Hamilton SmartFarm hosts information day for farmers interested in sowing industrial hemp

A number of trial sites growing the product are taking part in AgriFutures' Industrial Hemp Variety Trial (IHVT) program, and have recently hosted open days for farmers.

IHVT program national coordinator Mark Skewes said the trial was a small step to what could be a burgeoning industry.

"AgriFutures has identified potential for quite significant growth in the industrial hemp industry over the next five years, which is why they're putting money into funding these trials and other research into industrial hemp," he said.

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"Things that have contributed to that is the approval of hempseed as a human food in 2017 providing an impetus and the last of the states finally coming online with legislation to allow the production of industrial hemp."

He said the different legal status of industrial hemp production in different states had previously stunted growth of the industry, but signs were now looking good now that NSW and Queensland had given the okay for the industry to begin trials.

But while there is a lot of enthusiasm among growers that he has spoken to, there are also still some "bottlenecks" in the way, according to Mr Skewes.

"The marketing side of the industry and some of the processing facilities are still under development and growing," he said.

"But there's certainly a lot of work going on in both those areas as well."

Mr Skewes said sowing in different climates posed some challenges, but researchers were keenly evaluating on the best times for sowing in different regions.

"We've got sites from as far south as Tasmania right up to Katherine and Kununurra in the north," he said.

"We find that the ideal timing of sowing is different certainly up in the tropics, who are planting later and those sites even haven't planted this year yet, whereas the rest of the sites in central and southern areas of the country are at similar stage, with it flowering and producing some seed now.

"Temperature, water availability, soils, they're all all important and there is some understanding of the best soil types, the effect of temperature and so on, but we are still learning about how that's affecting hemp, and I think critically, we've got 10 varieties in the ground here from a number of different places."

The varieties of grain and dual-purpose varieties have been sourced both locally and from Canada, France and Poland.

"The most appropriate variety in one location may not work at all in a different location, so that's all important and it's part of the key of the IHVT - to try and maximise the number of varieties and where we're getting those varieties from," he said.

In Victoria, a trial site at Hamilton's SmartFarm is being run in conjunction with Agriculture Victoria as part of the IHVT trial.

It is one of nine across the country where data will be collated by researchers for a range of grain and dual-purpose, grain and fibre varieties.

It's field day held last week had at least 20 farmers show up to hear about the trial and the regulations of the industry.

Agriculture Victoria senior research scientist, Penny Riffkin said early results for the 2021-2022 found that sowing later in the year proved to give better yields.

"Year one results showed grain yields from the later sowing times in November and December were better than the early sowing times in October," Ms Riffkin said.

"It also showed the Ferimon 12 and Henola varieties performed the best, yielding on average 2.4 tonnes per hectare."

The 2022-2023 trials on the Hamilton SmartFarm will collate data sowing completed in November and December.

Recent AgriFutures Australia figures say the industry aims to exceed $10 million in production at farmgate by 2026, with many industry uses available for stockfeed, pet bedding, human seedfood and even textiles and building materials.