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Crop Chronicles: Bryan and Chris Harnish, with six employees, hope to make a profit with their 3-acre hemp plot.

Chris Torres, Editor, American Agriculturist

October 14, 2019

10 Slides

It’s been a long first hemp growing season for Bryan and Chris Harnish.

Planning for their first hemp crop started last winter when they began researching where to get seed. Along the way, they’ve been studying the best ways to plant, grow and harvest their crop, and have made several in-season adjustments. Hemp was only fully legalized to grow in Pennsylvania this year, so most farmers went into it this season with more questions than answers.

For the brothers, the goal is simple: They want to figure out whether hemp is a good fit on their 600-acre grain and specialty crop farm.

Now, it’s harvesttime. The brothers, along with six of their employees, have ventured out into the 3-acre field to bring in what they hope will be a profitable first crop.

Here are some scenes from their first harvest.

 

About the Author(s)

Chris Torres

Editor, American Agriculturist

Chris Torres, editor of American Agriculturist, previously worked at Lancaster Farming, where he started in 2006 as a staff writer and later became regional editor. Torres is a seven-time winner of the Keystone Press Awards, handed out by the Pennsylvania Press Association, and he is a Pennsylvania State University graduate.

Torres says he wants American Agriculturist to be farmers' "go-to product, continuing the legacy and high standard (former American Agriculturist editor) John Vogel has set." Torres succeeds Vogel, who retired after 47 years with Farm Progress and its related publications.

"The news business is a challenging job," Torres says. "It makes you think outside your small box, and you have to formulate what the reader wants to see from the overall product. It's rewarding to see a nice product in the end."

Torres' family is based in Lebanon County, Pa. His wife grew up on a small farm in Berks County, Pa., where they raised corn, soybeans, feeder cattle and more. Torres and his wife are parents to three young boys.

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