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The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the UW-Division of Extension launched a hemp research program last spring. Through this program, UW-Madison Department of Horticulture assistant faculty associate Shelby Ellison is working with a multidisciplinary team of scientists and extension agents to create a foundation of best production practices for industrial hemp in Wisconsin. Ellison has a doctorate in genetics from the University of California-Davis and has created UW-Madison’s first industrial hemp course, which begins on Monday, Jan. 27.
What are some of the projects you’re working on?
This first year, it was mostly learning and collating information we could find from universities or scientific publications and collecting data from other farmers to create sources for Wisconsin to make sure everybody was on the right footing. The big thing was how to harvest the material to get it ready for processing or making connections to processors that are available; that was the primary objective this year.
With the information that we learned this past year, we’re setting the stage for moving forward to research the areas we need to focus on, like what varieties do well in our wet, humid environment. My colleagues specialize in all types of areas: weed science, plant disease and my focus, which is plant breeding.
What will UW-Madison’s first industrial hemp course cover?
The class is an introduction into all things hemp: the history, the legality and the production of growing different types of hemp, as well as the science of breeding new varieties and what genes control which traits in the crop. It also covers the economic aspect of selling hemp and what to consider if you’re interested in that.
Did farmers have difficulty getting certain seeds and strains of hemp?
Buying seeds, whether feminized or non-feminized, or buying clones will be easier and cheaper because there’s going to be more supply. People are getting into the game of selling those materials. I still think people don’t really understand that, just because you cross two different varieties, it doesn’t mean you have a new variety. It means you have an unstable product that’s going into the field, and if you’re selling that, you’re selling something new. It’s not going to be very consistent for the farmer you’re selling it to.
There are several companies that have been around for a long time, and people are still buying seeds from Oregon or Colorado because they’re much more consistent. They’ll be more expensive, but that’s because the breeders have done their due diligence to make a good product.
They’re going to make sure they’re compliant with the federal THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) levels (below 0.3%) at the end of the season. It’s going to take a few years to develop new varieties that are acclimated to our climate and are consistent with the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) ruling on what the THC percentage needs to be.
What do you hope to see in Wisconsin’s hemp industry over the next couple of years?
There are single-purpose varieties grown for either flower, fiber or grain production, and then there are dual purpose varieties, from which you could harvest the stalk for fiber and the seed for grain.
I’d like to see breeding of potentially new varieties where you might either have the fiber and flower production—or different combinations of those that are more acclimated to the Midwest—with appropriate disease resistance. If you could get two or three products to potentially sell instead of relying solely on one product, you’ll increase the chance of having some economic viability.
I see us continuing to work with other people in different areas of plant sciences and figuring out the agronomic practices of what makes it grow well here: nitrogen levels, how to harvest with equipment and what storage conditions create the best harvest quality. It’s exciting, and it’s in its infancy right now, so there are a lot of really important things we’ll figure out within the next few years.
For more information, visit fyi.extension.wisc.edu/hemp.
