It’s been a fairly successful year so far for industrial hemp growers in South Dakota in their first year of being able to seed the crop. The first ever hemp farm within a city limits went in in Fort Pierre and is being used mostly for research. South Dakota Industrial Hemp Executive Director Katie Sieverding says most of the acres were put in East River with most of it going for grain and fiber.
She says State Senator Josh Klumb of Mt Vernon planted some this year and they’re expecting to see more hemp acres going in next year.
Sieverding says less than one percent of the industrial hemp is going for CBD oil with most of it going for grain and fiber and getting sent to Montana or Kansas for processing.
She says a lot of the fiber that’s process in Kansas is sent to the East Coast for products like cutting boards or kitchen utensils and items like that. Sieverding says their recent field day in Willow Lake drew 50 participants with some from the South Bend Kansas processing plant attending.
