A unique method of harvesting hemp plants is useful to isolate theleafy/flower-budded crop canopy from lower stalks of the plants to enableseparatecollection thereof, whereby CBD rich leaves/buds of the canopy can beprocessed moreefficiently at an off-site facility. The harvesting method includes performinga firstcutting operation at an elevated cutting height, during which the tops of theplants aredetached from remnant lower stalks left standing in the field, and thedetached planttops are laid in a first windrow. A second cutting operation performed overthe samefield area at a lower cutting height serves to cut the lower stalks from thefield and laythese cuttings into a separate second windrow. Separate collection or balingof theseseparate windrows provides field-based isolation of the plant tops and lowerstalks toenable separate storage, transport and post-harvest processing of thedifferentmaterials.
