Farmers Finish up Tobacco Crop Harvest

Source from:  By Tom Murphy Rocky Mount Telegram September 21, 2006 09/22/2006

Most Nash County farmers have harvested their tobacco, although a bit of the crop remains, said Nash County Cooperative Extension Service Director Charlie Tyson. "A lot of what's still out there is in poor condition," Tyson said. "It's overripe. "Farmers are working as fast and hard as they can to get it out of the field – and harvesting won't last much longer." Farmers will be digging peanuts in another week to 10 days, Tyson said. "We don't know what we're going to find yet, but we're hopeful the peanut crop will be good," he said. Cotton crops are being sprayed with defoliant to remove leaves for upcoming harvesting, Tyson said. "We're expecting the cotton crops to be fair," he said. "We had a period of dry weather that followed a period of excessive rainfall – and that's a scenario that does not usually play very well." Soybeans are maturing, Tyson said. Farmers are keeping a watchful eye on the Asiatic soybean rust disease that has already invaded North Carolina cotton crops, he said. "(The disease) has been identified at two locations as of Wednesday," he said. "One field was affected in Columbus County and another in Robeson County in the past 10 days." Tyson said the fields in Columbus and Robeson counties have low levels of infection. "That situation is being monitored," he said. "At this point, we are not advising Nash County cotton growers to apply protective fungicide sprays because a lot of our soybeans are mature enough that an infection now would not have time to develop and cause a lot of damage. "We are being very cautious with this because we do have some late planted soybeans that are immature." Enditem