Drought wilts interest in Texas for hemp
Farmers haven’t seen a return since legalization in 2019 and aren’t willing to continue investing amid extreme weather conditions
AUSTIN — When the Legislature legalized hemp in 2019, state Sen. Charles Perry called it “the hot crop” — a drought-resistant lifeline for farmers.
Legalization got by the Senate and the House with unanimous votes. It had the backing of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
But since its legalization, farmers have lost interest in hemp, especially the kind grown for fiber and grain to make clothes, textiles and paper. Those who invested have yet to see returns and say hemp, like other crops, is struggling across the state during one of the driest years on record. Farmers across Texas are having to cut their losses by abandoning failing crops to save resources. And with so much at stake, some farmers aren’t willing to risk investing in hemp.
“The interest is not there with farmers,” said Kyle Bingham, the president of the Texas Hemp Growers Association. “They do not want to waste time, money, land or anything on hemp right now.”
And as hemp production struggles to take off, farmers are still straining to make profits, hitting rural communities that depend greatly on the agriculture industry.
And by all measures, hemp planted in Texas soil hasn’t been able to withstand the extreme conditions.
“To say this is a drought-tolerant crop is not accurate,” said Bingham, who grows industrial hemp along with grapes on his Meadow farm, southwest of Lubbock.
Texas farmers are reporting the worst crop losses in the country — yields are down 68 percent, according to a summer survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Hemp can also be grown for cannabidiol or CBD, in which case it is grown in greenhouses and needs even larger amounts of water than industrial hemp.
“In that first growing season in 2020, a lot of our farmers, especially the ones growing outdoors, are the ones who noticed how much water it really took for these plants to really thrive,” said Ilissa Nolan, executive director of the Texas Hemp Coalition.
In Dripping Springs in Hays County, Aaron Owens sees his farm get on average about 36 inches of rain each year. This year, rainfall has been infrequent, with only 4.5 inches as of late August.
For hemp grown for CBD and for fiber, optimum daytime high temperature for production is 70 to 80 degrees, said Calvin Trostle, the statewide AgriLife hemp specialist. But temperatures across the state this summer broke record highs and were often in the triple digits.
The characterization of hemp as drought resistant was based on trials in Kentucky and Colorado, Nolan said — states with very different climates.
Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, legalizing hemp at the federal level as long as it did not contain more than 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive element in marijuana known as THC.
The next year, the Legislature followed suit, creating a pathway for the production of hemp and hemp-derived extracts such as CBD oil with less than 0.3 percent THC. The bill gave the state primary regulatory authority over the production of hemp.
But it wasn’t just about regulation — advocates envisioned a booming hemp industry in Texas. At one hearing, the House Agriculture and Livestock Committee heard testimony about outof-state success: In Kentucky, a hemp pilot program was paid $3,000 to $5,000 for an acre of hemp.
Even cotton — a crop long seen as a strength in Texas agriculture — was struggling. The legalization of hemp was welcomed as a possible solution to the downturn and even an alternative to cotton.
The challenges of extreme weather conditions were among the reality checks that have hit the few farmers who have planted the crop.
And there still isn’t a clear market for hemp in Texas. Farmers are finding little to no established processing facilities or consistent buyers looking for Texas-grown fiber or grain. Many retailers are still sourcing their fiber and grain internationally to get the goods at a better price point, said Leah Lakstins, who works with hemp retailers and farmers to develop Texas hemp businesses.
And as the hemp industry sees setbacks in its infancy stages, fewer farmers are willing to invest their limited resources in the crop. The majority of people in the hemp industry are not farming as their primary source of income and are growing hemp for CBD, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“The farmers have been doing this for a long time, and they just recognize that this is too volatile of a market for us to make sense to continue working in,” said Bingham, the hemp association president.
Taking a risk with hemp has already hurt many farmers, industry analysts say.
“We need to find a way for farmers to be confident,” said Jody McGinness, executive director of the Hemp Industries Association, “and have absolute surety that they’re going to be able to make a profit that they can rely on.” Jayme Lozano contributed to this report.