This week on the Hemp Show, Larry Smart returns to talk about Ursa Alta, the new low-THC hemp variety that Cornell AgriTech has released for commercial production. The variety has been seven years in the making.
"We had come up with a new cultivar that was distinct, uniform and stable. That's our definition of a cultivar," Smart said.
Ursa Alta, which means tall bear and is named for the Cornell mascot, is a fiber variety with low THC and a high hurd ratio. While bred for conditions in New York state, Smart said the variety excels in southern latitudes as well.
"This variety does grow very well in Texas," Smart said. "My collaborator, Calvin Trostel, is based in Lubbock, at about the same latitude as where they're growing for Panda Biotech. So we think it will grow quite well in that area and yield quite well for them."
Panda Biotech, owner of the second largest hemp processing facility in the world, is based in Wichita Falls, TX.
Cornell has licensed seed multiplication to Condor Seed Production in Yuma, Arizona. Condor has a deep history of vegetable seed production — onions, artichokes, brassicas — and brings more than 40 years of experience to the work.
Smart provided Condor with 110 pounds of breeder seed to start the multiplication process, with an ambitious target ahead: "to scale up the seed from 110 pounds of breeder seed to hopefully by next year, somewhere between three and 400,000 pounds of seed. And then they can start really selling it," Smart said.
Listen to show to learn more.
Learn More
Condor Seed Production
https://condorseed.com
Cornell AgriTech Hemp Breeding Program
https://cuaes.cals.cornell.edu/stations/cornell-agritech/
AOSCA — Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies
https://www.aosca.org
USDA Plant Variety Protection Office
https://www.ams.usda.gov/plant-variety-protection
HempWood
https://hempwood.com
Sponsor Links
IND Hemp — Fort Benton, Montana. Fiber, food, feed.
https://indhemp.com
Forever Green — Distributors of the KP4 Hemp Cutter.
https://hempcutter.com
Summary:
In this episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock speaks with Dr. Larry Smart, plant geneticist and director of hemp breeding at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York, about the official release of Ursa Alta, a certified low-THC industrial fiber hemp cultivar developed over seven years of research and field trials. The conversation covers the cultivar development process, AOSCA seed certification, Plant Variety Protection, and the URSA trademark, offering growers and industry professionals a detailed look at what it means to release a new hemp variety in today's regulatory environment.
Larry Smart explains the seed multiplication process that took Ursa Alta from 110 pounds of breeder seed to a projected 300,000 to 400,000 pounds of certified planting seed, with Condor Seed Production in Yuma, Arizona playing a central role. The episode details the agronomic challenges of desert hemp seed production, including heat-related pollen failure, photoperiod complications, and extreme weather events, and explains why the September-to-January growing window in Arizona emerged as the viable solution for large-scale seed multiplication.
The episode also addresses hemp cultivar intellectual property, seed licensing, and the contrast between open-source wheat breeding culture and the more restricted IP environment in hemp. Larry Smart discusses end markets for Ursa Alta fiber including hempcrete construction, textile applications, and industrial fiber processing, with growers in Montana, Texas, and South Dakota identified as early adoption targets. Additional topics include the Farm Bill's certified seed provisions, zero-cannabinoid hemp variety development, and the role of AOSCA-certified seed in navigating hemp's evolving federal regulatory landscape.
The episode opens with a tribute to Dr. Bob Pierce of the University of Kentucky, a pioneer in American hemp agronomy, and closes with a seven-year callback to Larry Smart's first appearance on the show in 2019, when the vision for what would become Ursa Alta was first discussed publicly. This episode is essential listening for hemp farmers, seed producers, plant breeders, fiber processors, and anyone tracking the development of industrial hemp as a certified, scalable agricultural commodity in the United States.
