Photo courtesy of Circadian Organics
In 2018, Driftless Area farmer Dylan Bruce was intrigued when he learned about the potential possibilities of hemp as a new crop. Bruce co-owns Circadian Organics certified organic produce farm, just outside of Viroqua, Wis., along with Skye Harnsberger and Keegan Murray-King. Murray-King had worked in the medical marijuana industry in California as a grower at farms specializing in boutique production.
“We were interested in it as a potential alternative crop that would use some of the same infrastructure that we were already growing, and hemp’s potential for rural revitalization,” Bruce says. He comes from farming family, and he’s also a researcher at UW-Madison. His work includes sustainable cropping systems and vegetable production. He’s currently researching different fertilizer approaches that hemp farmers have been using throughout the state and how that affects compliance and the ratio of cannabidiol (CBD) to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Bruce and his partners approached hemp farming with a slow, steady hand, taking steps to investigate the market and understand the competition. “Prices have dropped steeply since the initial excitement, but we still want it to be a positive story and help other farmers around the state with their fertility programs and crop management programs.”
For most of 2018, Bruce focused on breeding, research and development. He started growing in 2019 with two different strains of abacus, along with haute wife and watermelon dream. With all the hemp strains available, how do farmers choose which ones to grow?
“There are more wild names than you could find in a Dr. Seuss book, but a lot of them are very similar,” Bruce explains. “Some are the exact same crosses but made by different companies, so they’re called different names. Seed quality has definitely been an issue for a lot of farmers, so we base it on relationships and experiences with other farmers and not just go off what a salesman tells us.”
Wisconsin’s Driftless Area has a unique microclimate among its ridges, valleys and creeks, with different soil types. “We also have a strong base of sustainable specialty crop production and a lot of really skilled farmers who are motivated to find another crop and another enterprise that will work on their farms,” Bruce remarks.
There’s Drying—and Then There’s Curing
Growing hemp is just part of the equation. How one handles the plants both pre-and post-harvest makes the difference between good smokable flower full of beneficial cannabinoids and flavors, versus flower that’s brown, crispy and harsh. “We dry out the bulk of the moisture within the first few days, and then we lower the temp slightly to reduce humidity. By doing that, we slow it down; it’s a curing process. Just like tobacco production—you’re not just drying it, you’re curing it.”
Bruce says they’ve got to hit that exact mark between over-drying and under-drying. It also matters how and when one trims hemp during the curing and growing process. Bruce and his team use both machine and hand trimming, which is labor intensive and therefore adds extra cost to the final product.
Because the prices of commodity biomass and smokable flower have dropped so much, Bruce observes that many CBD shop owners are demanding a lower price point. “But what the consumer really wants is an intensively cared for product that’s going to taste great. In a lot of shops, there isn’t a price stratification to reflect the differences in quality, so it’s become a case of the producer being squeezed from all sides.”
Selling smokable hemp through direct marketing as much as possible has been the most efficient way to get quality product to consumers while benefitting the producer, Bruce has found. As an agricultural product, Bruce says they can sell their CBD flower just like they would their vegetables at a farm stand. Their online store will have smokable product available this fall.
For more information, visit circadianorganics.com.
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