Marijuana Business Magazine April 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | April 2019 88 Nicodemus agrees that keeping a close eye on inputs from growers helps in making educated business decisions. “It definitely can give us insight into vendors,” he said. “It’s very useful to say we’ve seen success using these metrics elsewhere, so this is how we should approach this new vendor.” For example, he worked with a Colorado grower that made claims about the amount of CBD and oil the company’s cannabis would yield. Nicodemus’ data showed different numbers. “We don’t know if they were lying or just getting false information from the other companies they were working with,” he said. “We called them out on it.” When Nicodemus works with a vendor that is underpromising but overdelivering, he lets that company use the data as a selling point for its crop. “That becomes a marketing message for them as well,” he added. Rocourt works with farmers he knows have good practices, and he tells them, “These are the things that worked for us based on the numbers from last year.” He’s trying to get the small farmers he works with on a path with clear expectations. “That’s the only way to achieve consis- tency,” he added. “It’s data-driven.” “We’re looking at costs, we’re looking at yields and we’re looking at cannabinoids. When you put all three together, it becomes really obvious to us what the good financial decision is to make.” — Katie Stem, CEO, Peak Extracts Extraction companies aiming to retain quality growers and help their bottom lines should keep track of the following categories when processing cannabis: † † Terpene content, which can help recreate the “whole-plant experience” in the resulting oil. † † Potency results, given that most cannabis consumers look for high THC or CBD percentages. † † Dry weight versus wet weight to better understand how much usable material a grower is providing. † † What strains yield better than others in order to provide feedback to growers so they can grow the desired phenotypes. † † Density of biomass, because airy, fluffy cannabis takes longer to process and yields less oil. † † The amount of time a batch of material takes to process, which will have an impact on electricity and labor costs as well as overall efficiencies. CHECKLIST Diligent recordkeeping can provide valuable insight and help businesses make educated decisions.

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