“That puts them into a position where they could ruin their entire crop very quickly,” Chavis says. That’s a significant obstacle for many Oregon farmers-one that those in Colorado and other states may not need to focus on nearly as much. In certain parts of the state, Oregon’s humidity levels hover closer to the 60% to 80% range with almost daily rainfall. Oregon sees higher humidity and rainfall throughout the year compared to Colorado. Each of those states has licensed more than 50,000 acres of industrial hemp, making Colorado and Oregon prime examples of what thriving hemp markets may look like for the foreseeable future in the U.S.īut that climatic difference is a big one. Southern Colorado, for example, clocks a dryer climate, generally, than much of Oregon. Humidity levels vary by season and by geographic region. This is an important starting point: Before hemp biomass is brought into a climate-controlled space for storage, growers must ensure that the crop is coming out of a suitable outdoor environment. When Hemp Grower spoke with Chavis in mid-October, he referenced a cold-warm spell that was moving through southern Colorado-a problem for hemp growers who still had plants in the ground. “Seventy percent of the biomass being grown this year so far does not have a predetermined buyer,” he says. Farmers need to know how to store their harvested and dried crops properly and line up buyers in need of biomass. There’s a glut of raw material on the market. is engendering a great deal of excitement and, inevitably, overproduction. Storage is key, Chavis says, because the newly legal hemp industry in the U.S. With clients’ precious product in mind, the Paragon team has developed a rigorous model for hemp biomass storage that can be used as a guide, no matter the size of your business, for examples of best practices. I’ve been doing that for around three to four years, and it’s led me into the position that we’re in with this company.”Īnd while Paragon will be storing its own hemp biomass for its processing ends, the company also accepts outside farmers’ crops for testing and storage as well. “So then I applied my skills to build larger-scale extraction equipment specifically designed for hemp. “Knowing that the market was heavily shifting and the price per pound of marijuana was decreasing, hemp seemed like a great opportunity,” he says of his career change. The Paragon team asserts that this facility is the largest hemp processing facility in the country. (near Pueblo), and built it out with 170,000 square feet dedicated to climate-controlled storage space. Earlier this year, the company secured a 250,000-square-foot former Columbia Records warehouse in Colorado City, Colo. He spent nearly 10 years in the legal cannabis space before joining Paragon Processing as lead engineer and partner. has provided education on how to store this plant safely, as well.īilly Chavis know this. The Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, for example, published an in-depth set of best management practices on hemp storage in late 2015, and it remains a helpful framework for how the industry approaches this matter.Īnd to a point, the state-legal cannabis industry (which many call the marijuana industry) in the U.S. The industry’s understanding of best practices for hemp biomass storage is an ongoing learning process in these early years of licensed cultivation in the U.S., and much of what growers are falling back on comes from earlier generations’ grasp of the fundamentals or the Canadian industry.
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