Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Members of S1084 met via zoom on February 11, 2021. Following brief comments from the project chair and acceptance of the minutes, a USDA representative provided an update on the US Domestic Hemp Production Program final rule.  NIFA rep also provided a brief update on relevant granting programs that may be of interest. Updates were also provided to the group from organizers of the National Hemp Research & Education Conference, the Pest & Disease Working Group efforts, the dual purpose and essential oil variety trials, the ARS National Hemp Germplasm Repository, and the economic landscape of hemp. 

Attendees then broke out into smaller groups arranged around the 4 primary objectives.  Groups reported out main comments from their sessions and plans for the coming year. This was followed by a discussion of an effort to create a hemp glossary to which the group is asked to contribute.  The last part of the day focused on strategic planning for the coming yeat and beyond, looking toward the next 5-year project proposal which needs to be started next year. 

Detailed minutes can be found in the attachment. Individual state and institution reports can be found at https://research.ca.uky.edu/S1084_reports.

Grain and fiber trials (Obj. 1 & 2):

Expanded the dual purpose variety trial to include 14 universities and 13 entered cultivars, though some site were able to source additional lines. Though there were challenges, particularly with stand establishment, data were collected at several locations. Results identified a few varieties with grains yields of 1500 lbs/acre or more. A couple of locations may have reached an economic threshold for fiber production, did not break more than 2 tons/acre in straw yields. The group will pursue publishing the first 2 years of data.

Essential oil trials (Obj. 1 & 2):

The essential oil trial involved 14 institutions at 16 locations around the US. Materials are still being analyzed and the Southern region also had establishment problems like those seen in the dual purpose trial. Establishment data seem to indicate that 6” spacing and thinning to 12” in autoflower varieties or 18” for full season types.

Genetics & breeding (Obj. 3):

Participants continue to identify traits of priority interest for breeding efforts, recognizing these traits may vary by region. The group continues to characterize the phenotypic traits and genetic diversity across germplasm currently in hand among the participants.

Pests & diseases (Obj. 1 & 3)

This group began cataloging pests and diseases across the participants to evaluate frequency, distribution and impact. Participants are developing a survey to go to growers and diagnosticians to gather a more complete dataset. Assessing cultivar susceptibility in the projects variety trials will help inform resistance characterization in aid of the breeding and genetics group’s work.  

Economics (Obj 4.):

A number of participants are developing surveys or other data gathering tools to better understand the industry structure. The group identified the need to better coordinate with the variety trials (Obj. 1 & 2) to better inform the creation of local production budgets.   A subset of the group received USDA funding to develop a glossary of terms for common use across the industry as well as federal guidance and state plans.  

More details on accomplishments can be found in the attached minutes.

United States Hemp Research and Education Conference special issue. 2021. GCB Bioenergy. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1757-1707.hemp