Our inspectors will try to find them. It'll depend on the situation what will be done about it. Every situation has to be taken on its own merits. Farmers who remove and destroy the volunteer plants do not have to notify Health Canada, Hansen-Trip said. The volunteer hemp could become a nuisance at harvest time.
Conventional combines have a hard time digesting the plant's tough fibres.
The amount of land licensed for industrial hemp soared this year in Western Canada. The number of licensed acres climbed from less than 2,500 in 1998 to about 32,000 this year. That could translate into more volunteer hemp on prairie fields next year. But a weed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture said there is a way to keep the plants in check. Kim Brown said MCPA, a Group 4 herbicide, works well to control unwanted hemp.