Big hemp farm taking shape near Ely

Sixty minutes outside of Ely, near the Lages Junction, plans for a large Hemp farm are taking shape. What does that mean for White Pine? A boost in economic development.

The White Pine County Commission invited Health Farm Management and Silver Lion Farms LLC to give a presentation to the commission and the public at a commission meeting earlier this week.

A team of people were at the meeting with Tracy Saville, CEO, and Silver Lion Farms while she stood before the commission and gave a brief presentation.

Healthy Farm Management is a Nevada-based, large-scale industrial learning management and consulting services company, specializing in growing and processing organically-certified industrial hemp in the United States.

They currently have 2,800 acres of premium industrial hemp under contract to grow for Silver Lion Farms in White Pine County.

This is an organic farm, formerly owned by an alfalfa and wheat farming family who have become their partners in the 2019-2020 crop season.

Their mission? To help heal millions, bring positive economic impacts, jobs and revenue to the state.

Saville said, “We’re here as partners and as neighbors.”

Saville went on to explain that her company will be building a state of the art 250,000 square foot greenhouse.

“Our goal is to grown 7 million pounds of premium, what they call high grade CBD industrial hemp. It’s not THC. It doesn’t have anything to do with cannabis, it goes into food products. Our partners are already companies like, when talking to people at Kraft, and large food producers that take that material and put it into their products.”

Building permits are being prepared, and Saville reported that they are just about ready to close escrow on the land conveyance.

So what is this farm going to be doing? Saville said, “It’s about seven and a half million seeds that go into that greenhouse, we love them for 45 weeks, and then, through automation we take them out of that greenhouse and we move them into the fields.”

During the presentation, Saville mentioned the company has goals for White Pine, and that is to bring jobs here, pass on their knowledge, partner with farmers.

“Our intention is not to go in and back out.” Saville said. “We’re pre-selling that entire crop for this year. It’s a $25 million project, our money is in the bank, and we are already looking at potential, and people are talking to us about additional acreage in 2020.”

Nevada grew 14,000 acres in 2018 of permitted industrial hemp. The U.S. predicts this will be a $22 billion industry within three years.

The bigger pictures that is very relevant to White Pine County, is that these are jobs that pay extraordinarily well, there’s great training and development opportunities because you’re dealing with plants and greenhouses and bio-science.

Saville explained how every other country besides the United States has been growing hemp for their packaging, clothing, and consumer products that you buy everyday and don’t even know there’s hemp in them.

“It’s really fibrous, there’s a lot of cool things you can do with it,” Saville said. “And it also doesn’t come with THC.

“What it does have, is it has many nutrients and compounds in it, one is called CBD, it’s more beneficial for things you might put on your skin for inflammation, it goes into beauty products.”

Chairman of the Commission Richard Howe expressing his excitement for the project.

He said, “We have a really big economic future coming, and this is just the start. White Pine County is really busting open. This is agricultural, a diversification from what we are, we are a mining community, but we need to diversify, we need other products. White Pine County is going to be set up to be the largest hemp farm in the State of Nevada.”

Saville said, “Technically no one has done something like this at this size or this scale in the U.S. which is a wonderful thing to be a part of.”