East Yorkshire hemp

We have grown hemp since 2002. Initially the crop was grown for a processor in Essex but the distance to their processing plant made the cost of haulage expensive.

The only way that we could see any financial return from the crop was to process the straw on our own farm. For the last five years we have made a considerable investment of both time and money into building and adapting machines to separate the woody core or shiv from the fibre. Hemp fibre is very strong, the strongest of all the plant fibres and is very tough on man and machine. It just loves to catch on anything and wrap around any part of a machine, so we had our work cut out.

We have now installed the last pieces of our hemp processing plant so we are now able to produce a more refined cleaner fibre and greater amounts of hemp shiv. We grow 400 acres and process our home grown hemp on the farm and sell HemShiv for animal bedding and also into the building sector. Canaries, hamsters, guinea pigs, reptiles, rabbits, poultry, dogs and horses are a few examples of pets that are enjoying the benefits of a luxurious dust-free hemp bed. We also produce hemp fibre.

This fibre is sold to textile manufacturers for further processing into roof insulation batts or non-woven matting for use by mattress manufacturers and as a replacement for man made fibres.