South Dakota was the 47th state to legalize the growing of hemp, with farmers starting to grow in 2021. But the state made up ground fast. USDA officials said South Dakota farmers planted more than 3,000 acres of industrial hemp in 2023, more than any other state.
And advocates said there’s room for even more growth.
Something new is growing in the small town of Wakonda and it might not be what you would first expect.
John Peterson is a farmer and owner of Dakota Hemp. He said growing hemp in the state had an interesting start.
“You know, for the first year that we planted it got a lot of people driving by the field awful slow, taking a look at it, wondering ‘what the heck did you plant out there?’ Once they see you growing and know what its out there for, then there is a lot of interest and a lot of questions come out of it," said Peterson. "But as we’re seeing in South Dakota, once farmers see their neighbors start growing it then it becomes a reality that this really can take off in our area.”
While it is no longer much of a secret, Peterson said more people need to get on board with growing hemp to meet the slowly growing market demand. He spoke to the stigma some farmers have about growing hemp.
“The difference between our industrial hemp and marijuana, or a THC plant, would be that our ceiling for THC levels in our plants is 0.03 percent. Some of the varieties you could get at a smoke shop of marijuana could go up to 30 percent. So we are 100 times under that, is our ceiling, so the THC has been bread out of these plants to be very minimal,” said Peterson.
Peterson said one unexpected use for hemp is as insulation in car doors. Companies like Mercedes Benz and BMW have used hemp insulation for years to keep their vehicles quiet.
The state also needs more hemp processing facilities.
Kevin Barlow is the manager of Complete Hemp Processing in Winfred. He said it’s the only hemp decortication facility in the state. It’s an important step to make hemp usable.
“We start off with decorticated material, which decorticating is basically separating the vast fiber and the Hurd from each other. They kind of act as a material that holds the fiber to the hurd. So if you mechanically break that and separate it, then we take it further to go through some machines with spike cylinders. We kind of shake it up, clean it up, let the material fall apart, and allow the separation of the hurd, the loose hurd from the fiber to go to different routes for processing,” said Barlow.
Barlow said for the hemp market to grow in the state there needs to be more farmers actively growing and more decorticating facilities.
Once the hemp plant is processed it can be made into thousands of products. Animal bedding is the most sold hemp item, but Barlow said it can be used for much more.
Some examples of hemp products on the market are clothing, flooring, beauty supplies, plastics, and even complete houses.
For farmers that are interested, Peterson said hemp is an easy crop to start growing.
“For the most part, you can use a lot of your machinery that's already on the farm. Grain drill is the best way to plant this we have found, six-to-fifteen-inch rows. Most people have one of those around or they know someone in the area that does it for custom work. Some of the pre-merge chemicals that we got authorized on this make it an easier crop to grow for a lot more farmers. It would take care of the weed control that have plagued with for a few years,” said Peterson.
Peterson said the future of hemp in South Dakota looks bright. He said there can always be more farmers to help supply growing demand and is currently building a decorticating facility on his property in Wakonda.
