Despite a late start during planting season, University of Kentucky researchers say their first industrial hemp crop has fared well this summer.
"It's not entirely unlike harvesting plants for harvesting hay," UK agronomist and co-project lead David Williams says.
He's standing at the edge of a small plot of newly harvested legal hemp - a sight not seen in Kentucky in decades - explaining what will happen next, a process called "retting."
"We mow them down, we leave them in the field, we'll turn them over several times during the curing process, and eventually the outside fibers of the plant will separate from the inside fibers," he says.
While UK’s project is focused on investigating which varieties of hemp might yield the best fibers, other trials elsewhere in the state are designed to tease out other uses for the plant, including Cannabidiol or CBD oil, used to treat a number of seizure disorders.
Bill Polyniak closed his business in Lexington to begin researching hemp in Eastern Kentucky in the hopes of helping his son, who has epilepsy. He looks out over the field of green stalks now lying on the ground.
"What just happened right now, the waves will be felt for some time I believe," he says.
Once researchers are finished analyzing UK’s first crop, the results will be handed over to the Kentucky Deptartment of Agriculture.
