Farmers Meet To Discuss Potential For Hemp-Grower Organization

Hemp growers met in Carman last week to discuss the potential for a hemp research and promotion agency.

 

Don Dewar, a farmer from Dauphin and a director with the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance (CHTA), says if formed, the organization would have a national scope and would be funded through a check-off to provide more research and promotion for hemp.

 

"We're proposing it would be 0.3 per cent of the sale," Dewar says, "so whatever the value of your sale of hemp grain or fibre, it would then be sent to be checked-off by the purchaser, and forwarded to the CHTA, which would be the holding body, but not the administrator. (The research and promotion agency) would be a group of farmers, whether they were board members of CHTA or selected somehow differently — we haven't finalized that process, but it would be a full agreement of farmers of where that money would be spent."

 

Dewar, who has grown hemp for over 18 years, says there is a lot of potential for the crop.

 

"There's lots of room for more promotion and research on growing, on health benefits, food benefits, market development," he says, "perhaps it could be another Cinderella crop like canola was 50 years ago."

 

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.