Hemp Hogs

Lessons Learned: A Hemp Farmer's Account of Hemp Harvesting and a Harrowing Hurricane Season

By Patrick Deshotels

Well it’s time to feed the Hemp Hogs. I remember a friend of mine telling me that although hemp is derived from a plant that can grow anywhere, you have to feed them a lot, hence “Hemp Hogs.”

We planted the little Hemp Hogs for the 2020 inaugural hemp season in Louisiana and some lived, and some died. Some grew, some stayed small. Some ate their food, and others are still looking. Some of the hogs got the water they needed, and some are still thirsty. Some of them survived the first hurricane, and some survived the second hurricane. What a first year for hemp season in Louisiana!

After Hurricane Laura, I took a quick walk through the hemp field. Although they were stressed, they were still standing, just like all of us. After Hurricane Laura cleared, we assessed the damage. We cleared roads, and we took care of people and families. Even today, 6 months later, we are still doing those things.

The ripple effects of natural disasters, especially a big one like Hurricane Laura, lasts way longer than the hours of intense wind and water. People are displaced and hurting. Even those that were not directly hit feel the ripple effects. Naturally, during this time, my hemp fields took a back seat to the human beings that needed attention.

Nevertheless, normalcy crept back into an area affected by a natural disaster. Everyone had tons of gratitude for the men and women that worked to get the electricity back up and running. That in itself had to be some type of historical, monumental accomplishment. Those heroes even worked through the next storm, Hurricane Delta, which swept through the same area. That type of collaboration will probably go unnoticed and unrewarded, except by those which noticed and can offer their gratitude...people like us.

Luckily, a lot of my plants were not in the direct path of the storms and they survived the outskirts of them. However, I didn’t spend a lot of time in the fields and I didn’t notice at first that some of the little hemp hogs were not getting the water they needed. It’s ironic how drought conditions can follow a hurricane; welcome to farming…especially in south Louisiana. Sometimes you need rubber boots and other times you can farm in flip-flops because it’s so dry.

The screen was clogged on my irrigation system and some of the plants didn’t get the water they needed which stunted their growth. However, some did get the water they needed, and those little hemp hogs did grow.

One of the most obvious lessons I learned this year is that I didn’t plant my plants early enough (thanks again COVID-19 and all the drama of 2020!) But we did have some plants in the ground long enough to get some growth before the length of day shortened enough to trigger flowering, and those did well. Those plants are the Hemp Hogs that we fed.

Someone mentioned the phrase “survival of the fittest” for those plants which survived. We aren’t taking these plants to seed, so “natural selection” won’t take place. The concept didn’t offer much consolation to me and my partners.

We were wanting to go to flower for CBD oil and other ways we could profit. That’s why we fed our Hemp Hogs. I fed them so much that one time I almost burned them with nitrogen spray. I should have known better than to spray foliage fertilizer in the heat of the day, on the hottest day of the year, during a drought. Another lesson learned the hard way!

Harvest time was approaching and we were watching the plants closely. We were also watching the tropics closely. Hurricanes kept coming into the Gulf of Mexico and the threats became real. We tested the plants and made the harvest in a hurry. It’s not something I am proud of, but at least we didn’t have a lot of plants to harvest and the harvest went smoothly. In fact, we got all of the hemp hogs out of the field ahead of the second storm in the Gulf to make landfall in our area.

A family affair: Deshotels' son helps with the hemp harvest

Drying went well and bucking was fun. Now what to do? I remember people saying that in order for farmers to make money with hemp this year, they may have to be integrated. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. I thought it might mean that there were not a lot of buyers yet offering money for hemp in the field. It also meant that I would have to take my hemp to a finished product in order to make any profit.

That is where I am at now. The hemp is at the processor and we are figuring things out together…for the first time. It also means that I am about to have to purchase my 2021 license without having made a penny from the 2020 season. I’m questioning if that makes financial sense. Hopefully I’ll look back on this and say that I got through it with persistence and mental toughness as my guides. I know there are co-ops and good things moving in the industry. I also know that the LDAF are working hard to help farmers to be successful. I see a vision of successfully farming hemp in Louisiana, and the vision helps me move forward.

With this vision, I will just have to rely on the “Farmer’s Calling” to take all of the lessons learned from the 2020 season and apply them in the 2021 hemp season. I will learn from those plants that lived and those that died, those that grew and those that didn’t grow. I will take the lessons that I have learned from others and those I learned the hard way in order to grow another field of Hemp Hogs!