The Montana Department of Agriculture has extended its application deadline for farmers interested in planting industrial hemp.
The Department pushed the deadline to apply for the 2019 Montana State Hemp Program from the original date of May 1 to June 14.
Attorney Cort Jensen says that’s mostly due to weather, which has pushed the planting season back for many crops across the state.
“There was a lot of rain, a lot of moisture, especially in the parts of the area where this crop was going to be growing, which instead of creating a uniform planting, was going to create a variety of plantings,” he said.
The federal government decriminalized hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill, but the plant is still regulated under state law. Jensen says there’s been a lot of interest for the pilot program, which launched in 2014.
He says more than 250 people have sent in applications.
