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Montana hemp growers hold conference

Posted at 7:06 AM, Jan 08, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-08 09:08:25-05

GREAT FALLS — Montana Farmers Union hosted a meeting in Great Falls on Tuesday for producers and processors of hemp products to come together.

Along with several presentations the event allowed different businesses to discuss the constantly expanding hemp industry.

Cary Kolstad, a fifth-generation farmer, started with Montana’s pilot program in 2016 to start growing industrial hemp. But he hopes the industry continues to grow in Montana.

“What I’d like to see is something happening with the fiber. I’d like to see Montana bring in some processing plants and start utilizing that because that’s where the most..most of the uses from hemp actually come from the stock and no one’s really using it at the moment,” said Kolstad

Morgan Elliott, IND Hemp vice president of operations shared some of what they will be doing at IND, which is in Fort Benton.

“We produce wholesale products, wholesale oil and wholesale protein," she said. "So our finished product is going into salad dressings or topical treatments as well as protein bars or protein shakes."

According to Elliot, hemp products have typically been associated with marijuana and that just isn’t the case anymore.