agricultural secrets, hemp.

And today we're in Springfield

talking with Bill Corbin, who grows loads of hemp.

Bill, glad to meet you.

- Well thank you, it's a pleasure to meet you.

- Tell us what got you started in this unique product.

- [Bill] Four years ago when they started the pilot program,

I wanted to be involved early on.

I was looking for alterative cropping.

The margins in traditional agriculture,

whether that be typical grain varieties for this area,

tobacco, cattle, the margins are so narrow,

I think the agricultural community needs to evolve,

look for other avenues to try to concentrate

more profits with fewer acres.

- [Tammy] So Bill,

tell us about the type of hemp that you grow.

- There are three different varieties in this field.

This for instance is a variety called Cherry Tang.

And these varieties all are specific for extraction.

The CBD values are exceptionally high in some of these,

they don't have the growth structure

to satisfy the fiber industry,

so this is specifically for extraction.

- And when you say extraction,

you're talking about the oil

that's contained within the flower of the plant?

- I am, yes.

- Okay, so what you want it to do,

it's got obviously lots of buds here,

is this the beginning of a bud?

- [Bill] It is, it's starting to develop.

A lot of this fan leaf, as it matures and loads flower

this will become a lot larger,

much, much more dense, and exceptionally heavy.

A lot of this fan leaf material, it's called cleaning,

a lot of this will dry up and waste away,

removing a lot of the, I guess you'd say extra biomass,

where you're left with more of a concentration

of your bud material.

- [Tammy] So this plant blooms all the way up the stem,

not just on the tip here, it blooms all over the plant.

- It does, quite a distance down,

of course you have horizontal growth from that

where you're building flower also.

We work specifically with clones,

and it is by far the most expensive route you can take

in trying to produce a field,

but we have to make sure

that the consistency of the whole field

is as close to identical as possible,

the only way we can do that is from cloning.

Anything from seed, the genetics are not stable,

there are so many anomalies and variations that can happen,

and where you have tests on a seed type

that shows a very, very good profile, as far as CBD value,

and your Delta 9 value of the THC composite,

there might be plants that deviate from that norm,

and when the state comes in and they test that,

that crop is gonna be destroyed,

so to guard against that,

and have a very, very consistent marketable flower,

we work through cloning only.

- So tell me when you harvest this,

because I'm seeing a plant

with all different stages of flower development,

how do you harvest it?

- What we'll do is, we'll come in here, a lot like tobacco,

and we'll take sheers and we'll cut this entire plant.

Now, depending on how big this is at the time

it could be that we're gonna have to section this,

to handle, instead of being able to take care of

the entire plant at one time,

and we spike it on tobacco sticks and air dry it,

we're putting frames in the greenhouses,

we'll house in there,

every barn that we're taking down and stripping out tobacco,

every one of those barns will be double-cropped,

refilled with hemp,

we're right on the verge of building

a very large structure over here specifically for hemp.

Drying, and having the capacity, the room,

this occupies, it needs so much more room,

because, obviously you can see how bulky this is,

to properly dry and not have the mold issues

that can go along with it,

requires an incredible amount of space.

- [Tammy] What are some of your challenges in growing hemp?

- Weed infestation and insect damage.

There are no chemical remedies,

either pre or post emergence, that are labeled for this,

there are some bacterial teas

and things that we can grow ourselves and then have applied,

that gets into a whole different area

that a lot of larger growers

are gonna have to address this next year.

Some corn borer worms in this crop,

there's not a thing we can do about it,

except try to weather the storm,

but that can be devastating as far as damage goes.

This variety works incredibly well in the New York State.

Another variety over here, a variety called Randi,

that will do exceptionally well in New York State.

Late Sue, which by far is our bread-and-butter,

does not, it has to stay in the field so, so long,

their growing season is too short,

so some of the things that we're doing,

and I have three other varieties

I'm gonna submit to TDA for approval,

will be hopefully this next year,

trialed on a smaller scale

to see what reacts better

in these growing conditions,

because all these genetics are coming from the breeder

that's part of our group in Colorado.

- So is Tennessee a good place to grow hemp?

- Tennessee is an excellent place to grow hemp,

we have a very good, long growing season,

and our soils are good, we generally have,

unlike most places, have enough natural rainfall,

where irrigation is not a necessity,

we have a lot of growers

that have the infrastructure that you need,

because we are, especially in the Middle Tennessee area,

South Central Kentucky, Western Kentucky,

a tobacco based economy so to speak,

and that means that we have the right infrastructure,

the right equipment, a ready labor force,

so yeah, it's an excellent place to grow hemp,

the profitability of this crop is better than tobacco,

I think people are gonna recognize that.

As far as production goes, we're gonna have to,

as a state, and Kentucky is moving faster than we are,

they've had some really, really good support

from the state government.

We, just like Kentucky,

have to have more of a whole plant mentality,

looking at trying to find varieties

that will fit more parts of the

emerging market,

than just chasing CBD.

- So you're in good shape Bill,

let's go see what's made from hemp.

So we've learned all about the flower

that Bill grows for his hemp,

but there's also producers that grow hemp

for a variety of other reasons.

And I'm here with Paige with the Hemp Association,

to show us how hemp is used in a lot of different products

that we use everyday.

Paige, tell us about hemp, let's start here

with this massive fiber that we've got here.

- Okay, so this is some fiber

that's typically used for industrial purposes,

this is some hemp building material,

formerly known as hempcrete or cellulosic insulation,

it's really great for eco

and environmentally friendly buildings.

Here's just some raw hemp seed with the hull still intact.

This is hemp seed cake,

so this is what is left whenever you press the seeds,

and is used for animal feed.

This right here is more of a textile grade hemp,

where it's a little bit softer, a little bit greener,

younger, so it doesn't have as much lignin content,

it creates really great soft, wearable fibers.

- [Tammy] Yes this feels so soft

and obviously you can use it in a lot of different forms,

so that's nice that it's just so durable.

- [Paige] Yes, it's been blended with silk, and denim,

as you can see, so it's very versatile.

And then we have some hemp 3D filaments,

so this is for 3D printing,

and here are some 3D printed items,

here's a hemp plastic cup,

so this is a bio composite that is made with hemp,

of course we have hemp string, so this is-

- [Tammy] So, that's what we normally think about

with hemp, is rope, and string,

and that type thing.

- Yes.

- [Tammy] And then, talk to us about the consumer products,

because this is where I think it's interesting,

tell us about these products here.

- Yeah, so these are primarily made with the hemp seed,

these are dehulled hemp seeds, often called hemp hearts,

and you can also make hemp protein,

which is primarily the hull of the hemp plant,

it has a good source of fiber, a great source of protein,

bioavailable, all of your 20 amino acids,

the hemp hearts themselves

have a perfect ratio of Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids,

so they're a great fish oil supplement replacement.

- And even in beverages,

so we've got coffee, soda, even milk.

- Yup, so they're using hemp to press milk with,

you can even find hemp ice cream, hemp yogurt,

the sodas are really great

and they're enriched with cannabinoids

which are from the flower,

but just an excellent source of nutrition,

from the hemp seed.

- And then obviously we've got beauty products as well,

so soaps, and creams,

and what part of the hemp plant is used in these?

- Yeah, so the soaps are primarily

made with the hemp seed oil,

so they provide really nourishing benefits

as far as extra moisturizing power,

the creams and the tinctures down here

are typically all made from the flower extract,

so you can find full spectrum extracts

or just isolate extracts.

The isolate is just gonna be your CBD or cannabidiol,

and all of these products right here are actually produced

right here in Tennessee, too.

- That's fantastic.

So obviously we've learned a lot about hemp today,

and we realize that hemp is really hip,

so Tennessee is on the cutting edge for hemp production,

and Paige, thanks for being with us.

(gentle upbeat music)

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