This week, South Bend Industrial Hemp has opened the first facility of its kind in Kansas.
Aaron and Richard Baldwin and Melissa Nelson-Baldwin founded South Bend Industrial Hemp as a link in the production chain.
As farmers harvest their hemp, it needs to be baled and processed for multiple uses.
Why the wait? It s a chicken-versus-egg situation, Melissa Nelson-Baldwin explained.
Farmers in Kansas were afraid to grow the product because they didn t know where to sell it, and processing plants did not have the courage to start here because most farmers were only growing CBD hemp.
That is why last year, the Baldwins took a leap and decided to open up a processing plant. They bought their machinery from FormationAg out of Colorado and found a building in Great Bend.