Vermont's next cash crop: Milkweed?
Joel Banner Baird, Free Press Staff Writer8:25 a.m. EDT September 21, 2016
(Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)
ALBURGH - Monarch butterflies heading south this
month have no further use for the local milkweed plants
that sustained them as caterpillars.
More and more farmers in Vermont and Québec,
however, view patches of Asclepias syriaca as a
potential source of income – a harvest that yields a
super-insulating fiber.
Roger Rainville, owner of Borderview Research Farm,
in collaboration with University of Vermont Extension
agronomist Heather Darby, is convinced the native plant
has a bright future.
Rainville has planted several acres of the plant that, for
decades, he grubbed from field crops.
“My father is turning over in his grave,” he said on a sunny day last week.
Darby closely monitors a UVM test plot close by, a stone’s throw from the international boundary.
Heather Darby, a University of Vermont Extension
agronomist based in St. Albans, pulls apart the
fibers — called floss — of a milkweed pod at
Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh. Darby is
cultivating the plant there, in hope of tapping an
emerging market for the fibers, used for petroleum
absorbing pads, insulation in outerwear and even
as a sound-proofing material for cars.
Photographed Sept. 16, 2016. (Photo: RYAN
MERCER/FREE PRESS)
Both keep their ears to the ground for more news from the north. It’s been good.
Encore3, a company based in Saint-Tite, Québec, is ramping up production of “American silk” to
equip the Canadian Coast Guard with high-performance parkas.
That government contract is a springboard for further expansion into other outdoor gear, as well
as for sound insulation in automobiles, trains and aircraft, Francois Simard, a spokesman for the
company, said Tuesday.
The company also processes milkweed pods in the manufacture of floating, super-absorbent
battens for use in oil spills clean-ups. Extracted seeds not distributed to farmers will be pressed
for oil.
Milkweed, for decades cursed as an agricultural nuisance, is now cultivated on 2,000 acres in
Quebec, and 125 acres in Vermont, Simard said.
Milkweed farmers on both sides of the border, through the efforts of Encore3 and the Monark
Cooperative of growers, are likely to add 1,500 more acres under cultivation next year, he added.
There’s an incentive. Simard said milkweed farmers can generally expect to earn as much per
acre as they might from growing more common crops.
If there’s a rush going on, it’s necessarily a slow one.
A milkweed thrives at Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh. Spread by underground shoots, or rhizomes,
the plants take several years to establish themselves. Photographed on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. (Photo: RYAN
MERCER/FREE PRESS)
It takes a field of milkweed three years to begin producing seedpods, explained Darby, who
directs research at UVM’s Northwest Crops and Soils Program.
Not every farmer can afford to wait that long for a harvest, she continued – although many will
appreciate milkweed’s low-maintenance traits.
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It thrives in marginally fertile land, and:
has no pests that threaten its long-term health
adapts to dry conditions, and
as a perennial plant that spreads through underground shoots, or rhizomes, generally
holds its own against other so-called weeds.
In Rainville’s field, the ragweed looked worse for the wear last week. Beneath it, the milkweed
appeared to be gaining ground.
By next year — its third — flowers and pods will emerge, and will continue to emerge for years
afterwards.
A multitude of pollinating insects, as well as hungry monarch caterpillars, will benefit from the
plant’s spread, Darby said.
Milkweed’s habitat-friendly ways might appeal to farmers, she added: Federal conservation
funds to establish fields are available to some growers.
“I don’t know how you can lose with milkweed,” Darby said.
Heather Darby, a University of Vermont Extension agronomist based in St. Albans, hopes that what was old
will be new again. Her team is cultivating milkweed plants to harvest the fibers, called floss, found in the
pods. The fiber was used in the manufacturer of life-preservers during World War II. Photographed Sept. 16,
2016. (Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)
An earlier generation reached the same conclusion, albeit briefly. During World War II, domestic
harvests ballooned in concert with demand for life-preservers (the war cut off Asian sources of
kapok, the erstwhile mainstay fiber for flotation gear).
Even earlier, the "American silk" was prized by French royalty, according to Encore3's website:
Jacques la Rouvière, an early developer of the fiber, had the backing of no less of a clotheshorse than King Louis XV — a market advantage that evaporated with the British defeat of New
France in 1759.
This century's rediscovery of milkweed is on a firm footing at Borderview Research Farm, and
conveniently located for development by entrepreneurial-minded Québecois.
Milkweed, though, isn't the only old crop under fresh consideration by Darby. She overseas
research into Vermont-tolerant heirloom beans, grains, malting barley, hops, and most recently,
hemp (the sort devoid of mind-altering THC, she is quick to add).
"We'll work with any crops that can keep farmers viable and on the land,” Darby said.
Roger Rainville, former dairy farmer and owner of Borderview Research Farm, collaborates with UVM
extension in developing new crops for farmers in the region. (Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)
Rainville, whose farm was once tilled by Darby's ancestors, plans to keep supporting the
experiments.
"There’s nothing new we’re doing here," Rainville explained, "just bringing back a lot of stuff that
went by the wayside.”
This story was first posted online on Sept. 21, 2016.
Contact Joel Banner Baird at 802-660-1843 or [email protected]. Follow him on
Twitter @VTgoingUp.