Photo Courtesy of River Valley Ranch
River Valley Ranch, located in Burlington, Wis., is known best for its fresh mushrooms and value-added products like pickled mushrooms and Wild Mushroom Burgundy Pasta Sauce. But when owner Eric Rose had visited neighboring farms participating in the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection’s (DATCP) 2018 hemp pilot program, he became intrigued.
All Credit Goes To River Valley Ranch
“It’s the birth of a new industry, and I was curious about the plants and what I could do with them,” he says. “Hemp was grown in our state before it became a political football in the mid-1930s.” Elders in his community had also reflected on how there used to be hemp-processing plants in their area.
Rose obtained a grower license for the 2019 season. In March, he ordered cultivars for the Uno and Tres strains. Most of those came from neighboring Turtle Creek Gardens. The wet spring made planting a challenge, and he lost some plants along the way. He added some additional strains—Stormy Daniels and Cherry Wine—which he got from another producer.
In August, the plants were starting to flower. The Uno matured first. “Those are low growing plants, about two and a half feet,” Rose says. “The Tres grew to four and a half feet and were late maturing.” He endured late season challenges such as the hemp borer, a caterpillar-like pest that bores into the stems of cannabis plants.
Heavy rains in October caused some mold during harvesting. “It was a lot more work than I expected, especially the harvesting part. Then, how to dry all of this plant matter became the big challenge,” he emphasizes. “It was raining continuously for a couple of weeks. The plants were mature, but the bottom of the plants got beat up by the weather. Some were lying down, and the branches were getting soggy during the last couple weeks of the growing season.”
An early frost forecast forced Rose and his staff to accelerate the harvest process. In just a couple of days, they harvested 55 rows, with 30 plants in each row. The first two rows quickly filled the drying chamber, and then Rose had to scramble to create additional drying space.
Rose lost approximately 20% of the crop to pests and mold. He ended up with about 1,500 plants. He says the growing process went well, but most challenges were in harvesting and handling. As of mid-November, the plants were drying indoors in a controlled environment. During the 20- to 30-day drying period, he can go through and separate the good plants from the bad. He will sell the flower and also process some of it for cannabidiol (CBD). Their license allows them to process their own product, but they cannot process anyone else’s hemp. He will add CBD to some of River Valley Ranch’s baked and vegetarian goods.
Rose hopes hemp farming will be an additional use for the tremendous amount of mushroom compost generated from his mushroom growing operation. He experimented with the mushroom compost on his hemp crop, and he also gave some to other hemp farmers to get their feedback on how their plants did with mushroom compost in their root zones.
Despite the challenges, Rose says he enjoyed growing hemp and he’ll do it again next year. He will plan the layout of the field differently next season. “The cultivars depend on how much space you need. We had some wasted space. We’ll also move them to higher ground and focus more on getting good results from fewer plants. Overall, it was fun, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it!”
For more information, visit rvrvalley.com.
