Various cultivars of hemp can be selected depending on what will work best on your land and what you are hoping aiming to do with the harvested crop.
CBD - A growing number of CBD cultivars are being bred to keep up with demand. In 2015, hemp CBD made up $90mm, or 14% of total product sales. In 2017, $190mm of CBD was sold in the U.S. and was 23% of total product sales.
Biomass - Many cultivars of hemp have been bred for the maximum production of biomass.
Landrace Genetics - Iowa’s landrace industrial hemp genetics are important. If you haven’t already, start harvesting the seeds from the hemp that gets eradicated. It is important to save and catalog the genetics of hemp that has adapted to your soil and our climate.
Land race genetics are important to iowa farmers because they provide the best starting point genetics for farmers to plant because they have developed and adapted to our specific climate, soils, etc. More research in our public universities like ISU need to be done to maximize hemp’s production of cbd and biomass for profits for the iowa farmer.
Connect With ISU - Researchers and students are excited to work with hemp. Now that hemp is federally legal they need to know that farmers and entrepreneurs want to grow and use hemp.
