Pubdate: Thu, 28 May 1998 Source: New York Times ( NY) Contact: letters@nytimes.com Website: http://www.nytimes.com/

FARMER: HEMP MAKES ANIMALS HEALTHY

WILLISBURG, Ky. ( AP) -- One Washington County farmer is convinced his feed makes happier, shinier animals. He says his horses and cattle have more energy and seem less stressed.

His secret is hemp meal.

Donnie Colter has been testing hemp meal as a feed supplement on his 1,000-acre farm near Willisburg with the help of Kentucky Industrial Hemp Association.

``We've fed it to everything from guppies on up. I've never fed it to nothing that won't eat it,'' Colter said.

His wife, Cheryl, uses the hemp as well to make breakfast muffins.

``Even folks that eat my wife's muffins -- they'll just stand right over the box,'' Colter said.

Colter's farm grew hemp in the 1940s, but today it's illegal to grow the product in the United States because it is closely related to marijuana. He says he'd like to grow certified seed for the world market.

Colter uses hemp meal from seed grown in China. The seeds are imported by an Ohio company, which crushes them to extract the oil. Colter buys what is left and grinds it into meal for mixing into animal feed.

Colter markets the feed supplement -- either as meal or lumps -- under the name Nutrahemp from Circle C Farm Enterprises. He has customers in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Indiana.

The business started as an experiment. Colter bought a shipment at bargain prices and fed it to 22 of his calves. He sold the heifers last week and received $13 more for each one that had been fed the hemp mix.

Next month, University of Kentucky researchers plan to study results of Colter's feed trial to determine whether the hemp made any difference.

``I'm amazed that there's a supply of the stuff,'' said Scott Smith, chairman of the university's agronomy department. ``People will feed cattle almost anything, and they'll eat it. I don't know if there's enough of the stuff out there to use as a supplement.''

There is a growing movement to persuade the federal government to allow cultivation of hemp, including a federal lawsuit filed in Kentucky and petitions seeking to overturn a Drug Enforcement Administration ban on the crop.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company