It’s complicated.
That’s what the Loroff siblings have figured out so far. It’s really, really complicated. But when they got the news that the Kansas Department of Agriculture was searching for producers to grow industrial hemp, they were all in, no matter the obstacles.
“(We) were having a discussion in early January about industrial hemp on the farm bill, and (Brannt) asked me if I wanted to go into business together,” said Mandie Loroff, the eldest sibling of their newly formed business partnership, Three Kinsmen. “I said, ‘Of course’, and that was really how it all began.
“That day, I started learning everything I could about industrial hemp.”
The green thumb of the group, Brannt — who splits his time between working at MGP Ingredients in Atchison, Kan. and helping his parents with the family farm in Troy, Kan. — had long been watching the legislative developments on industrial hemp. It’s a crop that has intrigued him for years, not only as a farmer, but as a future business owner.
The Loroff farm has been in the family for generations. Mandie, Brannt and their brother Garrett grew up working that land alongside their parents Patricia and Phillip. Once their parents are ready to retire, Mandie made the future clear: “We’ll never sell it.”
“We knew we had to get involved in some way, shape or form,” she explained. “Brannt wanted to diversify the farm and do something new.
Read more at agupdate.com
