Jeff and Tina Wilkens entered the ground floor when hemp was legalized as a crop in Kansas in 2018.
They decided to start growing hemp as a crop and to process their own CBD oil.
They produced their own product, New Horizons CBD.
Their crops must be inspected by the Kansas Department of Agriculture to ensure that they do not exceed the legal THC content limit.
“We’ve come across a situation where one of our crops didn’t pass inspection by the Kansas Department of Agriculture,” Jeff Wilkens said. “Exceeded .3 THC limit, so this crop had to be destroyed.”
It can be a difficult crop to cultivate. Plants can be stressed, which can cause problems with the THC level, sometimes pushing it above the legal limit.
Jeff Wilkens said the business had no legal issues. However, the process of making CBD oil in Kansas is legally complicated.
“Everything is heavily regulated by the Kansas Department of Agriculture,” he said. “When we grow up, that particular year we have to get a license from the Kansas Department of Agriculture and then keep them up to date on progress during the growing season and then they will come out and do a crop test to make sure that is not above THC (limit) “.
If the crop passes, the Wilken receive a certificate that allows them to transform the plant into CBD oil.
The license for the processing part of the company is done through the state fire office.
“There are several people involved in the process from seed to shelf,” Jeff Wilkens said.
The Wilken “do not seek to get involved” in the production of delta-8 and similar products, he said. They don’t even have the equipment to do it.
This is not his struggle.
“I don’t even know what delta is legal for,” Jeff Wilkens said. “We don’t participate and none of our products are like that.”
They believe that more education is needed on hemp products. Sometimes people get confused and think they are growing marijuana instead of hemp, he said.
“Hemp and marijuana are two separate things,” Jeff Wilkens said. “So people who come and ask and who are surprised, we can give them the education they need at the time, to tell them the difference between the two. Industrial hemp is a federal legal crop for 50 states “.
“It’s also been a learning experience for us,” Tina Wilkens said. “But we find that the more we can educate people, the better our product will sell. Taking a tour of the lab and the field when we grow up gives us a great opportunity to explain how everything is broken down.”
Jeff Wilkens reviewed the process they use on their farm, from growing to harvesting to processing their CBD product.
At this time, the Wilken do not have hemp planted, but when they do, they usually plant two or three acres. When it reaches maturity, it is hung to dry in a barn on its Dickinson County property.
The only part of the hemp plant that produces CBD is the flower, so they strip the buds once they are dry and the shoots are crushed with a shredder.
At this point, the hemp is ready to be extracted. They put it in filter bags and take it to the lab. Soak the ground plant in ethanol and then filter it. Using a machine called a rotovap, they boil the ethanol. This process creates something called raw CBD.
CBD crude cannot be processed in the format it takes when it leaves the rotovap. Thus, the Wilkens overwinter it. With a large beaker mix it with ethanol until it is a very loose liquid and put it in a freezer that drops to -25 degrees Celsius.
After the wintering process, which lasts 24 hours, they use cone filters to refine the oil.
“Right now, all those waxes and lipids and stuff that’s in this plant material, they’re catching all of that,” Jeff Wilkens said. “We do it for three days.”
After three days, most of the impurities have been filtered out of the oil, at which point it is ready for the next step in the CBD making process.
With another machine, they heat it until they can extract the CBD distillate.
Wilkens’ lab had a small explosion that damaged his own.
“The ball broke when we had this machine,” he said. “So all the material from that ball was soaked in (the bottom of the machine).”
But when the machine is running, they will be able to use the resulting CBD distillate to make full spectrum CBD products.
They can further refine it using methanol and use the resulting oil to make non-full spectrum CBD products.
“What we have left when processing is finished is just pure CBD,” he said.
They still have nothing to do with fiber, although hemp can be used to make clothes, paper, and a variety of other products. Jeff Wilkens said he would like to do something with fiber someday.
“They say the paper created from four acres of trees can be created with an acre of hemp,” he said. “Hemp grows 120 days compared to the time it takes these four acres of trees to grow. Everyone wants green … There are many benefits of hemp that have not yet been realized.”
Tina Wilkens said she is pleased with the results her products have achieved for customers, including her customers’ pets. They produce a line of CBD products for animals that they say they use on their own pets, including their 14-year-old chocolate lab, and see the results.
“People are different, so everyone’s results will be different … Our pet product is probably our number one,” he said. “It’s crazy the results we feel.”
The Wilkens sell their New Horizon products at their store, Wilkens Acres in Abilene, which sells a wide variety of Kansas-made products.
