Performing Department
School of Natural Resources
Non Technical Summary
Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) production has grown exponentially since the passing of the Agricultural Act of 2014, Public Law 113-79 (the 2014 Farm Bill). In Missouri, the signing of the Farm Bill on December 20, 2018, removed industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, and allowed farmers to grow the crop. The Missouri Industrial Hemp Program operates under the authority of Missouri Senate Bill 133 which was signed in 2019. In Missouri, Industrial hemp production practices are adopted from research conducted in Kentucky which is not validated in Missouri. Industrial hemp production in Missouri is in dire need of state-specific agronomic recommendations including site and variety selection, soil nutrient considerations, planting timings, seeding rates and depths, pest management and harvesting management. Therefore, overall goal of this project is to carry out extensive testing of production practices of industrial hemp through multi-location testing in different agro-climatic regions of Missouri. The specific objectives of research are to: (1) develop agronomic recommendations for greater biomass and seed production through multilocation variety testing; (2) evaluate nitrogen fertilizer rate response of industrial hemp varieties that meet compliance of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) levels; (3) develop recommendations for using harvest-aids to facilitate the timely harvest of seed and fiber and; and (4) deliver education materials generated through this project on agronomic management and economic returns of industrial hemp to industry agronomists, growers, crop consultants, researchers, and other stakeholders. The educational materials developed through this project will include print/written media, videos, presentation at farmer's and industry events, hemp production manual. Results from this project will help hemp farmers in selection and planting of suitable hemp cultivar and application of optimum nitrogen fertilizer application rate, that will increase the hemp fiber and yield quality as well as economic returns.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
0%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
Overall goal of this project is to carry out extensive testing of production practices of industrial hemp through multi-location testing in different agro-climatic regions of Missouri.The specific objectives of research proposal areoutlined as:(1) develop agronomic recommendations for greater biomass and seed production through multilocation variety testing;(2) evaluate nitrogen fertilizer rate response of industrial hemp varietiesthat meet compliance of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) levels;(3) develop recommendations for usingharvest-aids to facilitate the timely harvest of seed and fiber and;(4) deliver education materialsgenerated through this project on agronomic management and economic returns of industrial hempto industry agronomists, growers, crop consultants, researchers, and other stakeholders.
Project Methods
This research will be conducted in three phases:phase-I will be extensive multilocation variety testing, phase-II will be nitrogen fertilizer rate experiments for the most promising varieties selected in phase-I and phase-III will focus on usingharvest-aid for improving harvest efficiency.The first objective will be addressed by setting up multi-location trials for variety testing conducted for three years throughout the state of Missouri. The experimental setup will be a randomized complete block design with four replications on well-drained soils. Data collection will include soil sampling for baseline soil fertility analysis, plant density, biomass yield, grain yield, fiber, and seed quality.The second objective will evaluate nitrogen fertilizer rate response of industrial hemp cultivars that meet compliance of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and other cannabinoid levels. This research will be conducted on a well-drained silt loam to clay loam soil under dryland conditions using a randomized complete block design with split-plot arrangement of treatments and four replications. The hemp cultivars will be the main plot and nitrogen fertilizer rates (40, 80, 120, 160 lb N ac-1 and 0 lb N ac-1 as control) as the sub-plot. Data will be collected for plant emergence, plant population, plant height, days to flowering and maturity, biomass production, seed yield and quality, nutrient uptake. Nitrogen response curves will be developed for industrial hemp cultivars for fiber and seed yield.The third objective will include developing recommendations for using harvest-aids to facilitate timely harvest of seed and fiber for industrial hemp production. This research will be conducted for two years at one location in Missouri. Four industrial hemp cultivars two for fiber production and two for dual-purpose will be selected for developing optimum timing for using a desiccant. The experiment will be a split-plot design with four replications. Agronomic data will be collected for plant population and plant height before applying the desiccant treatments. Diquat will be used as a desiccant which will be applied using a spray drone having a capacity of 5 gallons. The days to desiccate all leaves will be recorded. Biomass and seed yield will be collected 5-10 days after each treatment application. Seed yield will be collected using a plot combine. Grain samples will be collected for determining seed quality, seed germination, viability, and seed damage ratings.Objective 4 will include delivering education materials generated through this project on agronomicmanagement and economic returns of industrial hemp to stakeholders through extension programs. Web-based hemp production manuals will be developed using the published data from existing published resources coupled with results generated from this project. The agronomic production recommendation manual will include information on the selection of industrial hemp cultivars, seedbed preparation, soil fertility and nutrient management, equipment considerations, planting, cultivation, pest management, harvest, post-harvest field management, crop rotation and economic considerations. The dissemination of agronomic production manuals, designed and directed toward hemp producers and stakeholders, will play an essential role in developing an alternate crop for food, feed, and fiber security. The manuals will instruct producers and stakeholders on how to increase yield and net returns for hemp production. The manuals will be available on a project-specific webpage hosted by the University of Missouri.All data will be subjected to normality analysis in statistical software and data transformations will follow as needed for the analysis. Statistical significance will be measured at P ≤ 0.05. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients will be calculated using the CORR procedure in statistical software to describe the relationship among all variables measured. Data in objective 2 will be analyzed for normality in statistical software and wherever needed data transformations will be applied. Mixed models will be used to assess the effects of nitrogen fertilizer rates on yield parameters. Nitrogen use efficiencies curves and agronomic optimum nitrogen rate response curves will be developed from this dataset. An analysis of the variance test for objective 3 will be conducted using a GLIMMIX procedure in the SAS software. Mean comparisons will be conducted by Fisher's protected least significant difference (LSD) test at P≤ 0.05.Actively communicating results from these experiments is very important to the success of this project. The project team will utilize the following approaches to disseminate deliverables developed through this project: 1) Field Days at research site locations, (2) Presentations at the farmer and industry events, (3) Print/Written Media including Industrial hemp agronomic production manuals and fact sheets, (4) Digital Media such as video clips and webinars, (5) Project website: A project website will be developed and designed to create an outlet to showcase the materials developed from this project.