Hemp approved for harvest in south-central Kansas

For Melisa Nelson-Baldwin, data is key. And what this trained crop research scientist sees is hemp is a great crop for Kansas farmers.

So much so that Nelson-Baldwin and her partners, husband Aaron Baldwin and brother-in-law Richard Baldwin, are ready to build a hemp fiber manufacturing plant in Great Bend – the first one in Kansas.

“We want to be up and running by the end of the year,” Nelson-Baldwin said.

The Baldwins grow both industrial cannabidiol oil and fiber hemp at their farm, South Bend Industrial Hemp, in Barton and Stafford counties. Aaron and Richard Baldwin are fourth-generation farmers in Great Bend, while Nelson-Baldwin grew up on a farm in Holton. The three work with both forms of industrial hemp on 55 acres of their traditional grain farm.