USDA’s Weekly Farm Column Puts the Spotlight on Indiana Hemp Cultivator

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes a weekly column called “Fridays on the Farm” where it highlights various farmers from across the country about how they embrace sustainable agriculture or protecting local species of wildlife. One of the more recent posts in this series includes an interview with the father and son duo, Jeff and Jeffrey Garland, who co-own Papa G’s Organic Hemp Farm in Indiana.

The interview explains how Jeff (the father) previously cultivated corn, soybeans, and hay on his 200-acre farm before his son, Jeffrey, asked him if he had ever considered growing hemp back in 2020. Although Jeff initially had considered selling his farm, Jeffrey helped connect them with the right people to get a hemp farm set up.

During their first season, they cultivated both in an open field as well as a high tunnel, or large, domed greenhouse. “At the end of the season, they tested the quality of the plants and the ones grown in the high tunnel had well-outperformed the ones in the field. They had grown longer and larger, which led to more oil being produced, and the oil itself was a better quality,” wrote USDA article author Brandon O’Connor.

With the improved results for the hemp grown in their high tunnel greenhouse, the duo sought out assistance from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to expand the tunnel and maximize their hemp oil production. “They applied for an EQIP contract in 2021 and were approved with construction on the tunnel slated to take place in time for the 2022 growing season,” O’Connor explained. “Because of the ability to control the growing environment for their plants, the high tunnels enable the Garlands to extend their season by multiple weeks on both sides. It [is] a major part of turning their hemp operation into a truly year-round operation.”

Jeff added that the tunnel allows them to extend their growing season and increase their yield. “We’ll have to pull early [in the field]. Two to three weeks earlier in the field than we do in a high tunnel,” Jeff said in the interview. “When you let them go longer, you’re going to produce more oil. It’s important to have that high tunnel.”

Like other farms featured in the USDA’s “Fridays on the Farm,” soil health is of utmost importance. “It all starts with the soil,” Jeffery said. “If you don’t have good soil, you’re not going to have good plants and then you’re not going to have the best oil. So, we really put lots and lots of organic matter back into our soil.”

The Garlands add “multiple forms” of compost and fertilizer to feed the soil, but they also asked the NRCS to help them create a cover crop plan as well. With the help of conservationist Lee Scnell, they developed a cover crop mix that includes 17 species of plants.

Papa G’s Organic Hemp Farm cultivates hemp that’s used in a variety of salves, tinctures, soft gel capsules, gummies, and topicals.

Last year, the USDA released a report stating that the hemp market was valued at $824 million. As of last February, industrial hemp growers planted more than 54,152 acres of hemp, with 33,480 harvested. 

According to USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) Administrator Hubert Hamer, the report was a “needed benchmark” to assess the state of the industry. “Not only will these data guide USDA agencies in their support of domestic hemp production, the results can also help inform producers’ decisions about growing, harvesting, and selling hemp as well as the type of hemp they decide to produce. The survey results may also impact policy decisions about the hemp industry,” Hamer explained. 

The USDA first mailed out surveys to collect hemp farm data back in October 2021.