This crop is now being touted for its use in automotive manufacturing, clothing, food and a multitude of other uses, including horse bedding. Brannon said the crop is 400 percent absorbent as a bedding product, easily topping other materials.

“I saw an issue of Popular Mechanics from 1937 that was declaring hemp as ‘America’s new billion-dollar crop,’” said Dr. Tony Brannon, dean of the MSU Hutson School of Agriculture that participated in a pilot program made possible by both the office of Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer and Congress’ passage of the latest farm bill. Industrial hemp was declared illegal shortly after that story appeared, as it began being linked to narcotics use, as more recent findings indicate, perhaps unfairly.

“This is a big day for bio-energy and for biomass here at Murray State,” he said. “We have had a lot of cooperation on this endeavor. Murray State was the site of the first legal hemp planting since World War II and this truly marks a milestone.”

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