2023 Guide to Cannabis Production - 19

CULTIVATION
labor demand with automation and genetics, there is no
easy solution.
" We've done some research in past grows about
minimizing the amount of hands on every plant, " Clark
says. " What can we do early on in just the way we grow that
changes the dynamic of having that many hands on there? "
The more immediate need is to find people willing to
work and at a price that makes sense for both the employee
and the company.
" [Labor] is our No. 1 direct cost, period. It trumps
energy; it trumps anything else, " Higginbotham says.
Higginbotham and StateHouse Holdings work closely with
labor contractors to find employees quickly and create
incentive plans to retain them, something he says helps to
increase throughput and reduce cost.
Even so, his team is up against strawberry growers down
the road who will pay based on the quantity picked per
day. " That's more than I can afford to pay on trimming and
other processes, " Higginbotham says. " So it's a constant
challenge. "
Garces, in his position at Treadwell Farms and as a
professor at Valencia College, talks with a lot of young
people who have an interest in working at a cannabis farm,
but he warns that those first couple of weeks sometimes
weed out those who can't make it in the greenhouse or in
the field.
" They don't realize it's a farm first and cannabis second, "
Garces says. " It's going to be hot, sweaty; there's water
moccasins depending on where you are in the field.
" Once they get over that kind of sexy marketing part of
cannabis and realize it is farming first, you get to realize,
and you get to see, who is really looking at this as a career. "
Long-term, Sangster envisions being able to implement
much more automation than currently available in the
cannabis market to help with the labor challenge.
" In 10 years, I hope that we are at a point where we're
running stable seed lines ... I came from plugs and
cuttings, " he says. " The uniformity behind that, the
stability behind that, I think just lends itself to lowering
labor costs.
" The technology is there; it's just we need the genetics to
catch up in cannabis to enable us to use that equipment. " v
TUNE IN
To hear more insights from all four growers in this article,
you can watch our panel discussion in its entirety on
demand at gpnmag.com/edwebinar.
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2023 GUIDE TO CANNABIS PRODUCTION 19
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2023 Guide to Cannabis Production

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