Tobacco Farmers Fight to Save Crop

Source from:  By David Anderson Staff Writer 09/10/2007

This summer's extended drought and intense heat has sent local tobacco farmers scurrying from one field to the next, trying to harvest as many leaves as possible before they dry up. "What we're doing is putting out fires," Greene County farmer Donnie Blizzard said Friday. "We're going to the area where the most damage has occurred, harvesting those leaves, and then moving on to the next area with the most damage." Blizzard and his crews have been putting in seven-day workweeks recently in an effort to save as much of the crop as possible. He has about 265 acres of tobacco within a 12-mile area of Greene County. About 50 percent of that acreage is located in northwest Greene, the driest part of a county that has seen no rainfall in some locations. "We absolutely have not been able to buy a rain in this little area," he said. That area is on the edge of a drought that has scorched Nash, Wayne and Wilson counties. The other half of Blizzard's crop is located near Snow Hill and has a decent amount of rain recently. He expects a normal yield of 2,700 pounds per acre. While Blizzard also grows corn and cotton, tobacco makes up about 20 percent of his total acreage - and 75 percent of his profits. "We're like a rabbit right now hopping from hole to hole . . . every producer's doing the exact same thing that I'm talking about," he said. While tobacco plants can pull through an extended dry period, intense heat over several days will cause major damage. If tobacco leaves lose moisture before being harvested and cured in barns, their quality is degraded and farmers will make less money per pound, according to Louie Johnson, an agent with the N.C. Cooperative Extension's Greene County office. Cigarette manufacturers pay the most for leaves on top of the plants, which are the thickest and best-quality. "We're harvesting just as hard as we can go right now," said Johnson. The low-pressure system that was forming into a tropical storm Friday could bring much-needed rain to the region, but would create even more problems for tobacco farmers if high winds blow leaves off the stalks. The leaves would be bruised after they hit the ground and become worthless to buyers. "The dry weather has really hurt us quite a bit. This would be just devastating if it did that," Johnson said, of the pending storm. Lenoir County's extension agent for tobacco could not be reached Friday, but Blizzard explained that Lenoir farmers had fared better this summer because of steadier rainfall, but the recent extended heat is drying up the leaves and forcing farmers to scramble just like their Greene counterparts. "It's pretty much what the situation demands on us right now, in order to save as much volume as we can," he said. Enditem