it

as for it working for a lot of small farmers. yea tobacco was a really good crop for them as well but many of these small /med. farms. at the same time farmers dont want to be farmers anymore as well or cant get the land. i think many of them should look into the organic tobacco movement as weird as that sounds lol. but it was a great crop for small farmers.


either crop should work . we import a lot hemp products. we import a lot of bamboo when we could setup groves. hell we could even setup groves for water filtration. we do a lot of crap that makes no sense for the sake of big cotton, big corn, and the rest of big ag cos we gotta "feed world" you know what we could feed the world off our trash and some decent use of black solider flies

hell we could even make lakes of recycled grey water we waste so much of it

I save vegetable, perennial and "wildling" seeds and dabble with hybridizing. While tending my seedlings and starting to germinate more this morning this subject came to mind.

Why not hybridize your own hemp with the goal of developing a strain for the purpose you intend to use it for and that would grow best in your local.

Since it is used for so many things. I would imagine there are already different strains. So your goal would probably be attainable within a reasonable amount of time as much of the work has probably already been done for you. Did a quick search for hemp seeds. But all that came up was processed seed (not viable). However I would assume that farmers who are growing hemp for the seed have come up with a strain that is best for them. Since hemp was the primary thing paper was made from back in colonial times ... I would also assume that there is a strain that would be best for that.

I cannot help but laugh as I type the following. This subject also came to mind when I was "sitting on the throne". For those of us who have self sufficiency as a goal I have seen threads started on what a person could use to replace toilet paper. I would think that it would be a hell of a lot easier to make you own "paper" out of a hemp plant than out of a tree. It would also be a hell of a lot better for the environment. Paper maybe. Toilet paper?

John Shong wrote:I save vegetable, perennial and "wildling" seeds and dabble with hybridizing. While tending my seedlings and starting to germinate more this morning this subject came to mind.

Why not hybridize your own hemp with the goal of developing a strain for the purpose you intend to use it for and that would grow best in your local.

Since it is used for so many things. I would imagine there are already different strains. So your goal would probably be attainable within a reasonable amount of time as much of the work has probably already been done for you. Did a quick search for hemp seeds. But all that came up was processed seed (not viable). However I would assume that farmers who are growing hemp for the seed have come up with a strain that is best for them. Since hemp was the primary thing paper was made from back in colonial times ... I would also assume that there is a strain that would be best for that.

I cannot help but laugh as I type the following. This subject also came to mind when I was "sitting on the throne". For those of us who have self sufficiency as a goal I have seen threads started on what a person could use to replace toilet paper. I would think that it would be a hell of a lot easier to make you own "paper" out of a hemp plant than out of a tree. It would also be a hell of a lot better for the environment. Paper maybe. Toilet paper?

id love to develop my own strain from the feral that would be one of my goals at some point but it's not legal to ship the feral or really to collect live seed even for saving here in good ole cali so i gotta get my friend in canada to run it. im mostly wondering what can be done in a pasture i like pasture or prairie. i think i might end up trying sun flowers


honestly the more i think about toilet paper the more i think back to the way the toilet is design itself if it sprays you with a bit of water back there. you could use a normal towel or something and wash it. like they do baby diapers that are non disposability

i dont know if you saw the movie back in the day Demolition Man - The 3 Seashells.. there is how in the future they wipe there booties lol anyway that writer came up with an idea lol it's gross tho

Didn't Colorado or another state legalize growing hemp recently? Seems like i heard that one of the states that legalized medical use ... did hemp as well.
Maybe it is around the corner.

I guess Im confused as to what you want to use it for. You have mentioned pasture and prairie.

In regard to sun flowers. If your talking prairie. There are several native varieties to choose from. Be careful as some can be very invasive.

The following was in my mail today. Different use but thought might be of interest.

John,
It is to our eyes, a crime that growing hemp is outlawed in the US.
Hempcrete is a natural building material that can be used for everything from roof installation to flooring to wall construction. It is energy-efficient, non-toxic, resistant to mold, insects and fire.
At least one luxury home in the US (Asheville, NC) is made of hempcrete and getting a lot of attention.
Come join the CNN team for less than 2 minutes and see.
Even the walls and the doors are made out of recycled paper!
Video (1:42)
http://www.nextworldtv.com/page/25688.html

John Shong wrote:Didn't Colorado or another state legalize growing hemp recently? Seems like i heard that one of the states that legalized medical use ... did hemp as well.
Maybe it is around the corner.

I guess Im confused as to what you want to use it for. You have mentioned pasture and prairie.

In regard to sun flowers. If your talking prairie. There are several native varieties to choose from. Be careful as some can be very invasive.

The following was in my mail today. Different use but thought might be of interest.

John,
It is to our eyes, a crime that growing hemp is outlawed in the US.
Hempcrete is a natural building material that can be used for everything from roof installation to flooring to wall construction. It is energy-efficient, non-toxic, resistant to mold, insects and fire.
At least one luxury home in the US (Asheville, NC) is made of hempcrete and getting a lot of attention.
Come join the CNN team for less than 2 minutes and see.
Even the walls and the doors are made out of recycled paper!
Video (1:42)
http://www.nextworldtv.com/page/25688.html

mostly i want a way to use my land better but i dont want to give up the space/ plow it or anything with it. i just want some easy seeds to feed to chicken,ducks, quail... if you grow your own grain that plot of land is grain... and has to be bare earth... plus there is alot of effort. i heard that if you pasture crop you can pasture crop that land about once every 5 years. i figured i could do the same thing just rotate each area i put whatever seed/grain crop i choose to a new area

Washington state just approved a bill in the House which will allow the growing of hemp.
They have issued an order to the WA dept of Ag to begin issuing permits.

The bill still needs to pass the Senate.

More and more states are looking at hemp as a viable crop for farmers.
If enough states have laws on the books allowing hemp cultivation, the Feds will need to ease up their stance against it.

John Polk wrote:Washington state just approved a bill in the House which will allow the growing of hemp.
They have issued an order to the WA dept of Ag to begin issuing permits.

The bill still needs to pass the Senate.

More and more states are looking at hemp as a viable crop for farmers.
If enough states have laws on the books allowing hemp cultivation, the Feds will need to ease up their stance against it.

we really need this.. as someone who grows millet, and a few other things.. easy hand harvest crops are COOL