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What happens when Formation Ag’s equipment is combined with proven growing practices? 

The cost of production drops to provide profitable margins for CBD farmers!

Formation Ag has been working together with local Colorado farmers for more than five years to develop the equipment they need to standardize farming methods for CBD. As a result, farmers have been able to reduce the cost of production for growing hemp for cannabinoids to less than $2,000 per acre, total cost.

“We’re interested in agricultural methods that actually benefit our farmers” says Corbett Hefner, V.P. of R&D at Formation Ag, “It isn’t worth growing if our farmers don’t get paid.”

CleanStrip Harvester

A tri-crop hemp field in Colorado that produced 8 percent cannabinoid content, seed for re-planting the following year, and fiber and hurd for applications such as animal bedding, building materials, and research and development projects at a cost under $2,000 per acre. The field was harvested using Formation Ag’s CleanStrip Harvester.

It is common for hemp production costs to exceed $15,000, or even $20,000 per acre. By applying standardized farming practices, production costs can be reduced by up to 90%! Formation Ag has proven that correct cultivation and harvesting methods for hemp can still provide farmers with profit margins exceeding other commonly planted crops.

Based on a current market value of $0.50 per point per pound, production of 1,000 pounds of biomass per acre at eight percent yields $4,000 per acre. At a cost per acre of $2000, that leaves $2000 per acre net. For comparison, AgFax.com projected corn prices at $699 per acre minus input cost.

“In addition to helping build the industry, our business philosophy at Formation Ag is to help farmers make money on hemp as a rotation crop without a huge upfront investment” Said Randy Wright, Sales Manager at Formation Ag.

Advocates claim that there are more than 2,000 different uses and applications for the hemp plant. The growth of the hemp industry depends on the ability to produce a cost-effective alternative to the raw materials that are currently used in common industrial production. Farming is where it all begins, and reducing costs to the farmer is key.

Hemp has already made several steps towards promising applications in the last few years, including the potential for plastics and composites, batteries, housing and insulation, and more. Research continues daily, done by companies and universities worldwide, accompanied by the continual genesis of new ideas. Ingenuity in and around the hemp industry is flourishing nationally and worldwide.

That same ingenuity is still strong on the farm as well. Some farmers are already looking forward to dual and tri-crop applications – harvesting a combination of flower for cannabinoids, seeds, and stalks from the same field for different end products.

Formation Ag is at the forefront of that movement, designing and building the equipment needed to harvest and preprocess flower, while at the same time harvesting hemp grain or seed, and cutting stalks to be retted, round baled and decorticated by one of their best-in-class decorticator systems. Farmers can literally sell CBD flower, grain, fiber and sorted, clean hurd, all from one crop.

For more information on Formation Ag’s equipment, or recommended growing practices, contact Formation Ag online, or call 833-849-6633.

Formation Ag is a leading equipment manufacturer for harvesting and processing equipment for hemp crops. They began designing and testing mechanized equipment specifically engineered for hemp farming in 2015. Their equipment lines have since expanded to include the CleanStrip bud stripping harvester, FiberTrack 660 Decortication line, and FlowerTrack biomass cleaning equipment. For more information, visit formation-ag.com

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